Bike To Work Week - Day 1 wrap-up

These kids made me jealous. While I was pushing pedals through a headwind full of dry, almost-90-degree heat, these twerps were cooling off in Turkey Creek. I felt like riding right into the stream, but better judgment took over. The cool water looked so refreshing!

Then there's the group ride, and oh what a group ride it was! We were off to a kind of slow start. My dad joined us, and Tim O was there, as well as a bunch of other new faces. We departed a little later than usual, but Mark Thomas had to herd the cats cyclists, so that was part of it. This group ride got a lot of attention, as it was a sanctioned event for Bridging the Gap's Bike To Work Week. I think it was a stunning success!

Riders watch and listen as Mark Thomas gives some helpful hints on finding your way around suburbia, navigating neighborhoods, and finding new ways to get to your destinations via cycling. The focus of our ride this evening was to show people some popular shopping center destinations. To demonstrate, Mark used a messenger bag during our whole ride to simulate running errands on a bicycle. A Chrome brand messenger bag like the one shown will be given away at next week's Monday night ride. All you have to do to enter the drawing is sign up and write a post on Choose2Bike.com.

We took a detour to Old Town Shawnee, a park with some original downtown Shawnee buildings. Volunteers from Bridging The Gap and City of Shawnee, Kansas put together some give-away schwag such as reflective ankle straps, ice cream bars, trail maps, and whatnot. Those without kickstands or a buddy to lean bikes together with just laid their bikes out in the grass. It looked like a battlefield of exhausted bicycles. Probably not too far off. Hahah. Deb Ridgeway was there to answer questions and thank people for participating, then she met us again at the Trek Store...

Where products, tickets, and dining gift certificates are given away while we celebrate with some wonderful homebrew Brown Ale, brewed by one of the Trek Store technicians. I won a multi-tool and my dad won a Trek DiscoTech blinkie.

I didn't finish riding all the way home. I socialized with my dad and we rode together in his car back to my place. This was his first organized group ride, and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last.

Here's a short video clip I took of some riders flying by: