I know Raistlin as one of the bike shop guys that does a stand up job of building the bike party movement. Always there to help out on rides. Jonathan, another one of them, organized a birthday party for him before bike party. It was a slow afternoon, so I showed up to. I was there about three minutes before word was whispered around "cops coming". Pipes and beers disappeared quickly. Turned out the rumor was true.

The cop was a mature one with lots of weapons hanging off his belt and lots of gray hairs in his mustache. He started by asking how old we were. Turns out I was A LOT older than everybody else, and half of them were too young to be of drinking age. Then he listed off the crimes and fines we were clearly guilty of. Open containers ($150 per violation), under age drinking ($250 per violation), contributing to the delinquency of minors (jail time for the adults) and probably one or two others I forgot. Everybody "yes sir!"ed on queue. He made us put all the alcohol up on the table. He looked at everybody's ID. He gave us a speech about how drunk pedaling had contributed to the death of a cyclist recently. Then he said "I'll let you guys go if you use all the beer to water those bushes." We did as he asked. He walked away, having put the fear of god in us.

        

After that Jonathan ran a clean party. We ate burgers and joked around. I was sort of shaking about all the crimes I could have been put away for, so I didn't eat that much. After a while it was time to sing "Happy Birthday". Rather than blowing out candles, Raistlin's girlfriend mashed a piece of cake into his face. We had cake and ice cream, and a good time was had by all.

They were the core of the pre-ride from El Camino and San Thomas, so when it was time to go to that they posed for a group shot before rolling out. I'd promised to lead a pre-ride from the Caltrian station, so I went the other way.

        

Turns out the pre-ride from Caltrain was Isbella, her guy and I. They didn't want to wait for the last train I'd promised to wait for, so we left for the start a bit early. Sorry about that, whomever we missed. After we got to the start I stared taking pictures of superheroes, of whom there were many.

           

That's Dora in the screaming yellow helmet. She was our fearless leader for the test rides and route this month. Did a great job.

        

Those little white specks are raindrops. The weather forecast said "light rain early, followed by perfect spring weather." It was more of a settling mist than a rain. Just enough to make things slightly damp, but not enough to dampen the mood.

        

Some did a great job on their costumes, others dug through their T-Shirts and found one that went with the theme.

           

        

Lots of women made something nice of simply wearing sexy tights and matching clothes with some sort of cape and an accent or two.

     

The Ravens were lined up on a concrete pad by the intersection where bike party exited the parking lot onto the street. Those are the people that make bike party's trash footprint small enough that the powers that be leaves us alone. It's a lot of work to pedal those trash cans around a bike party route. Gotta honor that gift. Thank you Ravens!

     

  

Yup. We still stop for red lights.

     

Justin didn't look that "super hero" with the lights on, but he did amazing magic with the lights off. His dancing really did add to the music for anybody that was lucky enough to watch him doing his thing.

        

Super Dork has the super power of being able to make bike party go that-away! A valuable thing to all of us.

        

Renee wants everybody to know that the bicycling community has lost another member, killed by a car late one recent evening. Her message was "Be careful out there!"

Where's my bike now? Enrique's bike-able bathroom station. Last month they had real porta potties. They didn't come back because somebody had gratified them. We've learned that people are as grateful for bathrooms as the places that host our stops are for the ravens. Thank you Enrique and friends!

Far too soon the party left the Registrar of Voters Office parking lot. I mainly focused on keeping up and avoiding potholes during this leg of the trip. By this time the fact I'd not eaten much before the ride was catching up with me. At the beginning of the next regroup I started by finding a taco stand and fueling up in a corner. So grateful that bike party has fans in the hot food service community! My meal was good. After that I started looking around for more fun.

        

People would ask me what superhero I was dressed up as. I'd tell them "Just Orange'. Thank you Candy for taking my picture.

        

        

I birded the turn where bike party headed for San Jose and I branched off for Mountain View. At first it was a steady stream of people following whomever was in front of them. After the traffic thinned out it got clumpy. Some were grateful for the "Right turn party!" I yelled at every opportunity. It took me a while to figure out I could take pictures and yell. Then it took me a few tries to get the timing right.

     

     

     

By this point my vigil had more of a "waving to friends" quality. Seems like most of them I know from the many rides we've done together.

I found out later that BooBle was delayed because a short circuit in his trailer's motor killed it's ability to move his 350 lbs. of speakers and other magic. He got around that by getting help from the guys following on the freeway overpasses and stuff like that. Thank you Jon, Frederick, James, and whomever else helped. They are real heroes!

     

Isaul stopped briefly to thank me for my service. After that there wasn't much left. I looked over the parking lot. There were still a few stoners hanging out, but they didn't need my help. I headed home, another fine ride behind me. Thank you bike party for all you are and all you do!