January Mass

I made spoke cards for Critical Mass, figured turnout would be good since it was 61ºF. In January, yep.

I was right, I gave out 120 spoke cards (I'd made two designs so a lot of folks got a pair), but still. I was out before a lot of my good friends showed up. Which was fine, that freed my hands up to terrorize people with my Nikon and have a beer.

As usual there was a good contingent of tourists. I don't mean that derisively, but there are regulars who show up for Mass pretty consistently, there are sporadic folks who make it once or twice a year, but there's a lot of folks who make it a one-off experience. I guess kind of like Rocky Horror or skydiving, it's a bucket list thing for some people, something to try.

And that's fine. I hope they enjoyed the experience, it seemed like they did. I wouldn't say Critical Mass is exactly kid-friendly but there were plenty of kids there.

We went through the Plaza, to Loose Park for a stop. Stopped at the Scout after a pretty long, for Mass, ride out east. Another stop at Royal Liquor on the Boulevard for the part that didn't head back to Westport from the Scout, then me and two KCK homies meandered back to KCK while the remaining dozen or so headed, I think, to the river overlook.

And my friend Sam said something I really appreciated. I'd noticed he followed me on Strava and gave me kudos on my rides a lot. I tend to think about all the times I say fuck it I want that extra hour of sleep, especially if it's cold and rainy or I expect a lot of ice on the roads (I fall with the grace and resilience of a bag of empty beer bottles). I have my 100 mile weekly goal but even with RAGBRAI and Bike MS and stuff I didn't make 5,000 miles last year. So I tend to think I don't ride that much.

And he was like, dude, you ride all the time. You ride no matter the weather. Seeing what you do makes me ride more.

I had no idea I was inspiring to anyone.