Plus Four Riding Suits

On the twenty second of November I wrote that I had finished writing and made ready to leave home.  I went to say bye to dad and he told me to wait for mom.  She was in a bit later.  Later I wrote that I took Irving and continued to Page Street, Guerrero and Duboce.  At my my companion’s I had to wind down to eat dinner, which was squash, chevre and kale salad.  Later I had to wind up for the trip to Chico.

It turned out our train was late so we sat through two Monty Python episodes before riding to our borrowed foldable bikes to Civic Center.  We missed a Pittsburgh train and considered West Oakland but settled for riding  Broadway from 12th to Jack London Square.  We tried a winery and the bowling alley before settling on a hotel restaurant for a beer.  We had to spend about a half an hour in the station before the Coast Starlight arrived around 1.

On the train the conductors had a problem with the girl across the way.  She was really loud but was headed to Sacramento so it was alright.  There was no wifi so I walked around the train while my companion was sleeping.  We were cold but did get a bit of sleep during the six hour ride.

At Chico we rode to our motel and took a four hour nap.  We were left by 10 and went to Naked Cafe where we interacted with a guy in tweed and watched college students while drinking coffee.  Then we rode to the square for the Chico Tweed ride and stood with our friends from Sacramento while discussing London plus four riding suits and breits-- a type of pant cuff with buttons.

The organizer said a few words and then the sponsor, a radio station, did too.  I rode away from the square with a lady and a few others headed for Bridwell.  I then took a seat at the lead of the ride and count about 450 riders.  I followed from behind and saw a pair siblings who were also from Sacramento.  I led them to five mile and eventually found my companion and the others.

They had a blanket out with tea and a lot of snacks.  I had a bit of bubbly and then some crackers and tea.  Later I treated them to some port I found on the blanket.  While we were talking one of the siblings found us the perfect spot for the coming photos and she was able to wrap a few of the organizers into a smaller group pic. We also talked a guy named who had a dog and asked why I had been counting.

I went for a walk to catch my breath and my companion and I took rides on a tandem where the stoker was backwards.  Later we promised an older couple that we would show them our foldables.  After saying thank you to the organizers we returned and the couple actually rode the bikes a bit.  After that a local lead us to Chapmantown via Humboldt and the bike underpass.

On the way I met a few more locals.  Our groups parted but one of the siblings was left behind so his sister and I had to go back to get him.  Later on Humboldt I met still another well dressed local who said she knew an alternate route to Sierra Nevada Brewery.

When we arrived at the brewery one of my Sacramento friends wanted to fold my bike and then took it inside.  Once in there I spied a table that we tried to sit at but we took a bigger table instead.  There were nine of us once our new found lady friends appeared and I pretty quickly fell into conversation with one of them about her background in geography and education.

It was around then that I went over to the bar and got to know some mechanics who told me to stop by their shop near the Christmas faire downtown that night.  About ten of us headed that way once my acquaintance from Sacramento had unfolded my bike and the rest of us had mounted.  We broke up at the faire and my companion and I parked our bikes at the valet before heading to to Duffy’s.

A little later I left our small group to check out the bike shop I had heard about at the brewery.  There I met still more interesting people.  They gave me a beverage and I talked to one of them about a local business.  I gave one of them my pin.

I found my companion near the antique store and then we went to a store but our Sacramento friends had to go.  The siblings went with us then to Madison Bear Garden where they told us about their backgrounds.  We left them a little later and went to our motel.  I had forgotten to get train tickets so after calling Amtrak I ended up packing till late.

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.