Ready for The Bike

On 12 June I wrote In the morning of the eleventh I went to Whole Foods to buy baguette and brie, cans of cuvée and a bahn me sandwich. I returned to the apartment and my friend and I were about to get ready for the bike ride. I prepared our two borrowed cargo bikes.  One was a free radical and the other had electric assist. I felt like we were late when I brought them out.

We made it to Dolores Park and learned from some close friends that they couldn't go because it was too much for their youngest. So many friends were there. Two people from Sacramento gave me a glass of sparkling wine and we talked to each other. They had taken the train.

When it was time for us to go, we took 18th to Sanchez and went up to wiggle. I rode with my friend from Sacramento part of the way. I also spoke to a lady and a nanny I knew while riding through the panhandle, which was easy.  When I passed everyone I think I slowed the ride down. One of the riders got ahead of everyone and at Schrader she waved us through. She also took pictures of us at the Dahlia garden.

The climb was OK but we still had more to go. At Crossover Drive there were some cops watching the intersection because Sunday Streets started there.  I noted that that end of the park had taken on a particular serene quality because of the closure.

We entered Hellman Hollow at the Marx Meadow Crossing and found a spot for our picnic. We put down blankets and drank Pastis. I sat with a guy from San Jose and his girlfriend that lived in San Francisco. There was another group at the picnic that had wanted to hang out with us but they were too far away.

My friend was making noise so I decided to put some effort in on her side. She had brought strawberries and cheese. I ate a lot of it. There were a bunch of people in that group.  Later I decided to take a walk through the quiet meadow then. I was amazed at how much space there was around me. The meadow hadn't filled up at that point. I heard birds and other noises. It was really great.

I went to the other group and looked at their Eiffel Tower and at some of their macarons. Then I returned to the main group.

I tried to wander around but that wasn't going to happen. I made noises around the picnic blankets. There was noisy walking to. Later I took a quiet bike ride up the hill and back for quiet time and went and enjoy the fresh air with a few people.  We saw some people I knew pretty well then.  Some guy had come up with classical music on his bike also.

It was time to go after the organizer announced the prizes. As we packed our things, I told the sacramentans that my friend and I would ride with them to Alvord lake.  On the ride we discovered that it was Haight Ashbury Street Festival.  We rode down page and when we said buy to our friends they were trying to decide what to do about the crowd.

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.