Ladies Ride

On the eleventh of April I noted that I thought that the TVA had come but I managed to catch it.  On CT I texted my friend and she agreed to meet me at her house.  I got off at 16^th and Mission and stopped at the bank.  I took the alleys to her place.  She was not there and I was using a cup of water to clean up a mess in the front when she arrived.

We had a meal and collected our things.  I grabbed the flyers we ran across Duboce to market and down to Civic Center where I bought her a ticket.  We caught the next train and headed to West Oakland.  On the way we cut up the flyers and packed in with the commuters.  We got off and there were a lot of cyclists.  I stuffed her jacket in my bag.

The ride headed up Adeline to Middle Harbor.  My friend saw her friend and took off.  I was alone for a bit and then I raced to find them near Seventh Street.  I passed West Oakland again and I realized that the ride was not going to be very exciting so I had to pass out a bunch of flyers.

I had passed my friend someplace in this period and when I finally found her at the next stop near Jack London she told me that I had ridden by her near West Oakland Station while our friend and some guy had assisted her in replacing her pedal which had come off.  This was where we decided then to quit before the next stop.  I gave out as many fliers as I could and we followed the ride to 12^th.

At Lake Merritt I said bye to the people I had met and we descended to BART.  Some kids in the station had had a good time on the ride but were looking glum.  I think they said their mom had ditched them.  We stood on the platform eating sours, taking pictures and looking at my friend’s rental.  We made jokes on the train and at Civic Center we said bye and rode away.  By 1115 I was asleep.

I noted that on the day that I wrote this I was up at nine and my friend and I met for breakfast at Matching Half to set up for the Ladies Ride to Larkspur.  After we ordered we went over the cue sheets.  When we had had our second cup my friend’s coworker came and then we noticed that several people had arrived—people from Bike Party, Meetup and the Coalition.

When we had to go I stayed back to wait for late arrivals.  We then rode Panhandle to JFK and on to 10^th and Lake.  After going around Mountain Lake we caught up to the slowest riders trying to navigate the Presidio Golf Course.  I told the one person that wanted to quit the ride that she should stay with us.  She said that she would accompany us to the overlook for photos.

We took photos at Immigrant point and noted that people had really taken the time to wait up for the slow riders.  The group leader had the riders stand on the ledge and two of us took pictures.  Then I went down Harrison and Ralston to Washington to help the group to the Toll Plaza where we found the last stragglers.  There we took another photo.  As we were crossing I had to wait for two ladies taking photos of their bridge crossing.

At Fort Baker we regrouped and then passed a lot of tourists as we climbed up to East Avenue.  The descent to Sausalito was easy and no cars passed us till we got to the bottom of the hill.  We regrouped at the fountain where I tried to get an idea of who had attended the trip.  After that the ride was easy to the Mill Valley path.  We passed the dry docks and went down Bridgeway to the bay path.

Shortly after this we stopped at the Sycamore Street circle to have a picnic.  There were photos and many people were happy with the ride at that point.  The food really hit the spot.  This was around when I went ahead to help direct people to the correct stops.  I watched as the group followed up Lomita and then started hustling as they started to catch up while climbing Horse Hill.

When I stopped several people almost passed me and went the wrong way.  That was where I asked one of the people that knew the route to watch the turn so no one else went the wrong way.  Then I went and caught up to the group to lead the group to Corte Madera.  My friend the leader took over again at Tamalpais and I rode with her coworkers listening to Michael Jackson’s Bad.

One of the group fell off her bike soon after this but it turned out to be ok.  I learned later that the ride leader had made for the left turn lane and as she was crossing the road way the other riders became a bit confused.  One person had made the turn in a way that caused two others to slow and touch tires.  One of them had landed on her arm.  I checked with her later and she said she was ok.  The other girl seemed sad about the incident.

I cautioned everyone to go slow going over Larkspur Creek because it was so narrow.  Almost everyone dismounted to make the turn but no one walked the path.  There was a lady on the far side waiting for our bikes to pass.  Also, I noticed that there was an extra person with our group following as well.  I led the group across Drake Bl to the ramp there and then we rode on to the Brewery.

As we were locking up several riders told the group they would ride back to the city.  I helped one person lock up.  We asked about the reservation and ended up with the largest table.  That was nice.  I got a great Tripel and had a chicken sandwich.  I noticed that the men all sat on one end of the table.

When we were finished we rode to the Ferry and I told two of the people that had been really helpful that they were the best.  On the boat the ride leader and I went upstairs with several others but I descended to get beers.  Later I went to the rear to check in with the others.  Several people were talking on the lower deck.  When we disembarked at the Ferry building we said bye to one another but I got to know the few that were still in the group.  However, they went away one by one until Valencia.  Later the ride leader and I tried to friend and follow everyone on Twitter and Facebook but eventually I got my notebook and went to Momi Toby’s to do some writing.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.