Zip Car

I tried and tried to copy and paste a chart that showed the different plans a person can have when using a car share service called Zip Car. When I finally found one that worked I realized it wasn't in Canadian dollars! So suffice it to say that most rental plans worked out to be about $7.00 per hour. Some a bit less, some a bit more. That also includes insurance and gas.

While visiting my brother yesterday he told me about a friend's experience with Zip Car that left me thinking that it might not be for me...a broken key fob, a gas card that didn't work, damage to the cars that doesn't get fixed, dog hair and garbage left in the vehicles and so on. I have yet to try the one that is near me - it's a Prius and I have walked by it to see how it looked. There was a little bit of damage to the plastic over one of the headlights and the inside looked clean. We are allowed to "test drive" the service for one month so I think I'll do that in October, after my trip, before making any kind of a commitment.

A couple of people have been encouraging me to try the bus and I have found that there are a number of buses nearby that would be very handy and when I looked at the London Transit website I noted that at age 65 the price of a ticket really drops. So I am reconsidering the city bus system.  Once winter settles in I promise to ride the bus a few times.

There was also an article in the paper today which made me look more favourably on our bus system. A driver picked up a young woman, late at night, who was being harassed by a man at the bus stop. He managed to redirect the man and then went off route to take her right to her home. Apparently the transit system has declared buses to be "safe havens" and encourage anyone encountering any type of problem - violence, sexual assault, robbery etc - to find and board a bus. The drivers are trained to deal with these situations and to provide safety and transportation to an area or building where the victim feels safe. Wow - I felt really impressed by that!

Another positive fact about buses is that many of them (I'm not sure about ALL buses) have a bike rack on the front so for long distance rides I could use a mix of bike and bus. That's pretty cool! So London Transit has risen in my estimation.

See? I may be old but I'm not stuck in my ways!

So, here's my chart - a very simple chart. It shows the cost of using Zip Car vs Enterprise vs bus.

Vehicle                    Time used                       Cost
Zip Car                        1 hour/24 hours            $7.00/$72
Enterprise                    24 hours                       $19
Bus                              1 trip (varies)               $1.90 per ticket (includes a 90 minute transfer)

Zip Car is best for short trips like getting groceries or going to a store/location that is way the hell across the city. Depending on how much time I want to use I could choose between Zip Car or city bus. ($1.90 vs $7.00 or $14.00 or more depending on the distance and amount of time spent there.) Enterprise is better for longer trips ($19 vs $72) There is no ONE solution but a combination of types of transportation, including of course, me feet and my bicycle.

Brrrrrrrrrr!!

Wow, what just happened? Sweated like a little piggy yesterday and woke up this morning frozen solid... just about! Thank you Luna for snuggling with me in bed. Why do the season changes have to be so abrupt? Keeping my frozen fingers crossed that there are still a few warm/hot days left!

Because even though I don't like crowds I would gladly put up with them for a few more weeks of beach weather. I'm not ready to put summer behind me yet!

Day at the Pinery 

Another day, another soggy Dorito.

Last Sunday - Jazzfest in Wortley Village along with 150 craft vendors - including my brother!

Love the image on this guy's T-shirt!

There's my bro below...he makes and sells birdhouses so that he can buy a new T-shirt. I think it's Day 12 for the Pink Floyd shirt!

                      Here he is wearing it on our visit to see our sister in Bracebridge!!

The rest of the photos were taken at Pt. Bruce on Monday during the eclipse. While we didn't see a total eclipse in SW Ontario we certainly felt the effects. The sparkling lake became less sparkly, the air became much cooler temporarily and it got quite a bit darker.

It got so cool that I came out from under the beach umbrella and sat on a blanket instead. Eventually the sun came back and I had to retreat to the umbrella once again. It was a very interesting experience.

August Transportation Update:

• two car rentals of $19 each for a total of $38
• gave my brother $40 for gas on the way to Bracebridge
• $134 for last car insurance payment (now cancelled - I am on Kazi's insurance policy to ensure continuity in my car insurance history)

That's it. The total for August so far is $212, most of that being the last insurance payment. If we have more nice weather I might squeeze in one more trip to the beach before leaving for Scotland on Sept. 3rd.  I've used my feet and bicycle to get around the city. I cancelled one bicycle outing due to stormy weather.  When I rented a car I took the opportunity to purchase the heavy things I needed, specifically cat litter. 

