September Critical Mass

Finally. I was finally able to do one of these. And let me tell you, the wait was worth it.

Around 4:45pm on friday afternoon, there was a slowly growing number of cyclists gathering at what I will refer to as the "hipster trees", just west of the OSU student union. The gaunt, bearded figures mostly spent their time milling about, riding each other's bikes/longboards, and gawking at the few brave hippies deeply engaged in slacklining.

Not too much to say about the ride, really. We took a winding path through town, bothering cars and pedestrians (read: raising cycling awareness). There was a short break about half-way through, we stopped at the local coffee shop to have a drink and round up any slackers.

Another interesting turn (bike pun? wha?) of events is that we started with around 15 people, but by the time were were turning onto the final lap, there were only five of us on road bikes left. Most of the rest had either turned off along the way to go home, or were left behind (sorry, Cassandra, we didn't notice you go) Unencumbered as the last five of us were, we booked it back to campus, five brave cyclists taking up two lanes of traffic and generally having a blast of it.





We finished the ride, laid our bikes down to rest under the shade of the hipster trees, and the sound of nicotine and caffeine pumping through hipster veins could be heard throughout campus. All in all, a good day.


On a more serious note, though, before the ride got started, there came some news that a female cyclist had been hit by a truck pulling out of a parking lot. Details were slim, but bearers of the news reported seeing the girl, standing, but with quite a bit of blood on her forehead. The ride was declared in dedication to this girl. If I learn any more details about the situation, I'll post.