Backtrack part deux... Up the coast from the other side.
It is true, I am in Charlottesville, VA now in the comfort of my home with my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephew Valdemar (my eldest brother Paul is coming in a few minutes from Copenhagen where he lives with my sister-in-law and Valdemar). I guess this trip is not just about our life as it happens in the company of each other, but what happens in our individual lives as well. This visit from the Danish part of my family is a once-in-a-never occurance, and something that I couldn't miss being a part of (heightened by the announcement of another niece or nephew on the way). So this is why I have parted ways with my love and companion for a few days and here I am oddly transported back to the East Coast by way of an 8 hour flight (rather than the four months it has taken us to drive there). Wierd.
Anyhow, I wanted to tell anybody still reading about an experience of LA that was at once completely unexpected and gratifying in a way that made me wonder: "Why dont more cities have something like this?"
We arrived in LA in the afternoon and spent much of the day between Malibu and Downtown, back to Malibu and back to downtown. For those who haven't been there Malibu is one of the nearest beach communities to downtown LA and it takes about an hour on the 12-lane freeway to get there when traffic is moving. It takes about two hours when it is not moving as we experienced coming back from the beach. The 12 lanes of pavement (large enough for a gigantic parade to walk down one side) was packed with brakelights taking the place of the sunset. We pulled off and decided to wait it out in a parking lot, rather than the defacto parking lot of the freeway. This happens daily and is the result of the fact that according to our host, Chuck: "Everybody in LA works someplace else".
When we got home from the beach, it was completely dark. It happened sometime while we looked at pumpkins in the parking lot and now we were ready for our next adventure. We were invited and enthusiastic to join "The Midnight Riders" with Chuck and friends. At ten thirty that night 8 of us set out on 8 bikes to seek out a monthly gathering of cyclists whose goal is to: 1) ride cycles 2) get together with as many other cyclists as possible 3) apolitically take over some streets of LA for a few hours 4) have a hell of a good time. We ride bikes and were happy to see others who do it too. We got a late start so had some catching up to do. Our first ten miles were spent with the 8 friends following Chuck towards the route. Eventually we found a couple of elderly stragglers who made our crew number 10. We knew we were getting close to the peleton when we saw a couple of flat tire repairs on the side of the road. And then it happened. Like a dream come true, we rode up a hill and the decible level increased exponentially and we were greeted by the backs of approximately 450 cyclists of all shapes, sizes, ages, experience, riding every sort of bike imaginable down the middle of the street amidst celebratory car horns and cheers of enthusiasm from the crowd. We rode ten more miles with the crew at a much slower pace as we finished out the ride at a "Dead Theater" in downtown. (Each ride has a theme, this one was "Dead Theater" so we rode 20 miles to 18 theaters around the area.)
This experience was a joy. It would have been such no matter where it occured, but in the midst of the car-culture-craziness that leads to 12 lane highways being clogged beyond capacity for hours each day, it felt like winning a battle with humor in the middle of the belly of the beast. LA is not known for its cyclists, perhaps it should be. Or, perhaps we should all take a page from their book organize every cyclist we know and do the same thing in whatever city we live. The key to this seemed to be laughter and good manners, as we all laughed at those who showed anger (rather than hitting their cars with our fists as I have been known to do) and thanked those who stopped with smile.
Midnight Riders. Midnight riders.
Anyhow, I wanted to tell anybody still reading about an experience of LA that was at once completely unexpected and gratifying in a way that made me wonder: "Why dont more cities have something like this?"
We arrived in LA in the afternoon and spent much of the day between Malibu and Downtown, back to Malibu and back to downtown. For those who haven't been there Malibu is one of the nearest beach communities to downtown LA and it takes about an hour on the 12-lane freeway to get there when traffic is moving. It takes about two hours when it is not moving as we experienced coming back from the beach. The 12 lanes of pavement (large enough for a gigantic parade to walk down one side) was packed with brakelights taking the place of the sunset. We pulled off and decided to wait it out in a parking lot, rather than the defacto parking lot of the freeway. This happens daily and is the result of the fact that according to our host, Chuck: "Everybody in LA works someplace else".
When we got home from the beach, it was completely dark. It happened sometime while we looked at pumpkins in the parking lot and now we were ready for our next adventure. We were invited and enthusiastic to join "The Midnight Riders" with Chuck and friends. At ten thirty that night 8 of us set out on 8 bikes to seek out a monthly gathering of cyclists whose goal is to: 1) ride cycles 2) get together with as many other cyclists as possible 3) apolitically take over some streets of LA for a few hours 4) have a hell of a good time. We ride bikes and were happy to see others who do it too. We got a late start so had some catching up to do. Our first ten miles were spent with the 8 friends following Chuck towards the route. Eventually we found a couple of elderly stragglers who made our crew number 10. We knew we were getting close to the peleton when we saw a couple of flat tire repairs on the side of the road. And then it happened. Like a dream come true, we rode up a hill and the decible level increased exponentially and we were greeted by the backs of approximately 450 cyclists of all shapes, sizes, ages, experience, riding every sort of bike imaginable down the middle of the street amidst celebratory car horns and cheers of enthusiasm from the crowd. We rode ten more miles with the crew at a much slower pace as we finished out the ride at a "Dead Theater" in downtown. (Each ride has a theme, this one was "Dead Theater" so we rode 20 miles to 18 theaters around the area.)
This experience was a joy. It would have been such no matter where it occured, but in the midst of the car-culture-craziness that leads to 12 lane highways being clogged beyond capacity for hours each day, it felt like winning a battle with humor in the middle of the belly of the beast. LA is not known for its cyclists, perhaps it should be. Or, perhaps we should all take a page from their book organize every cyclist we know and do the same thing in whatever city we live. The key to this seemed to be laughter and good manners, as we all laughed at those who showed anger (rather than hitting their cars with our fists as I have been known to do) and thanked those who stopped with smile.
Midnight Riders. Midnight riders.
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