There were lots of different ideas of
how to do the nerd thing. Heavy rimmed glasses with a band aid over the
nose was the most common costume part.
The first landmark we rode past was
Cirque du Soleil.
It's hard to see in this picture, but
on that gray shirt pi is telling the square root of negative one "get
real" and the square root of negative one is telling pi "get rational."
I'd give that shirt the "best real nerd shirt" award for the evening.
Real nerds get it!
The guy in the reflective vest is
riding a bike he built himself. He said "I finally got it just the way
I want it." The thing has LOTS of shock absorbing capability and a
motor assist. He puts 30 (or was it 50?) miles a day on the thing. It
was the only conspicuously custom bike I saw that was more for riding
than for show. To get a bike just the way he wants it, the guy has to
have some kind of nerd bragging rights.
There were enough good sound carts in
the parade that it seemed like I was always grooving to tunes.
Different DJ's had different taste in music, but it seemed like all
were good in one way or another.
We're better at waiting for lights than
we used to be. I'm grateful for that. I also wish I was setting a
better example. Sometimes when the road is empty it's just hard to wait
for the light to change. That's okay until some kid crosses in front of
a car and responds to my chiding by saying "you did it, why can't I?"
Excuse ME, but there is a difference between an empty road and someone
else with the right of way!
Crossing the Mary Ave. bike bridge was
a very nice experience. I'm told that sometimes those posts are lit up,
but even so the trail was well lit. Under us were something like eight
lanes of I-280. Before they added the bridge going from Mountain View
to De Anza College was at least two miles further than it is now. Thank
you Cupertino for that upgrade to your infrastructure!
That was as close to Mountain View as
the ride got, so rather than go back to San Jose I just took pictures
of people passing me until they were all gone and then headed home. I
tried to get mostly nerds, but it's hard for me to tell a nerd from
somebody else.
The panel van was the T Shirt Vendor's
rig. They would get to a rest stop, put up a table and sell "San Jose
Bike Party" shirts until the ride left. New this month was a taco truck
and a Korean fusion food vendor, but I didn't see them pass my corner.
I heard good things about the food though.
Not shown is the cop that was corking
the traffic to let us take over the road. It didn't occur to me to
photograph him until later. I'm not sure he would have appreciated
that. I'm sure we appreciated the service though.
