Friday, May 21, 2010

Hub Grub Ride II: The Trek Strikes Back


[Charles] The Seminole Heights Bicycle Club and Alan Snel, our neighbor, bike blogger, and one of the fearless bicycle advocates in Tampa, have put together another Hub Grub Ride for this Saturday. It sounds like they are heading out from the Garden Center at 2:45 and heading through the neighborhood en masse. They will head to Reservations, Starbucks, Viitals, Smoking A's, The Front Porch, Ella's Folk Art Cafe, The Refinery, and The Independent. It's easy to look at this as a way to shamelessly promote our neighborhood businesses, but the larger point is to shamelessly promote our neighborhood's bike friendliness!

We will probably miss out on all of the fun because we'll be working at the shop but feel free to stop by and say hi. I'll even refill your water bottle for you if you're running low. With that many stops and possible beverages available I'll be happy to help with hydration. Also, if you don't have a water bottle, I'll offer half price to anybody that wants to buy one if they are participating in the ride! How's that for service?

Enjoy the ride folks and enjoy the beauty of our neighborhood. There's something about the way the neighborhood looks from a bike that is so different from the view of a car. Please allow me to get philosophically sidetracked as biking always reminds me of the start of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

"In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. " - Robert Pirsig

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