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Hello fellow Friday-lovers, I was looking forward to the 2007 STP ride this summer for many reasons – riding with both my brothers for the first time on a major tour, remembering my father who past away from cancer this past January and hoping to capture some of his spirit from his years of bike touring, especially DALMAC & RAGBRAI, drinking fine adult-beverages at the local brewpubs, but also to meet what I had hoped to be at least 100 other fellow Friday-riders. Being a ride with 9000 riders, I thought I would encounter entire pace-lines of small-wheeled compatriots. There were lots of tandems, recumbents, 2 dogs in trailers and even 1 daring fellow on the tallest unicycle I’ve ever seen. However, I saw just 4 other Bike Fridays out there – maybe there were more and I just didn’t see them (that’s what I hope at least). On these rare occasions when I did encounter others, there was a subtle acknowledgement that we were the ones really in the know (similar to touching the nose in “The Sting”) in addition to the friendly chit-chat. You should have seen all the huge bike boxes and dinged up cardboard bike boxes at the finish area. I for one was glad not to have to ship my pride and joy home in one of those. The ride itself was crowded (8,999 riders) but lots of fun. Perfect weather hovering between 60-80 the entire ride, good food, nice rolling hills, lots of friendly volunteers directing traffic out of our way and a fun friendly atmosphere at the end of each day. All in all a very fun time. I was a bit bummed out that I did not see other Fridays on the route but my faith was restored upon my return and seeing a Bike Friday tooling down the streets of Missoula fully loaded with panniers on what seemed to be a great adventure for its owner. For my first long ride on my Pocket Pilot*, it performed more than admirably. It was a joy to ride and I seemed to fly like an angel at some points in the ride. The attached pictures were taken on July 15, 2007 at the lunch break in Lexington Washington and feature me along with my 2 brothers in our “team” jerseys – no official team of course by any stretch of the word. I look forward to taking my trusty steed to Alaska in August, Hawaii in September and other worldwide destinations as they present themselves. Bob Lawrence * The Pocket Pilot has since been superceded by the trusty Pocket Rocket with the Pilot's removeable seatmast as an option |
