Bicycle Tours and Alleycats in Hartford this Weekend

The second Annual CCBA Discover Hartford Bicycling and Walking Tour is this Saturday, September 13th. We had 1200 people ride the tour last year and it was a blast! Check in and Registration opens at 7:00am,Tour starts at 9:15am. This is an anti-sprawl, pro fun, pro sustainable city, anti pollution, anti-couch potato, pro bicycle, pro pedestrian event.
Check the link for more info, pics and video from last year and last minute registration info.

There is also a Friday night $5 pre-ride pasta dinner and celebration @ the Bushnell Park Cafe located in the southeast corner of the park. Drink specials too! And live music! This sounds like a great way to start a wonderful weekend in Hartford. See you in Bushnell Park!


if yer hardcore...

Then, after the tour take a rest and relax...and then, if yer hardcore enough, ride F'n hard and fast til you wanna puke @ the Hartford Alleycat 4 race. I almost puked last year from riding too hard and well, i reakon that tobassco shot i had to shoot at a checkpoint early on didn't help matters much either.

Sponsors include: Manhattan Portage Messenger Bags, Baileyworks Bags, and PBR.

Register @ 60 Evergreen Avenue backyard. 6pm start. Ride safe, Ride fast. I'll be rockin' the Gunnar and protecting my dome. I think TJ's even gonna ditch the fixie and ride with brakes and gears on his Bianchi and try and dust Valdez. This is gonna be a crazy-ass competitive race. Krash, the only way you are beating me is if I flat out...sucka!


The afterparty/show will be at South Whitney House @ 8pm. HipCops, the 40's. Oil Tanker and one more TBA. Bring some loot to donate to the show. Proceeds go to Recycle a Bike in New Britain. Read more!

The Sandpit of Death Clean-up

before the clean-up!


after the clean-up!

This is the Sandpit of Death if you are riding a bicycle on the pedestrian sidewalk and bridge connecting Bushnell Park to the LOB/Armory area. Well, pedestrian except for the all the various police cars that drive across the narrow bridge! The soft sand has been threatening many a riders’ balance for years now, but it’s gotten much worse in the past few weeks. Many of us have almost busted our asses here lately, especially with skinny tires! I made a spur of the moment plea via texts and emails Sunday afternoon to friends while eating lunch at JoJo’s on Pratt Street. As fate would have it, Maureen had ridden through the sand only minutes earlier and thought someone was gonna bite it soon there. She and Hanna volunteered to help out at 6pm! Good on ya, mates!


We met up at my house for a beer and some delicious homegrown salad. We happily packed up my bike with a snow shovel, a heavy metal rake, one spade shovel, 2 brooms and a pickaxe garden hand tool thingee.


Here’s me, Hanna and Maureen taking a break as a Statey watches us from his cruiser in front of the LOB parking garage. We were certainly not looking for attention, but figured, due to the location between Amtrak and the National Guard, we’d be getting harassed. But up to this point, no one had paid us any attention and he soon drove off without a word.

There was a whole lot more dirt and sand than we had realized. Most of it was at least a few inches thick and the middle half was all 3-4 inches thick with a very solid bottom layer. We had a bit of an assembly line going for the thicker parts. First the heavy metal rake or spade shovel was used to loosen it up. Next was the snow shovel to move the stuff to the edge of the sidewalk. Most often the above was repeated, as the dirt was quite stubborn. Finally the broom whisked away the remaining dust. And it was quite dusty indeed.

Hanna and Maureen helped with most of the job before leaving due to dinner plans. Helder of Mira Hartford passed by with his doggy minutes later as I was continuing with the work. Soon after that we were joined by the Statey who pulled up to us in his cruiser, got out and walked over to us.

Click Read More for the rest of the story and more pics!




The officer walked up politely and asked what I was doing. I explained that the dirt and soft sand had made the sidewalk super dangerous for bicycles and a few calls to 311 had not gotten the walkway cleaned (311 is a city services phone line). I mentioned the situation had gotten considerably worse in the last few weeks. He agreed that skinny tires were super sketchy on that type of service and asked, “ And so y’all just decided to clean it up yourselves?”
“Yeah, pretty much” I answered, “We’re sick of almost bustin’ our asses here!”
He laughed and explained he had seen us and needed to check it out and left with a smile. No worries, no problems! I had also worn my 2007 CCBA Discover Hartford Tour t-shirt…perhaps that gave me the bicycle cred I needed!


