Halloween Scare

As my scarce blog posts indicate, life has been pretty busy lately. I have been working hard to adjust to my second job and apparent lack of free time. So when my mom asked me if she could come in town for Halloween weekend I looked forward to having an excuse to take some time off to hang out with family. When she arrived, she had brought a surprise early birthday present! A new bike!

We pulled it out of the car, but alas, we had no time to test ride because as soon as she arrived she had to come to work with me then joined me on a babysitting adventure, went with me to turn in a job application, took me shopping and for her birthday we spent an hour playing with clay on a wheel at Spark studios. Finally on Friday night we got all decked out for the monthly Midnight Mystery Ride (she was a gypsy and I was cookie monster) and I got to take my maiden voyage on my new (used) custom Cannondale road bike. You can check out a few sweet pics below:

Mom the gypsy and me as cookie monster.

A few of the riders including "Elliot" w/ET on the right :-)
Mom holding my old bike on the left and my new bike on the right

The ride was going gloriously… the weather was perfect, my mom was socializing with my friends, and there was a spark of excitement in the air. Bystanders cheered us on, gave us high fives, and honked their horns. Then, just as the ride was winding down, we passed by a group of drunken guys, one of which was standing in the street. As I approached him, he put up his hand for a high-five and I went for it. Before I knew it, he had grabbed a hold of my hand and I was thrown off of my bike. I heard him curse an apology before he faded into the crowd. I landed on my left side, sliding with my bike. Of course, the first time I fall of my bike, my mom is there to see it.

I had hit my elbow, head, hip, and both knees. I was not wearing a helmet but luckily I went down sideways and did not get knocked out. The funny part was that my guy friends adamantly wanted to know which guy had done it and were irritatedly pacing back and forth …dressed as a pregnant man and max from where the wild things are :-). But the last thing I wanted was for a fight to break out so I asked them to just keep going. My mom and I broke off from the group and went home to inventory and treat my injuries. And of course, I wanted to make sure my bike was okay ;-).

I got lucky that I did not break or tear anything… my biggest injury was a contusion on my right knee which is currently making it hard for me to walk, but I got an okay from the doctor. Looking back, I obviously should have been wearing a helmet, especially on an unfamiliar bike. And of course, even though I had done it three or four times already that night, I should not have of high fived that guy because he was waaaay too wobbly to be trusted and I was definitely too unsure on my new ride. Lesson learned. My punishment is that I cannot ride for at least a week and will not be able to participate in the Pedal Art Parade this weekend, but I consider myself very luck to walk away from this.

Stolen Bike

Dear borrower of my bike,

You left in such a hurry that I was unable to introduce myself last week! I am sure you had could reason to kick down my garden door in the process of trying to steal, oops, I meant “borrow” my mountain bike. I guess you had trouble finding the spare key I leave out for friends that need to use any of my things…I guess I shouldn’t hide it so well! It was very thoughtful of you to leave one bike behind for me, but I guess riding away with both bikes would have been a challenge.

Since you did not leave a note, I was forced to assume that my beloved blue vehicle was stolen and had to file a police report. But alas! I did not have my bike registered, so you are probably safe from the long arm of the law. You may want to peel off the stickers that denote my interest in activism and local non-profits, because that may be a red flag to others that it does in fact belong to me. If someone I know should happen to see you, I would brace yourself for a solid body check off the bike, because they may not realize that you are in fact just taking it out for a joy-ride.

While you are out on the town riding my 2006 Diamondback Outlook, light blue with a ladies sloping top tube, please make sure to ring my prized clear jelly-bell with enthusiasm! If you should find yourself getting bored of using my trusty steed, please feel free to give me a call at work and I will be happy to pick it up from you: (843) 768-0998. If you are the shy type and want to be more discrete, you can always drop it back by my house, since you already know where I live!

If you decide that you want to borrow it on a long term basis, then I might start harboring some negative feelings about this transaction and be forced to hunt you down. Although the police officer handling the file said that you were probably going to be hard to find, I ride all over town and know plenty of fellow bikers that would be more than happy tackle you off the two-wheels you so abrasively stole. But again, I don’t want to assume the worst, my friend!

Your gracious neighborhood bike lender,

Nikki

Intermodal

After having caught a lot of negative feedback from local residents, CARTA has been making headlines lately in a good way. Their newest adventure is the proposed North Charleston Regional Intermodal Center which will expand existing services and could potentially serve as a one stop shop for Amtrak, Greyhound, local buses, and even light rail! If you have thoughts on this project, CARTA will be hosting a public information meeting regarding the proposed Center at the North Charleston City Hall, 3rd Floor Buist Room, 2500 City Hall Lane, N. Charleston, SC on Thursday, 10/08/09 from 6PM to 8PM. My first suggestion... pick a sexier name.

For a full article click HERE.

In other bus news...those of you that have not heard, CARTA, Charlestons Bus company, has started a trial line from Downtown to Folly Beach. Click HERE for the map. For now, the route is only runs on weekends and will be ending in two weeks on the 18th.

And last but definitely not least- one bus service that I have left out of my blog is the Tri-County Link. This bus runs to all of the places that are beyond the reach of the CARTA system in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. I have never used this system, but I think it might be time to try and ride it to work!

http://www.ridetricountylink.com/index.html

Red Light PSA

World Car-free Day

Bike + Beer

What could be better than bikes? Bikes and Beers? Only if they are gluten free beers for me :-) This picture above is from Amsterdam... if you want something on our continent, just check out this one in Portland by clicking HERE.