I'd been there a minute or so when I saw lego Lincoln, my first "on theme" image if you don't count all the medallions on my bike. I'd started preparations for the ride by downloading the art for 16 different Presidents from the U. S. Mint website. (All I'd had time for the previous evening) It was easy once I found the right page. Then I shrank and printed about 45 medallion sized things. I shot for 3.33" across images and got close. I laminated as many of them as I could before the event and hung those on my bike with clear packing tape.

     

There wasn't that much participation in the theme this time. At the beginning I wandered around looking for a bit. I saw the lady in the top hat and I thought "At least SOMEBODY did something for the theme!" I would say there was a revolution. San Jose just yawned about the theme. Thanks to the nice weather we had a huge crowd though. Lots of people there if you count that.

     

I saw Justin in the traffic jam going into the first regroup. I suppose technically Franklin was a "senior statesman" not a President, but he's dead for sure. Considering how people that call money "dead presidents" can often be seen in Franklin bill art I'll take it...

We had sized the spot figuring for a smaller turnout. February? For cold and wet we'd get fifty people. Not this year. Perfect weather. Big turnout! Oh well... The crowd was mostly mellow and if the street was just five yards wider it would have been great! As it was it was awesome.

  

I guess these guys figured the theme meant represent the dead for those present. Nice try.

Often I'd run into someone else with no "on theme" anything. I'd offer them a dead president. I got lots of takers. Sometimes they'd look at the choices and say "never heard of William Henry Harrison (or whomever)." Sometimes they'd say something that was news to me. Diane pointed to one and said "he has the record for heaviest President." By the end of the night I was down to the ones that were hard to remove from my bike.

     

This guy won the "MOST ON THEME OUTFIT" award! Everybody wanted to have their picture taken with him.

Another reason I didn't find much on theme stuff to take pictures of was that the dancing was great at the second regroup. I just danced for a while. Especially when that "California likes to party" song came on...

     

Lloyd explained that since he was wearing a Washington Redskins shirt and Washington was our first President he was on theme. I'll take it.

The next day John posted this picture of the dead president I gave him to my wall on facebook. Now I'm adding to that collection as I notice them. I'm hoping some of those history nuggets I spread around will seed discussions and/or some "look him up" type learning.