I thought I would end my series of posts on living car-free with a more positive note. I’ve found a lot of joy and happiness along the way! There are so many other paths that a person can take to experience life, and my walking out of car culture helped me to see and feel a richness that I couldn’t have experienced in an automobile.

As an introduction of sorts, here is a video by the Swapathgami Network in Udaipur, India. Many thanks to Manish Jain and Shikshantar for producing wonderful films like this! While this video addresses more of the system of Education, I believe it applies to our very thought processes and lives. We can close the book on what everyone expects us to do or be, and truly live!

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I just made my first batch of Kombucha in Minneapolis! For some reason, it was much tougher in Duluth to make this really yummy and healthy drink (probably because even in summer, some days did not reach 70 degrees or more, and fermentation needs heat!).

Kombucha is probably my biggest guilty pleasure! I love making this healthy,fizzy, fermented tea at home. Kombucha is said to have come from China thousands of years ago. It has been historically a popular health tonic in Russia for centuries. Many people have claimed that Kombucha helped in their illnesses, cancer, the regrowing of hair, the un-graying of hair, and of course, just general all-around well-being.

For me, Kombucha eliminates heartburn and acid reflux that I sometimes experience at night, and I’ve noticed a lot of other benefits.

In 2007 I experienced a car accident and moderate whiplash. There are times when I now have episodes of Fibromyalgia-like symptoms in my body, and my skin and body become incredibly sensitive to pressure. Drinking Kombucha throughout the day (about 3 cups a day for me) is as effective, if not more, as the supplement 5-HTP, which my chiropractor recommends.

I also eat a mostly vegetarian diet (I’m a lacto-ovo-pesco-veg-guy), and Kombucha helps me to receive the B-complex vitamins (especially B12) that are often lacking in a vegetarian diet.

Kombucha starts with basic black or green tea, sugar, and the addition of a Kombucha “mushroom” or culture. By placing the culture in a glass jar of prepared tea with sugar, over about 7-10 days it literally eats up the caffeine and sugar – and converts it to healthy acids and B-vitamins. The tea begins to taste like fizzy apple cider.

It’s oh so yummy! I’m brewing about 2 gallons a week now!

Stay tuned, because next week I’ll show you how to make it, and in the future, if you live in the Minneapolis metro area, I might also be sharing my Kombucha cultures!

This video just made my day. Mukhtar is a bus driver in Copenhagen, and his passengers helped him to celebrate his birthday!

I’m going to let a big cat out of the bag with this post. My partner and I are going to be moving to Minneapolis at some point this summer. We’ve been longing to be near friends and family, and to be in a place that genuinely supports us as a Car-Free couple.

Yes, we’ve been without a car for well over a year now! I sold my car in February of 2009, when I realized I was driving it once a week to the other side of the street, and weighed a car payment and insurance payment against what Michael and I were making in income at that time. I’ll admit, it was a bit difficult at first, but around the 8th month, the goal of a year being car-free was just too tempting for us to go back and “buy a car.”

So, while Michael’s been interviewing for transit-related jobs, I’ve set up shop two days per week at Meridian Bodywork in St. Louis Park (a first ring suburb of Minneapolis). Every Sunday, I hop on the afternoon Jefferson Lines bus to travel to the twin cities, stay with a good friend, and do massage and Reiki on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The sweet part – my “commute” only costs me $24 round-trip on Jefferson Lines, and I can take MetroTransit EVERYWHERE in the twin cities. I don’t even think that gas in a car would be that cheap for the ride from Duluth to Minneapolis one way! Definitely a good exploit of the system!

But yes, I’ve already spent the $20 on my GoTo Card in the last 3 weeks in Minneapolis with not only going to and from my office, but to the MayDay Parade, coffees and lunches with friends and clients, and just some general explorations of the city again. All worth that $20 though!

I miss having a bike down here though! The Cedar Lake Trail passes right near my office building in St. Louis Park, and I just long to hop on it to go back to Minneapolis. From the looks of the direct path it takes, I’m sure it’s faster than my bus trip between St. Louis Park and Downtown Minneapolis.

I’ll have to look into transporting my bike on the bus…

Happy Commuting everyone!