I ache so much!
Friday, June 27th, 2008Yesterday Sheila and I went to the ‘Taste of Chicago’ with her cousin and a friend. We tried a few food items from around the world and then broke up. The two girls went to the Suburbs, Chris and I walked back to the house.
We fixed one of the bikes here then decided to go for a ride into the city. We joined up with the Critical Mass ride (a large ride that goes on on the last Friday of every month - the Police shut off streets and ride along with us, it’s pretty cool). We rode from about 4:30pm (when we left the house) to 9:45pm (when we got home)… and oh boy do I ache today.
The ride was a lot of fun and is definately a really great experience. There was only one real incident than I saw and that’s when we were riding along and some guy decides to ride on the left side of the road (like the Police had been trying to stop them doing moments before). He got hit by a car… He was fine, but obviously got up and started shouting at the woman… Hundreds of other people were obviously all around her car and she panicked and ran over his bike wheel… It’s then that the cyclist picked up his puppy that had been in his basket and showed the woman that she’d nearly ran him over. Well, for me… He put the dog at risk - why on earth would you keep an animal in a basket like that? We were cycling for hours - where is it meant to pee? What happens if it jumps out? What happens if you had an accident with another bicycle? Or… *drum roll* what happens if you were riding on the wrong side of the road and a car couldn’t avoid you? Idiot. That poor woman, sheesh.
Apart from that incident, it was awesome. Everyone seemed to accept that they were going to be stuck at the junction until a few thousand cyclists had passed by. Kids and adults were coming out of their houses and marveling at the number of cycles. It was great fun. Last year at around this time, the route came past our house…
It also gave me a bit of confidence about eventually driving in this country also. When we were cycling back I found myself looking in the right direction, noticing the lights, signs, etc, basically doing everything I should be doing.