I pretty much finished it up except for some very damp, sticky dirt that wouldn’t move easily. It’ll dry up in the sun manana and then be easy to scrape and sweep away.


This kid passed by Hanna, Maureen and I on a scooter. This would not have been possible an hour earlier due to all the sand! Great job guys!


Here’s the next mission. I will call 311 again on Tuesday and see what happens. There is quite a bit of sand on the lower right side of the bridge where water tends to pool up due to drainage issues. Also, both sides of the bridge sorely need a sweeping. The whole bridge would benefit from a sweepin’ actually. Hopefully the city can send over that sweet street sweeper gator thing and make it happen.

Mad thanks to Hanna and Maureen for all their help with the hardest, thickest and most brutal part of the battle with the sand monster. Helder pushed a broom for a bit until his doggy protested with much vocal vigor. My landlord, Mary Lee unknowingly helped as I used a broom from the garage and Joey Babaganoush unknowingly hooked us up with a snow shovel.

UPDATE TUESDAY, SEPT 2ed.

here is the email i sent to 311:
Good morning,

The sidewalk and bridge connecting Bushnell Park with the Armory and LOB is in need of a very good sweeping. There is much dirt, sand and broken glass along the walkway.

There are also two spots with drainage issues, that will continue to cause a sand problem after it rains, the southwest end of the bridge and the sidewalk along the armory.

If possible, could the larger cracks in the sidewalk also be repaired. It is easy to trip on them while walking and can damage bicycle wheels.

Thank you for making the city cleaner and safer for cyclists.

William


Read more!

ride daily, celebrate monthly...or all the time!!!

Start friday morning with a ride to The Old State House for Bike to Work and enjoy a free breakfast of coffee, juice, bagels, bananas and other tastey morning goodness from 7am to 9am. Mingle with other commuters, check out bikes and loiter around as long as you can get away with! tell yer boss yer late cuz of a flat! mmm....bananas!


Need a fun ride after work? its Critical Mass! Meet at the Bushnell Park Carousel 5:30pm. This informal ride leave a little after 6pm and wanders around for about an hour and a half. Where? There's talk of going to East Hartford. Or the farm-made icecream spot in Bloomfield on Cottage Grove Road. Bring yer ideas, bells, whistles, energy and have a great time. Always an afterparty somewhere!

Come earlier to try out some bike polo, sez Dave M, "“Pre-Mass Mallet Bash” - jumpstart your c-mass ride while wielding a mallet and netting some fun trying up bike polo. 5:00pm in the field near the Carousel."
wow, that's alot of "quotation" marks!

next month has some really big events mid month, again both on the same day!
The CCBA's Discover Hartford Bike and Walking Tour is Saturday, September 12. Last year about 1200 people had a great time on the tour, don't miss it this year! Sign up and more info on the website!


but save yer legs, cuz that same night is Hartford Hardcore 4! The 4th year of one of the best alleycats in the city. We were easy on y'all with last month's Wear Yer Rubber's race, Sean and company will not be so nice! good luck suckas! ride fast, ride safe. Read more!

Carribean Nights, Mighty Sparrows and Beach (Goldfish) Parties

El Prez and I pedaled downtown Saturday night to the Carribean Festival to eat dinner and check out some music. We unexpectedly passed Krash as he was leaving an ATM with a lovely purse. Priceless! Krash and Wizzzzy had biked down for Coldplay and were about to cross the street and enter the Civic Center for the concert. El Prez and I continued on to Constitution Plaza and locked up our bikes behind the food vendors and seeked out food, delicious West Indian food.


The roti, chicken and pumpkin curry was good, but the Mighty Sparrow was great! Dang! This dude was getting down in his matching purple shorts and shirt and what looked to be black dress socks and shoes! He had been paying much attention to a pair of ladies sitting infront when one of them jumped up and whined on him something wonderful. woo-haa! Lady had some skills!


T’was a great night for music under the stars and mad people came out to enjoy the evening. We met up with Bianca and her friend and decided to check out Sue’s Soire over at Hartford 21. It was a beach themed party. I was wearing a guaberra and el prez had a bottle of rum and a recycled beach ball. We were all prepeared…or so we thought!


