Our ride to Philz Coffee hardly took any time at all and we had an overflowing bus. Gerry Gras (pictured below), the TransCon cycling veteran who lives with Dans St. George, the cheery woman who let us keep the Busycle in her driveway
after the city red tagged us a little over a week ago, expertly drove for us the whole way. He even had Dana and Sharon Trost, the high powered, nationally certified nurse from Kansas, helping him with the size of our berth. They kept him appraised of how far their legs were from the parked cars. But that's getting a bit ahead of the story.As we were setting up, Lisa Maloney arrived with not just her 10 year old son Quinn, but two other women and two more kids. Wow. And David, the retired fireman, who had stopped to help us move the Bus just a few days before, was not only there but he told me he was friends with Paul Gutenberg, from up in Davis! It is some of Paul's cheers we use even today. Cheers that Dana led today from the Busycle megaphone.
But back to Paul. He and I had just finished talking on the cell phone when David arrived. Paul had wanted to know if we needed help as he was on his way down from Davis. Paul is the airplane pilot I talk about in the Napa to Davis part of my my SF to Salt Lake blog who "nursed' me back to health after I was peeing blood from drinking toooo much water (I would not discover the cause for my red urine until I reached Elko, NV) . He let me stay in his beautiful home next to a bike path for a day of rest as he also cooked me a great dinner and let me eat what I wanted from his kitchen and shower myself and also use his washer and dryer.
What's more, is that Paul knows the long road. It wasn't long ago that he power pedaled across the US. His TransCon was a 4000 mile journey that he did for his pilot and flight attendant friends who died in the 911 disaster. He did so in an astonishing 30 days!! As well, he regularly rides Davis to LA in 3 days time. That's 600 miles one way!!
He also knows that to do long rides in a way that gets worthy promotional exposure, healthy chunks of dough are required. Toward that end, Paul is helping me to get the auction together for three beautiful life size bicycle art pieces, one of which looks like this.
What has stalled this project is our inexperience with on line auctioning. Is there anyone out there who knows EBay well enough that they can help us in this regard? Or for that matter, we are also wondering if there is a better way/place to conduct this exchange of goods?
There was one tiny driving snafu. Gerry made a left where he didn't hear me ask him to make a right. And because of this, a few people couldn't find us. Sorry Dierdre, JohnE, Catherine and Kelly. They had the route I had given them and were going to meet us along that way. But as serendipity would have it, we did happen upon a really huge and fun garage sale where we stopped and browsed around. And a few of our riders were excited to find and buy treasure.
This as Dan Kotke's (Apple employee #1 who still comes and rides the Busycle with us) friend, Greg entertained everyone with his mastery of the Segway scooter that he brought along. He showed us some of what those things can do and how they are not just walking aids for the commuters of this world. He was ripping up on that thing with zigs ad zags and tilts and spins that were fun to watch. I wanted to wonder at his tricks too but I had a Busycle to watch over and a HiWheel bike that always demands that I pay her strict attention.
Indeed we must have been quite the sight. I was on my Eagle HiWheel, John Oleary was on his Rideable Replica penny, Greg was on his Segway and we had as many as 4 and 5 people walking along as they waited for someone to want a break from the Busycle. And we even saw Emily Young twice today! Once when we stopped at her house and she heard 15 of us calling. "We want Emily!" and once again at Philz when she came to pick up her husband Steve Branz (pictured second from end in the picture just above), the hard driving road biker who rode with us who also happens to be one of the deans at San Jose State.
Arnold didn't hear us when we called for him at his house. But he must have heard us all the way over in Mountain View as he was there at their Art and Wine Fest when we stopped at his residence. In his 70's, Arnold, who doesn't bother with the internet, still figured out that there was something going on at Philz! Even though it was not on his way back home, he still came by to say hello once we did arrive! And when he did, he was surprised to hea
r we had been looking for him!
Below, you will find some of the video that John Oleary shot of our ride. And once we did arrive, the Philz Coffee people welcomed us with open arms. After everyone stayed aboard to help us jockey the Busycle into the one parking spot we took up in their parking lot, Brianna came out and took our drink orders and then when they were ready, she brought them out to each of us individually. The tea I ordered was probably the best iced tea I have ever drank. And I heard many others say that their tea or their coffee was unique and tasty. All on the house!!
Thank you Philz We look forward to doing a bunch of rides from your spirited location on Middlefield here at Loma Verde in Palo Alto. And we've even got John Oleery looking into a canopy for our machine and Larry Shapiro is going to get us a feel for what is out there in the way of a car cover. For which we finally got you, Larry, the measurements you need: 20' long, 8' wide, 8' feet tall.
btw: Robbie Benson, a former rugby player who might be playing some Saturday football with me, was also with us the whole day as was Mimi Wolf, a long time Busycle veteran and Busycle tarp repair specialist . And even JohnE Cabrera did ultimately find us, Almost in characteristic fashion, At the end of the day!! Plus, in the email I got from bike commuter Dierdre Macmahon. She remains committed to some day getting a ride on our magic Busycle !!
Do stay tuned for updates and additions to any thing I may have overlooked.
THX 4 all of U!!
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