Since today was the first day of Bike To Work Week I planned to get up a little early and zip down to work first so I could drop off my bag and clothes at my office before heading to breakfast at Riverfront Park. That definitely didn't prove to be a problem as Houston (our 1.5 year old middle child and my nightly assignment) started getting restless around 3:45 AM. I managed to get him back into bed, but he tossed and turned for a couple hours before getting up for good just prior to 6AM. The upside to all this early rising is that he'll probably sleep soundly tonight. At least that's what I'm telling myself now.
Once I got out of the house around a quarter to seven it was smooth, but cold and slightly damp sailing down to Gonzaga. I unloaded my bag at the office and contemplated pulling out my rain jacket, but opted to go with what I was wearing. A couple fat raindrops between Desmet and the Centennial Trail had me questioning my decision, but I lucked out and no further precipitation developed.
I passed quite a few east bound cyclists as I approached Riverfront Park and I was curious to see just how many bikers would show up for the free pancake breakfast. Once I got around the carousel it was clear that the turn out was pretty darn respectable. I'm not very good at estimating the size of meandering groups of people, but I'd guess that somewhere between 100-150 people rode there bikes down to Riverfront Park this morning.
I checked my bike into the bike corral and got in line for a couple pancakes. I saw lots of Pedals 2 People crew doing their thing and once I finished up my meal I headed over to their quick tune up location to hang out for a while. I wanted to take some pictures of the whole scene, but my camera batteries died as soon as I fired it up and I completely forgot that I had three fresh AAs in my headlight that I could have borrowed.
John Speare noticed my banged up nose, so I had to give him a quick run down on last Thursday's misadventure. I also talked Surly bikes briefly with Joe Thompson. There's a Kona touring bike with disc brakes that he recommended to me, but I also really dig the Karate Monkey he has built up with trekking handlebars and a full compliment of gearing. That's a disc-brake based approach that had not occurred to me. At this point I'm still committed to an LHT or maybe even a Crosscheck (since I like the frame colors better and I have some speedier wheels now), but a new bike is still a ways down the road.
I hung out at Riverfront Park for a while longer until things started to wind down in the second hour, but I met a few new people including the mastermind behind the FBC Spokane. Looks like the next Full Moon Fiasco is going to be on a Monday night, but the Prom Ride will be on Saturday, May 31st. I'm not sure how doable either ride will be with my nightly Houston duties, but maybe I can swing something with a little planning. I wonder how the formal attire supply is at all the local thrift shops?