El Pres del Lincoln! The party was pretty bangin'.These people were partying! Live band, yummy food and a swimsuit dance that left many in bathing suits dancing and prancing about the room. Krash, Wizzzzy and two friends came by after the concert and joined in the dancing, pool and pinball machines.


Before the jump and in reckless abandonment of keeping tings chronological, I gave Bianca a ride to her car in the North End on my bike post party. I can still hear her saying, "Don't kill me!" as we turned onto Main Street balancing as best we could.


And that’s most of the story…but then there’s the goldfish!





Rum, goldfish and cameras! a winning combination, especially when catching fish in your mouth becomes the most important challenge in life! I outlined the flying goldfish with bluefish because some are hard to see. Some were caught, some got away!


Too low of a throw for wizzzzyy!


I'm gonna say i ate that little fishy!


Good job Krash!


Bianca's got it!





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Get out and ride somewhere!

The beatbikeblog’s day by day, play by play calendar for a mad busy week of great events. Wow. Summer is in full MF’n effect! Lots going on, great rides, parties, food and people. Check it:

Tuesday

Bicycle Commuting Clinic
July 22, 2008, 7:00 to 8:00 PM REI West Hartford
Want to refresh the basics of commuting on your bicycle. Enjoy the
summer weather and reduce the amount you drive your car by commuting to
work and around town on your bicycle! This July 22nd from 7-8pm will be
reviewing safety, equipment, rules of the road, defensive riding, and
how to pick an appropriate commuting route with Central Connecticut
Bicycle Alliance member Dave Enos. Please join us for this very
important clinic that is geared to keeping you safe on the roads.
Space is limited please call REI customer service to reserve your spot today
860-233-2211. This clinic is free and open to the public.Bike Commuter Clinic


Wednesday

Critical Splash @ Goodwin Park Pool 6-7:45pm
Julie sez, “Celebrate adult swim hours and assert our adult swimmers’ rights!”
Organized by Julie from liveinhartford.com cool off, swim laps, chit, chat, enjoy the hot summer night with some new and old friends. There’s no charge and be prepared to hand over all belongings to an attendant of the storage area.
More Details here!


Thursday

Farmers’ Market @ Billings Forge 11am – 2pm
Broad St. 2 buildings south of Capitol Ave.
buy fresh! buy local! Corn, pies. fruits, meats, eggs, cheese,
and live music too!
Farmers' Market at Billings Forge

Friday

Bike to Work @ the Old State House 7am – 9am
A free monthly breakfast organized by the CCBA for bike commuters in the middle of downtown that attracts about 100 people. Wake up with coffee, drink some juice, make a bagel or eat some fruit. There’s always a great spread and lots of mingling, smiling and stories to share. There’s a raffle too with great prizes like tents, sleeping bags and other goodies. Don’t forget to grab some flyers, stickers and schwag.
This month’s sponsored by Healthy Gears
Bike to Work

Critical Mass. meet at 5:30pm, Bushnell Park Carousel.
It’s the last Friday of the month! Celebrate with riders around the world for this global, grassroots celebration. Join a hundred of your newest friends on a ride around the city at a chill pace for about an hour and a half. Check old posts to see past rides. This summer’s rides have been wonderful, especially last month’s meandering through Keney Park.
Anything can happen!
http://critical-mass.info/

Saturday

Wear Yer Rubbers! alleycat race.
5:30pm register for race, volunteer for checkpoints @ Bushnell Park Carousel.
6:00pm race starts
This will not be a short, fast race; expect to pedal fast and long!
prizes include: messenger bags from Manhattan Portage, Ghostship clothing, schwag, condoms, water bottles, and special love for DFL.
race ends/afterparty backyard 364 Laurel st.

Bike Everywhere! to Bloomfield
Meet at Elizabeth Park at high noon and seek out some lunch. Then pedal to Bloomfield to tour to the Hooker Brewery and sample some tasty beverages. The tour costs $5. see links for more info.
Bike Everywhere!


LoRes Fest 3.0
A whirlwind weekend of community video fun in Connecticut’s Capital City.
Make your own short video in Hartford! In 24 hours! No experience or equipment needed. Watch yours and other LoRes videos at the 3rd Annual Hartford InternationalFilm Festival in November!