The total for September will be zero! I'll be using my feet, shuttle buses, airplanes and trains to get around Scotland. All transportation has been paid for as part of my trip. Starting in October I will sign up for Car Share and see how that works for me.  There is a Prius parked a couple of blocks from me which I can rent by the hour. For longer trips I'll continue to rent a car from Kazi at Enterprise and use my feet/bicycle as much as possible. I am considering this an experiment. It may work out and then again it may not but I'm not ready to give up yet!

I've Gone and Done it!

I had a lot of  possible titles for this post: like "Bye-bye Dougie Goodbye", "Going Car Free", or "Car Sharing- is it for me?" and so on.  Yes, Dougie is gone, sold and hopefully loved by his new owner. Unfortunately Dougie is just not the vehicle for me anymore. Sentiment is not a good reason to keep a car...or truck. 

I've debated for awhile now whether to try living car-free as Dougie can sit there in his space for a week or more before I drive him anywhere. The last time was a week ago when my friend Julie and I went to the beach. The steering seemed a bit stiffer than usual - I knew something was up.

So on Monday I took Dougie to my local mechanic. It was bad news - the steering column was seized up and would need an expensive repair. I had to decide whether to get it fixed or if this was the time to let Dougie go. One consideration I had was to donate it for a charitable receipt. But my mechanic knew someone looking for a small truck, took a couple of photos of Dougie and contacted him. We were able to work out a deal then and there - I pocketed a goodly sum of cash - more than I expected and walked home. 

It does hurt a little to give up Dougie but he was meant to live in PEI (along with me:) where having a pickup truck is standard. I kept driving Dougie for three more years after selling my house in PEI but knew I'd have to make a change at some point. So I finally did. And now on to the next adventure - seeing if I can manage with my feet, my bike, a car-share vehicle located a few blocks from me (a Prius), taxi, Uber, bus, train and car rentals (Kazi can give me really good deals!!)  She's already quoted me a price between $20-$30 for a day at the beach (24 hours) which includes insurance and gas!! Yes, I don't even have to pay for the gas! Dougie takes at least that much just in gas to get to the beach; so I've got that covered :) 

Bye bye Dougie!

I know I can manage without owning a vehicle for most of the year but then of course there's winter to consider! I'll have to be creative.  I am motivated by the fact that I will have two less budget lines in my monthly budget - car insurance (around $110/monthly) and gas, currently budgeted at

$80 per month. Yes, only $80 a month for a V8 truck! When I first retired I allotted $200 a month for gas and sometimes used more than that. I have gradually reduced that amount over the past three years by walking and biking more. Fortunately I have most of what I need in the immediate neighbourhood. I'm debating whether to add a "Transportation" line to my budget or whether to include it (Uber, car share etc) in my Misc budget. I'm leaning towards having a transportation line so that I can easily see how much I'm spending. 

I can say that I am feeling lighter. Being an environmentalist and owner of a V8 truck just don't go together well in my mind. Going car-free reduces my carbon footprint quite a bit. There was an article in the paper recently that listed BIG ways to help the environment: having one less child,  reducing travel by one international flight per year, don't eat meat and/or go car free. 

I'm working on the meat.

Let's see how I do without a car.

Dougie taking a beating from a hailstorm.

Ferry Life - Still Day One

"Hello my lovelies" (stealing a line from Lena) - I miss her!

Kazi booked a rental car for me at Enterprise where she currently works which is why I flew into Vancouver airport instead of Victoria. Vancouver having an Enterprise location while Victoria doesn't.

 However, it turned out Enterprise wasn't at the airport after all - I had to find and then hop on board a shuttle to the off-site Enterprise location. It wasn't far, and I found the shuttle easily after getting excellent instructions from the wonderful old guy at the info desk.

