Monday, April 23, 2018

Tweed Sacramento

On 25 February I wrote that the night before I got a few texts indicating they were expecting me in Alameda. I was nearly done by then. I grabbed a few things and went to Civic Center. I ended up on a Dublin train so I texted my friend from West Oakland to find out how to get to Alameda. I rode to Webster and took a bus to the island and bought a beer on the way.

There were drinks and food waiting for me. I ate greedily. My friend’s family was watching the last few days of the Olympics. They were not impressed with my comments. Everyone went to bed and the lights all went out one by one. I went to bed around midnight.

There was noise about 10 minutes before my alarm went off. I lay in bed until 630 and did what I could. At 6:40 I was ready to go. My friend was in charge by then. I grabbed my bike and at Webster had only a short wait before I made it to Oakland.

Once there I straightened myself out and headed to Blue Bottle. I pretty quickly figured out that I could have taken Webster. I sat nearly an hour and my phone had very little charge. I had 2 cups and then went to the station.

The train arrived soon enough. I had been texting my friend. When that had passed I shut the phone off and started writing a little after getting on my train. I finished writing as we passed through Davis. The bridge into Sacramento was interesting. I couldn’t follow the service carts through the station gates so I rode through the station passages.

I went up I Street to seventh and zigzagged to Wall Art Center. That was where Tweed Sacramento was meeting. I got coffee and tried to charge my phone. I had a meal a little later. People started showing up then. Some ladies asked me from a car passing by if it was the spot where the event would be meeting and I said I didn’t know.

There were a bunch of interesting outfits and personalities. The hostess was having a meal as I admired her bike. I was astonished at how early I was. When we got ready I visited Old Gold to look at vintage clothing.

We rode in a bit of a circle but headed past 20th and T to around 30th but then we circled through one or two business districts. There was one dead end street near the railroad tracks with islands in it that we passed through. By then I had fallen into conversation with one of my local acquaintances and the one League Cycling Instructor on the ride. While speaking to my acquaintance he asked about my friend’s whereabouts and I grilled the League Cyclist about Folsom Reservoir trails.

I had been doing maneuvers a bunch in here because the ride was slow moving. My conversations with the guys had been on the north side of Capital but we entered the Capital Mall from the south. I passed next to my other local acquaintance and told her that I was going for a walk by myself near the light rail tracks.
When I returned the hostess was just setting her blanket out next to a wonderful fashion designer from New Orleans and my acquaintances. They gave me a hot toddy and samosas. A bearded gentleman gave me some curry. The picnic was a hit. It felt like all the ladies gave me a sandwich. I had to get up to eat the cake and then we all went over the Capitol steps for a photo.

The ride host and I talked for a bit while we were passing the Yellow Ferry Bridge and over to our street on the old railroad bridge. We had to navigate around construction to get to the Shady Lady. I saw one of my local acquaintances and walked up to her while she was engaging the SF Tweed representative. I sat near them and engaged the two ladies across from me that were both wearing all pink to match their pink bikes.

I got a French 75 and the ladies sat discussing fashion and corsets. The designer was telling us about her move to New Orleans. The league cyclist and I looked at rocks along Folsom lake. I told the Sacramento Bike Party representative that I wanted to go to his next event. I spoke to a couple that I had met at SF Tweed while they engaged its representative. They were doing some organizing. The host told me that he was planning on attending the Gatsby Picnic.

Everyone went back to trading stories about fashion. I decided this was a great moment to order my second drink, so sat next to one of my local acquaintances. He introduced me to the bartender. When I finished my drink I said bye and rode away. I managed to catch the 5:40 pm Capital Train within five minutes of its departure.

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.

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