Friday, July 25 to Sunday, July 27 LoRes Fest ‘08 Headquarters: Red Rock Tavern, 369 Capitol Avenue, Hartford. Registration- $50 ($60 after July 23)-includes video equipment and LoRes Fest ’08 DVD

For more information and to register contact info@capitolcinemacollective.org or (860) 830-6222.

don't read more...ride more! Read more!

Busy Bicycle Calendar!

I missed the CCBA general meeting last night due to a work shift, but there is much going on the next few days...the next week actually! Check out these events:

Tonight! Thursday, July, 17th:
Bike Everywhere! to Happy Hour!
Prospect Café, Corner of Park & Prospect
Eat, Drink and be Merry! socialize,
talk bikes, talk beer, its all good!
this will also be a Bike Everywhere monthly meeting.

perhaps a jaunt to RAW for CCH afterwards?

Friday, July 18th. 7pm FREE
Bicycle Movie Night @ Eastern Mountain Sports in West Hartford
We’re Not Blocking Traffic, We Are Traffic, a Critical Mass Documentary and a 2ed undecided movie, we'll vote on it! Action packed mountain biking? another film on bicycles around the world? we'll vote!
free waterbottles to all who arrive on bicycle!

Saturday, july 19th. 10AM
Summer Cycling Celebration
East Rock Park, New Haven!
Time Trial Hill Climb, events
bring yer fast bike, sweet bike,
old bike, first bike, just go!!
http://www.thedevilsgear.com/calendar/summercyclingceleb/

next week? REI bicycle commuter clinic, bike to work, critical mass and an alleycat race! Read more!

Long weekend at the beach!

I established a sweet homestead last weekend at the beach for four days and nights and had a wonderful procession of friends drop by for a night or two or just a few hours. We biked to beaches, paddled to secluded beaches, paddled at night and ate like royalty thanks to Joel and Kristen who really hooked it up! I also took hardly any photos, but did spend some time pedaling around Mystic on my way home Monday afternoon and took this:


I always really liked this pub, but its been a few years and i didn't remember the bikes and the sign. very funny. I reakon the bikes would be a great bike rack too! well done!


My hand was still healing with stitches and it wasn't supposed to get wet; which as you might imagine, is a bit of a problem when spending time at the beach! I used a plastic glove and lots of tape the first few days and later went rawdog and just patted it dry when splashed. no worries! but no swimming either :(

more after the break, but its not bicycle related. well yeah, maybe it is! a chunk of wood in the fire was brought home on my bicycle returning fron the beach. i had to ride bow-legged as the log was like 8 feet long and bungied to my crate, extending along my top-tube infront of the bike as well sticking out the back for several feet!

Read More!



We should have a blog tag for Joel and his meat. that dude is always doing great things with steak!


Marisa spotted this buoy floating and we all watched it for like an hour until it got close enough to shore for me to grab. The whole thing came alive after being out of the water for a few minutes. If all of southern Rhode Island is wiped out from some creatures from the deep...its all my fault...sorry y'all!

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Saturday Evening’s Thunderstorm

The sudden addition of pea-sized hail to the light rain distracted me from my book with all its bouncy pings and dings, especially on the metal roofs of cars. Dark storm clouds dominated the sky but several stark patches of light fought to shine through making for some amazing light. The hail ceased as quickly as it appeared and the rain continued on, keeping the same beat the whole time, though the clouds slowly grew thicker and the sky darker.


Not more than twenty minutes later I glanced out my back window and fire escape door to see a rainbow and the Beat’s skyline bathed in some wonderful light. I shot this picture from the fire escape in a cool, light sprinkle. It really doesn’t come close to the colors of the whole sky and the rich, warm ambient light was amazing! A small section of a second rainbow faintly appeared on the outer side for a few minutes.



I grabbed my bag, threw on my rain jacket and pedaled down Capitol Avenue towards the pedestrian bridge into Bushnell Park and then meandered through the park and up to the parking lot of the Capitol Building. I really like photographing the struggle between human-made infastructure and nature.

Retracing my tracks back into Bushnell Park I continued east, out of the park, across Main Street and onto Constitution Plaza to check out the roof of the new Science Center. If anyone knows why the construction company and the state didn’t build this and the Convention Center OVER i91, instead of next to it, please let me know. We’re they really trying to showcase the beauty of the interstate while at the same time keeping the riverfront separated from the new buildings by hundreds of thousands of speeding cars?



