San Jose Bike Party's November ride
was decreed to be our "Hillbilly Ride". The weather forcast said
80% chance of rain. Since my impression of the hillbilly world on
a rainy night involves frogs, as part of my prep work I put this
gis sticker on my bike in the
only spot I could find that was big enough.
When I got to the start it hadn't
started raining yet. Finding Hillbillys was difficult. There were
lots of bikes, and lots of people having a good time, but not many
that didn't look at home in San Jose. Finally a camo wearing guy
in old jeans went by and I pulled out my camera.
It wasn't long after that when we
started rolling. I found out later that the official count of
riders was just under 500 of us. Not bad for a rainy night!
I asked Renee what about her was
Hillbilly enough that I could put her picture in this set. She
said "I am hillbilly, I don't need to dress up for that." So there
you see a real hillbilly.
The couple on that blue wheeled bike
wasn't particularly dressed, but somehow seeing a young couple on
a bike like that touched me. It takes a lot of strength and a lot
of trust to go more than twenty miles like that. Wow!
Most of the ride that guy was
pedaling his big wheel like it was a bicycle, but there was one
hill where I caught him pushing it. If I ever get a chance to
photograph that thing rolling at night I'm going for it. Surely it
will be a cool shot.
It's hard for a rain ride to be more
comfortable than this one was. It was warm enough that we didn't
need that much clothing, and the rain had the character of a
settling mist. By this regroup everybody was in a good mood. The
vibe was very nice.
I'm grateful to the organizers for
finding regroup spots where we could get out of the rain.
This guy was the only one I saw
who'd put an awning/umbrella on his bike. He didn't look wet so
maybe it worked.
The last thing I did after I got
home was put my plants out on the sidewalk so that God could water
them for a change.
