Thank you Dr.
BooBle for the artwork of this ride!
Virginia and I led this one. We got our names on the road runner
list last year. We picked a theme and said the route would be
"somewhere on the peninsula." We thought about where we wanted
the ride to go. Googled directions between places on light rail
to figure out distances. Finally we had a plan that was ready
for discussing. Showed it to Brian Nagar. He thought it was a
good idea. Showed it to Jonathan King. He suggested going around
the loop the other way for more right turns. Adopted that plan.
Finally we had a route that was ready for testing.
In the end we did four test rides.
During the first one we learned a few things that made us redo the
route quite a bit. The second one we found out we have the right
idea. After that the test rides were all about making sure that
everybody who wanted to see the route ahead of time and/or
exercise riding with bike party had a chance. Enjoyed riding all
four test rides.
The other thing we had to do was
attend a meeting to talk about last minute details like where to
put the food trucks and dance floor. Then it was onto figuring out
what to wear and making spoke cards and getting the tandem ready.
Finally it was on to the actual event.
At first I was going to do the kind
of stuff I always do before the ride. Started looking for on theme
images to capture. After taking just a few pictures I got called
away to deal with something very important. Getting names on the
signup sheet to bird corners or something like that. I wanted to
make a point of starting on time and we did it. Thank you Roy for
leading the charge!
Once we got rolling I kept myself to
steering the tandem. All of the moving pictures here were taken by
Virginia from the back seat.
Yup. Bike party still waits for the
light to change like good law abiding citizens.
Heard later there were about five
hundred riders with us that evening.
Nobody was there to direct people
into the parking lot for regroup #1, so I did that until there was
enough bicycle lighting and party atmosphere coming off the lot
that it was obvious where we were to latecomers.
There was some dressing to the theme
and so forth, but most people just showed up with a "420 man..."
party attitude and green thoughts.
I put green spray on hair color on
my hair and beard, but it wasn't easy to see the results. The can
promised loud green, but it worked out to a mild (almost
invisible) green tinting. When I took a shower later the suds that
fell off my head were green though.
Virginia's brother and his daughter
and her husband joined us for the ride. Gianna said things like
"We didn't realize how big this party is." I gather they are going
to do it again. Sounds good to me.
In the pre ride discussion on
facebook I explained that "Since green has something to do with
commerce, we'll be riding through three historic peninsula
downtowns during the ride." The first was Los Altos, which we got
to not long after the first regroup.
The second was downtown Mountain
View, which we got to just before the second regroup.
Our last downtown was Murphy St. in
Sunnyvale. All these years later, I still think it's funny that
"Murphy's Law" is a bar there. You can see it just to the right of
my helmet.
Virginia said that the guy on the
big wheel told her he did the whole ride on it. That has to be a
feat of strength!