Well, atleast the view west towards the Old State House from the plaza where it bridges over State Street was a bit more scenic. I wish I coulda exposed this a bit less to capture the deep color of the sky. It was a great time to pedal around aimlessly under an amazing sky and feel cool, delicious air and no sticky humidity. mmmm……cool, delicious air. Read more!

Vermont

Johanna and I went to Vermont this weekend:

This is not Savoy Mountain State Forest. This is some regrettable deforestation in Glover, VT.

On the way up we stopped at Savoy Mountain State Forest. We went for a ride on the fire roads that go through the forest. They were pleasant and it appears that there are more involved trails for mountain biking. Johanna's Lotus, while looking cool with cross tires and having some cyclocross bike characteristics, will never stop being a road bike. Thus, it's tough for it to ride around with rocks and mud. If only the bike we looked at last Friday wasn't so gigantic. The picture below is of Balanced Rock. Johanna is in the process of unbalancing the rock.

Afterwards, we continued on to North Adams to go the opening of Badlands at Mass MoCA. It was pretty awesome, with an even awesomer book designed by Dan McKinley, though the good art definitely helped in the book he made. It was very important for us to stop at the opening. The show is about the contemporary landscape. We spent the entire weekend exploring the landscape.

That evening, after the opening, we soldiered on to Vermont.

I've heard many things about Kingdom Trails in East Burke. The first is that it costs money. That part kind of sucks. The second is that it's really good. It's true. It was very much worth its $10. Look how happy I am after about 90 minutes of riding:

There are lots of nicely banked switchbacks, twisty singletrack, things going up, and things going down. They are also very well maintained trails, in the sense they are technical, but not so technical that there are not a lot of things that would cause one to crash. The hills are bigger in Vermont than they are in Connecticut, so after 4 1/2 hours of riding I was pretty tired:

There was about one more mile of singletrack after the above picture and I spilled out on this road, which had a nice view of where I'd been:

There was a Mountain bike race this weekend in Vermont in West Fairlee, which is about 90 minutes from Johanna's cottage. That would have cost me $25, was shorter, and would have required me to get up at 5am. I'm happy with my decision. Read more!

The 5 Boro Walk Your Bike Tour

The Beat was well rep’d this past weekend by a hardy group of current and former Hartford peoples converging in the rotten apple in what was prolly the most blogged event in the long, extinguished history of the Triple B. Woo-haa!

El Cinco Burros! There is far too much to think of organizing into a digestible meal of a post; so instead I shall cook up a stew free of high-fructose corn syrup and full of beer and pedaling…lots of pedaling. I suppose about now is a good time to explain that the 5 Boro Bike Tour is a 42mile car free ride with 30,000 of your closest friends though all five boroughs of NYC including riding on the FDR, the BQE, and crossing the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. In case you can’t do the math, that’s over 60,000 bicycle wheels spinning and avoiding NYC potholes!

El Presidente de China has well educated y’all about the ride from the Beat to Dirty Water, so I’ll just curse him one last time for that one massive hill and mention again…shorter isn’t always better; like cock size for example. Otherwise, besides the evil hill, and Klan drive, the ride was pretty nice and scenic. Doing 30mph down a hill through the Waterbury ghetto is also worth a mention I reckon.


In this exciting photo one can barely see the bikes of Chill Will and El Prez de Cheeenay with all the action going on riding the train to Bridgeport. Though no accommodations for bikes, this train was all good. On the train from B-Port to NYC we had them in the middle doorway of the car which was a pain depending which door opened. The idea of spending a few days in the city with my bike and living out of my messenger bag made me as happy as the lack of Metro-North in Hartford pisses me off. Amtrack sucks. Go fuck yourself with your overpriced tickets!!!!

Upon arriving at Grand Central we were greeted by Shoupy, the Shoup Shoupsta! I am not sure if he rode there from Ann Arbor, but he very well might have. El Prez decided against the formal motorcade and instead bombed the crap outta Broadway; speeding through the traffic, checking cabs and leading us quickly and dodge-ily to the Brooklyn Bridge. We soon split, to meet up later; as I was going with Shoup to Park Slope to his friend Megan’s apartment, who was hooking us up with a spot to crash. Thanks again Megan, good lookin’ on the couch…very comfy! And puffin' on the rooftop was sweeeet!