The young fellow at Enterprise gave me directions to get to the Tsawwassen ferry depot which I followed meticulously but still ended up going north on Hwy. 99 instead of south. If there was one thing I knew for sure (and one thing was about all I knew at this point!) it was that I should be heading south! So I got myself turned around and found Tsawwassen with about an hour to spare.

If I go out again to B.C., which I would love to do - I may reconsider flying into Vancouver. Another reason for that is the additional price I had to pay to take the B.C. Ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. It was definitely more expensive than I thought. It was around $50 for my rental car, $20 for 1 adult, and fees and taxes bringing it over $80 one way! Though I do enjoy a ferry ride.

A huge part of this ferry location is the OOCL - Orient Overseas Container Line which the Tsawwassen First Nations people helped to construct.

Orient Overseas Container Line

It was a beautiful day for a crossing. 

 It was cool and windy but there were areas where the sun shone warmly and those who braved being outside gravitated to those.  I caught my reflection in a couple of photos.

We could see the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington.

And periodically we'd see another B.C. Ferry chugging away.

I wish I knew why the water changed suddenly from a greeny grey colour to a blackish blue colour. Does anyone know?

The journey took about 1.5 hours and eventually we got close to a number of islands.

I didn't get any photos of Swartz Bay as we had to head back to our cars in preparation to disembark. I always get into a bit of a panic at this point as there are about 2,000 black cars and I'm just looking for ONE!  And that is why I memorized my license plate number, well, the first 3 letters anyways!

Once we were off the ferry I was caught in a huge swarm of cars heading to Victoria. The going was slow but on the bright side it was impossible to get lost!

Have you ever gotten lost on a holiday?

Jane in Wonderland

Hi everyone - I'm back :) Truthfully, I've been back for a few days but I had a wicked case of jet lag to get through and since then I've been editing and deleting photos - I only took 1497 of them! I take a lot of duplicates from various angles and distances, then keep the best and delete the rest. I'm not finished yet but thought I'd get started on some new posts anyways.

Wed. May 24th saw me rise at 4:00am in order to get to London, Ontario's International (yes, truly) Airport to board an early flight to Toronto and then on to Vancouver. My daughter hooked me up with an Uber app giving me a $15 credit which was just enough to get me to the airport. Lucky huh?

Below is a photo taken shortly after my arrival - that's it - the whole airport. It doesn't really operate like an "international" airport - I left my suitcase inside while I went out and took this photo - then I realized I'm not supposed to leave my suitcase unsupervised incase someone wanted to turn me into a drug mule...or worse! But when I went back inside the security folks seemed quite unconcerned. Welcome to London!

I'm hoping this isn't my airplane...

No matter the time of day or night a Timmy's somewhere is always open :) A shot of caffeine was exactly what I needed at 5am. And again I left my suitcase unsupervised while I lined up for a dark roast. I did keep my eye on it though.

Pretty spiffy huh? I like it because I don't have to look very hard for my gate.

Of course there is the usual pathetic corporate nod to our First Nations people. I'm sorry, I just think those in power could do so much better. And then...everything went to sh-t!!

I thought I had everything under control! I signed myself up for notifications (delays and cancellations) of London to Toronto flights because lately there have been a LOT of delays and cancellations due to construction at Pearson airport in Toronto. But I didn't receive any notifications and we boarded promptly.

However, once they had us trapped on the plane they announced a 20 minute delay. That doesn't sound like much but the whole flight to Toronto only takes 20 minutes. Then the 20 minute delay became a 40 minute delay. My heart rate went up with each increase. Finally we took off - at the same time as my Toronto to Vancouver flight was boarding!

First sight of the Rockies

 Once we landed I chomped at the bit wanting to get off of the plane to see if I could still make my connection. Well, you know how long that process takes! I sprinted into the airport and asked an employee which gate I needed - she yelled out Gate D34 and I raced down several hallways suitcase whacking at my heels. I found the gate and the last couple of people in line. Thank God!! I was in quite a lather but managed to make it to my seat before I collapsed.

The fabulous Canadian Rockies.

