This month SJBP started for me with the poorly advertised pre-ride from San Jose's City Hall. I figured I better get as many of the photo ops the place had as I could before they got rolling.

     

Unfortunately, that meant just these three pictures. I was later than I should have been.

I took this right after they announced that we would be rolling soon, before everybody was on their bikes. Maybe about two thirds of the people getting ready to roll are in it. It's the biggest pre-ride to a SJBP that I've ever been part of. After I took this I just rolled until we got to the start of the official ride.

  

There were so many food trucks lined up around the parking lot that it blew my mind.

  

It wasn't just the half a dozen or so here. More likely there were ten or twelve of them. There were so many that they were blocking the driveway in one or two places because there was nowhere else to park them. I think that's a new problem for us, too many food trucks!

  

Sarah was selling yummy cookies and cupcakes not far from the food truck zone. I got one of her brown butter almond cookies. So delicious! See her if you want a nice treat next time. That is to say, I hope she's willing to do that again.

I love the way a bicyclist blends into the words SAN JOSE BIKE PARTY on those shirts! So apropos.

        

It was very easy to find people that weren't wearing pants. The harder part was finding people that were interesting visually as well.

     

This is only a small percentage of the ride. Just what I could see ahead of me. We packed the road like this for blocks and blocks. An amazing river of people having a good time and sharing the public right of way.

     

Behind me the same story continued...

  

     

        

I talked to the guy with the ape hanger handlebars. He said if he inspires someone else to do something interesting to see at another ride all the effort involved with making his costume will have been worth it.

     

        

        

The guy with the green fat tire bike was behind me in line to get something from the fruit lady. He said that those fat tires roll well on beaches and snow and any other place he's tried to go on it. The line moved slowly, so after a while I found out that his name is so common in Scotland that Monty Python did a skit about how famous his name is in Scotland.

Not long after I got my fruit cup the helicopter appeared above and started broadcasting this message: "This is an illegal assembly. You are ordered to disperse." The tinny voice repeated it over and over. Not only that, but motorcycle cops started wandering through the crowd sharing variations on the same message. Bike Party got back on the road faster than I've ever seen them do so before.

This DJ was pumping out good tunes and he wasn't wearing pants. I had to respect that!

I'm surprised that anybody could do 20 miles on a razor scooter. At this point we were far enough into the ride that I'm sure the guy finished up no problem. Around us there were a lot of riders for whom bike party was MUCH more than they were used to riding. I heard lots of complaints about burning leg muscles from first timers. About then we reached the end of the ride.

     

The guy in the sharks shirt was roaming around telling everyone that would listen that the cops gave him a ticket for being on the wrong side of the double yellow line. He wasn't happy about that at all. Wish I'd not had a thumbs up in the picture. But then Lia saw this on facebook and replied "I think the thumbs up was appropriate in the traffic ticket photo. The dude's supposed to obey traffic rules and deserved the ticket."

Actually, during the course of the evening I saw many cops writing tickets. I don't know if they were worse than ever before, but for sure the heavy hand of the law came down on lots of us.

I asked one of the food vendors that was there to the end if it had been a good evening for them. He said yes.

Bit by bit the parking lot emptied as people packed their vehicles. I got pictures of these vehicles because they were particularly well laden with bikes and people.

  

Not sure how I got involved with miming a snail with this woman but I enjoyed the experience. I'd like to say her name, but I'm not finding it in my memory. Hopefully I'll get to talk to her again...