Shoupy and I met up with el Prez much later in Bed-Stuy at a party with some of el Prez’s administration, lots of bikers, assorted hipsters, and three fireman with large iron tools suitable for hunting wild boar. We drank, talked and tried not to inhale burning particle board before retiring early as we were to assemble the Beat Crew at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge at 6:45AM the next morning. Shoupy and I arrived at 7:15AM the next morning! Our crew of about a dozen soon took off for lower Manhattan.


Lots of people. This was the first taste of the 5 Boro Walk Your Bike Tour. As the day progressed the sun burned away all the clouds…and a few faces too I imagine. The day turned out wonderful.





Real men wear leg warmers. Later, in a bizarre twist, Shoupy removed his shorts and finished the tour in bike shoes, leg warmers, a hand-carved wooden cod piece from Turkey and his tour vest. Sexy? Yes, of course! But somewhat disturbing to the elderly and those younger than them.


A media circus surrounded El Presidente de China through most of Queens and was quite a spectacular sight. I was harassed for my crate of bootlegged bananas that I was selling 3 for $10 or one for free.


Welcome to Brooklyn! Woo-haa! I had a freakin’ good time chillin’ here the night before as well as the ride through on the tour. The only sucky thing was walking my bike for 45minutes in a bicycle traffic jam on the Bronx-Queens Expressway where four lanes became one. This was where the ride officially became the 5 Boro Walk Your Bike Tour. The car traffic jam on the other side was moving more quickly! The trike next to me had a louder stereo system than the cars! It was total fuckin' bizzaro world!!!

Eventually we were able to pedal again and riding on the highway along the water with a cool breeze felt great. Crossing on the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge is always super cool. Guinness and grinders at the irish pub was even better.


Taking pictures of groups of three on a ferry always has funny results. See above!


And again if you need further proof!



Much, much later, after learning the 7:20 train didn’t exist and I’d be taking a 9:07train back to CT, I decided to scoot on down to the west-side to watch the sun set over Dirty Jersey on the Hudson. I soon found myself pedaling unexpectedly through Times Square. Sunset, libations and a chance to rest and relax on the riverfront was a wonderful way to finish my visit to NYC.

On the train ride back from Bridgeport to Dirty Water I had to again store my bike in the middle doorway of the car, but this time the conductor made everyone get out the end doors and never opened the middle doors. Thanks dude! Metro-North is pretty good. Amtrack, not so good.



Read more!

Weekend

The Aetna Viaduct is boring and lame, so I'm glad that's over.

This weekend that just happened was neither boring, nor lame. In fact, it probably had the nicest weather of the year so far and the trees were starting to bud. I was so strongly moved by this that I had to start my weekend early by leaving work at 1 on Friday.

As you can see, mountain biking made me very happy. I tried to get a picture of my bike smiling, but you can't really tell from that picture. However, the picture does show that I indeed have a bicycle that is in the woods and that it has lame bar ends. I'm supposed to be in a race next Sunday with those bar ends. I'm sure they're one of the reasons that other people I see in the woods ridicule me.

Since the nice weather continued, Johanna and I rode out to Simsbury to figure out how long it would take her to ride to work if she wanted and to see how much more of that Farmington Valley greenway had been completed. It takes about 50 minutes for her to ride to her job. However, she decided that she would be too hungry in the evening to ride her bike home. So, she will not begin riding her bike to work. The greenway had a similar problem. It was nicely paved and connects the Granby part now. Well, "connects" should used used loosely, because there's an incomplete bridge over the Salmon Brook that allows someone in Simsbury to wave to the Granby side, but not actually go there. I read somewhere that the DOT forgot to build it last year, but might do it this year. I hope they do. It would allow a bike path riding person to go all the way from Unionville to Massachusetts. At some point, I heard that in Massachusetts, they'll have something that goes all the way to Northampton.

On Sunday, I went to this thing at Keney Park and a kid tried to steal my helmet. The thing was trying to raise money for blood testing kits to be sent to Africa, but I really wish that kid hadn't tried to steal my helmet. It cast a pall over the whole thing for me.

I didn't take any good pictures of Saturday or Sunday. But here's a picture of what my feet looked like:
I also went to Stew Leonards yesterday!
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