The flight was uneventful (thankfully!) though I have to say as we started to descend I was a bit worried about the mountains that were poking up through the clouds.

But I guess the pilot knew what he was doing as we broke through the clouds with the mountains at a safe distance.

I travelled with just a carryon and a backpack so leaving the airport was easy peasy. Finding the Enterprise car rental depot wasn't quite so easy but a lovely volunteer at the info booth gave me directions (I'm sure he's done it 10,000 times before) and within minutes I was on a shuttle and then in my rental. A Hyundai Veloster which I never quite got used to. Never thought I'd say I missed Dougie the Dodge but I did. I mean, if my foot even got near the brake pedal I almost went through the windshield!!

Stay tuned for the rest of DAY ONE. It gets better :)

The Jeep has Arrived!

Ain't she a beaut!

Kazi may not leave it white - she might have it "wrapped" as 

she has a friend who does that for a living.

Example:

But, in the meantime...white/charcoal it is!

(My Dougie is in the background!)

I took Kaz out to breakfast yesterday to celebrate. She's so happy!

Though she cried giving up the old Cobalt I gave her years ago. 

Due to the amount of rust on the Cobalt it couldn't be

safetied without major work. So she used it as a trade-in.

And...she broke off a chunk of rust to keep forever!

Yes, she's very sentimental.

Maybe I'll mount it in a shadow-box for Christmas 😊

She's trying to come up with a name for the jeep. 

She called the Cobalt "Stella". Yes, we tend to name everything!

I suggested "Jerry".

I'm pretty proud of my girl. She did all the research, got the best deal she could. Her job with Enterprise helped out too as she was able to drive a ton of different vehicles which helped in her decision. Also, Enterprise is partnered with London Chrysler/Jeep which gave her 10% off the top!

In other news...I briefly looked at ads for a used Jeep then came to my senses! I'm trying to decrease my transportation expenses not increase them. To me, a vehicle has always been a way to get from point A to point B.  I've never cared about "heated seats" or the myriad other perks/options.

An older woman once said to me "you're no plain Jane" but really, I am. The less things that can go wrong with a car is what I'm interested in. We had 3 Cobalts over the years and that was because they were rated as being one of the most inexpensive cars to maintain. And they were.

Buying Dougie was an anomaly for me - he was perfect for PEI. People often ask me why I still drive a truck and I say: I paid cash - a small amount of cash so I owe nothing, he had less than 100,000km on him and currently sits at a low 134,000km, insurance is cheap due to less chance of personal injury in case of a crash, having a truck in the family is very handy, and he makes me walk more....oh, and I LOVE HIM!

I've been lucky (we've ALL been lucky) with the low price of gas over the last couple of years or I would likely have traded Dougie in by now. But I still think - "should I walk or should I drive" every time I go somewhere. And more often than not I walk. Or cycle.

I've been thinking about one last big road trip with Dougie, so considering all of my options of course. I still have a couple of months before my insurance renews so will take that time to make a decision about Dougie. Sell him, give him away, continue as is, insure for just 6 months a year...I don't need to decide today.

Do you have any decisions you're putting off?

Can I Live Without a Car?

Good ol' Dougie - we've gone through a lot together!

Oops, was supposed to post about this and then forgot. I forget a lot of stuff these days. My head is much busier than my hands. Ideas galore - implementation not so good.

I've spent some time recently wondering if I could manage being car-free. The object of this "wondering" is to save more $$ for travel which is highly motivating for me. And then there's the environment and fossil fuels argument.

My options are:

• selling/giving Dougie the Dodge away for a tax receipt and renting a car from my daughter when I need one (she works for Enterprise now and tells me lots of people just rent a car occasionally when they need one; or a family has just one car and rents another as needed)
• use CarShare or Zipcar when I need a car (you can rent by the hour or longer as needed for a small monthly fee. Gas and insurance included.
• trade Dougie in on a smaller car (no $$ savings)
• Go completely car-free and use transit system (not thrilled with this idea)
• keep Dougie and maintain the status quo

Thoughts? 

Have you experienced living car-free? How did it go? Is it really cheaper having to use buses, trains, and taxis?