Coolest Thing I've Seen in 100 Days

6.16.2014 17m #218

Started at the Bastille with K. Happily encountered MC and M on a Father's Day ride. As we left the prison complex, there's a very old, disused concrete wall between the trail and the river and hidden behind the wall somebody was playing the bagpipes. Rode around the North Shore, crossed the 6th Street Bridge, rode under the Convention Center and ate some more June Berries, aka Shad Berries, aka Service Berries. nom-nom-nom.

Rode to Point State Park, checked out the Arts Festival just a little bit. Took in a show by the Squonk Opera, very awesome. In the middle of the performance there was a bagpipe player, I wonder if we'd heard him warming up earlier on the Ohio River.

Went over to where BikePgh was providing valet bike parking services and saw the coolest thing I've seen in at least 100 days. A homeless man with his possessions in a shopping cart wanted to check his cart and walk around the festival, just like everybody else was checking their bikes. The BikePgh folks (staff and volunteers) treated him just like everybody else, never blinked or balked just checked his cart and he went about his way. That was soooo cool.

K registered her bike in the BikePgh "I Heart My Bike" program, where they record a photograph, the frame number, and digital info about the owner and the bike in an online database for easy retrieval in case of bike theft. Awesome with all-Caps.

Rode to the Smithfield Street Bridge, took the Southside Trail to Big Dog Coffee for iced-coffee goodness. Returned via Jail Trail. Decided to penetrate Point State Park and the Ft. Duquesne Bridge, realized that meant walking the bike in the ArtsFestival-FathersDay-NiceDay crowd.

I thought the situation was well behaved with all the people, all the babies and carriages, all the bicyclists. I thought is was well behaved even with the Pedicabs, and even when the Segway tour came up on the Ft. Duquesne bridge. I knew it was a bit beyond the normal parameters when the two people riding the Vespa motorscooter came up on the Ft. Duquesne ped-bike path - that was so idiotic.

Back to the vehicle, no casualties. 17 miles.