Cruiser Ride Takes Over Scott Carpenter Park
Words & Photos: Steve Z
Complete Photo Gallery (44 pix)
Last night was the first ever Cruiser Ride to depart from a location other than the Sports Garage. The event went off pretty smoothly, the start was pretty low-key, with Johnny hangin’ out making sure everyone didn’t have too much fun. TJ from Blue Sky was there with a booth set up providing services, although he probably would have had more fun if he didn’t have to work. Chris V made his usual announcements, although the new spread out location made it easy to get out of earshot so I have no idea what he said. There was some cheering at some point, so it must have been good. The decreed themes were ladies summer dresses, Miami Vice and togas. Steve Jones had the only costume resembling a toga, and Chrissy had the only summer dress that I saw, but hey, it was her theme idea. The Miami Vice theme was a hit with some taking the part pretty seriously, pseudo-blow and all. Personally I enjoyed the extra room to mill about through the group at the beginning of the ride, but at the same time missed how everyone used to be packed in together, a la hanging out in the kitchen instead of the living room at a house party. It’ll all take some getting used to, but overall, change is good.
The group headed out east on the bike path on our Low Impact Route. The bike path was pretty traffic jammed, but we meandered out to our first stop up at UCAR. After that we zigzagged back and forth across Pearl St to entertain the masses before converging on the Justice Center. A high speed Justice Circle commenced and the race was on, tricycles vs cruisers vs swing bikes vs runners vs Santa Claus. I got some good shots from that one. The ride blew apart at that point as it usually does once you get close to downtown. Our small group made a few more laps around town before heading to the Lazy Dog. The turnout was mediocre at best and the energy was pretty mellow. We’ll see what the group wants to do next week. Some people complained that the ride was boring, while others thought it was great. It’s pretty easy to see who had fun and who didn’t. Making a lot of noise = fun. Sitting there going 3mph out East thinking about how we aren’t 75 people raging downtown = sour grapes. Without the music machine there to give that party atmosphere, the old school cruisers resorted to lots of Ole Ole and Happy Happy Thursday singing, which is pretty damn fun if you don’t have a stick up your ass. Doozer about lost his voice. Richey beat on his drums. A good time was had by everyone who was groovin’ in the moment. Sure the ride can be more fun when the group is smaller and more unified and we can be more rowdy. We can look forward to what lies ahead after the dog days of summer.
After the ride, as I’m walking down Pearl St., I started getting heckled by some college girls about my Don Johnson pimp suit. This one standard issue midwestern blonde asks me why I’m dressed up, to which I respond “Cruiser Ride” while looking at the vacant look on her face. So then she says, “So, what are you supposed to be, seventies?” I look at her disgusted, and say, “Seventies?, thats the best you’ve got?” She rolls her eyes and says, “Sixties?” At this point I realize that she probably wasn’t even born when Miami Vice began. . .
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