Dafne Sanchez brought to Palo Alto the best weather we've seen all year long for her 14th Birthday! And enjoy it we did! Brian Koss and his ten year old son Ben, Penny Ng from Singapore, Jason Heblack, Esperanza and Nacho Sanz and Nitzeli Sanchez and Dafne Sanchez herself were all there to help us roll into the beautiful afternoon.
First we biked over to Philz Coffee where we picked up 7 more recruits and pedaled back to our starting point five blocks away. Everyone wanted to keep going so we pedaled a half mile in the other direction to the Safeway on Colorado for refreshments. While there, we sang happy birthday to Dafne, took the picture you see here and told all the many interested grocery shoppers about our machine.
However, we stayed too long and by the time we were ready to go, we were back to the original seven. It was easy getting people to help pedal us out of the big parking lot. And by the time we hit Colorado Ave, John E Cabrera was there waiting for us!! With his giant chicken, I guess you call it a doll !!
Even Lauren Rhigini was there. And she got on but we couldn't convince her dogs that it was the right thing for them to be doing. However, four teenagers appeared from somewhere and we were off again. With all the excitement we were creating, people were stopping their cars and taking pictures and coming out of their homes to see what was going on. Somewhere in the middle of all the commotion, the young adults slipped aboard!!
And we got back to the start so quick, we decided to try to set a new Busycle world record. Pedal 1/8 of a mile in reverse, back to Mt Palo Alto (for the Busycle), the berm atop Matadero Creek on Ross Road. And we set that new mark of note pretty quickly too.....
So we headed back, going the right way, on what had all of a sudden become Lake Palo Alto. This was so because the small downhill that led off the top of the creek "overpass" allowed us to coast. And as we just sat there, it was so quiet that it felt lake we were gliding along on a huge body of water.
The ride ended with covering the Busycle with the Carl Mueller half tarp. You see a number of months ago, when Carl came down from Arcata and did a Busycle ride, he gave us a $20 as his contribution for a tarp. And since we've done a handful of rides since then and our tarps were getting worse and worse and no one else was coming forward, I decided to buy what I could for $20. And the Busycle cover you see here is the result. Obviously it only does half the job, but our poor birthday girl won't get a wet seat next time she rides like she did this time.......
Happy Birthday Dafne!!
THX 4 all of U!!
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