critical mass a bust?

Well, I was scheduled to work until 4pm, the meet up time
for critical mass is 5:15, with a plan to leave at 5:30.
I knew I'ld get pulled into an extra hour of work, then
it looked like another hour. Are you kidding me? Twelve
hours with a fifteen minute break? No, I'm out after
eleven hours of this BS.

Great, by the time I'm "suited up", and a couple of crappy
remarks from the boss and coworkers - I'm out! Now I have
fifteen minutes to make the 20-25 minutes ride to the meeting
spot. And I get holiday traffic on top of it. The irony I
realise is the most hostile drivers are moms in mini vans.
Funny lady, what would YOU do if someone ran down YOUR
husband?



So somehow I make it to the park at 5:35, but I see blinkies!!
Two out of towners who heard about CM and actually pulled
themselves away from family to ride into town. Awesome. But
where are the locals? So we just chatted while the park set
up for the drive through Festival of Lights. So great ideas
of being car free, the differences of CM in other cities,
urban planning, and the potential in this city for commuting
(and HOW FEW commuters there are). God! It sounds boring, like
a bunch of IT guys talking work at a bar. But that's what bike
geeks do....



We decided to ride through the festival. You can't charge
cyclists, only cars. But, you can just kick cyclists out I
guess. The guy came across as a straight up redneck with his
cohort son, and I didn't even bother questioning his logic
or authority. Just head up the hill and cut into the path,
problem solved. I'll definately come back with less traffic
and especially when it snows.....

I took our guests through a loop of downtown and then out to
the coffee shop where CM usually ends, but no riders there?
So we left one at the coffee shop, and headed back into town
with a slower guided tour of the main street and some places
to drink and eat, then back to the park. That guy and his
son were pretty annoyed on my fourth pass by as I headed
home, sorry.... BUT IT IS A PUBLIC PARK!

I don't know what happened to critical mass this month...
but every day is a critical mass of one. So we're good.
And two people got to see the town. Thanks guys.