Sometimes bike party starts near enough to downtown San Jose that it makes sense to spend time with the peace vigil at the corner of 4th & San Fernando before that. I did that again this time. The gossip from there is that this hot dog vendor that has moved into the spot is not liking sharing it on Fridays. Something about lost revenue because people don't want to go near the peace vigil. I heard muttering and grumbling. I'm hoping they learn how to live and let live.



I managed to go by the fountain at the exact moment when the sidewalk was shaded but not the water.

  

Yup. Gas is back up to $4/gallon again. Seems to spend more of the time at or above that price then I remember from years ago. Not long after I saw that I joined a pre-ride to bike party coming from the east side.

     

It was easy to find purple people once I got to the start. There were lots!

     

     

Not sure why this camera makes so many shades of purple look blue. Those are all purple shirts!

  

        

     

  

        



  

  

     

     

     

     

I found myself riding with Colleen more and more. I got to the point where we started asking important questions. I asked if she had a cat. She said "two". It was the most painful thing I could have heard. I had to talk a little bit about being allergic to cats. After that it seemed like the sound of my voice became irritating to her. She went her way and I went mine. After that I wallowed in a bad mood for a while.

I saw Matt and Jill up a bit further. Mike asked "how did you get in the lead group?" It was then that I realized I'd missed the second regroup. I must have been not paying attention at the turnoff or something. Oh well. After that I mostly just rode home via some hideously long detour that took many hours.

A couple of days later I was tabling for Earth Day at San Jose State with Carol Brouillet. At one point she said "I'm seeing a lot more people in purple than I'm used to. I look at them and I wonder if they went on the purple ride." It really was as if the communities purple preference was turned way up! I told her I thought that the same kind of thing happened after the orange ride.

A few days after that I found out that the Metro had a great set of pictures from the purple ride.