Luck O' the Irish

It did indeed rain most of last week; thus my bike spent much time sitting forlornly in the garage with the rest of our fleet. The storm stopped long enough on Friday for preschool drop-off/pick-up runs. Then, fortuitously, on Saturday, the sun decided to come out and play!

Saturday, as everyone knows, was St. Patrick’s Day and I was signed up to ride in Sacramento’s parade with the Practical Cycle gang. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t going to ride if it was raining. I’m not exactly set up for rain riding (I lack any kind of water proof gear ) and I don't enjoy getting wet while wearing clothes - especially if it’s cold. I can’t imagine that trying to do an Irish jig on the back of a moving truck in the rain is much fun either; so the sun’s reappearance was good fortune for everyone involved.

I could only talk two of my kids into riding with me – Charlie and Schroeder. Linus preferred to stand on the side watching in hopes of grabbing any (and all) candy that was thrown his way.

We got dressed in our best St. Patty’s day finery – green shirts, Mardi Gras necklaces that happened to be green, and some argyle socks - and set off. We are definitely going to have to up our game if we participate next year as we were hopelessly under-dressed and out-greened.

1. Pre-parade (he looks like he feels lucky, no?)

We arrived at the parade start with time to spare. I was one of only two long-tail bikes there and I was very excited to show off my new Yuba. I felt like hot shit until we were COMPLETELY upstaged by an identical Yuba (it was even orange) with a MERMAID sitting on the back. A GREEN mermaid. Crap.

2. Mermaid on wheels

The parade started. The route was packed and we (everyone really) were going painfully slow. It turns out that not being the center of attention was the least of my concerns. I was really just trying to keep the bike up-right which isn’t easy at very low speed. In fact I was pushing the bike along with both feet much of the way. We haven’t fallen yet – I’m sure we will – but I was determined that it wouldn’t happen in the middle of a parade. Nothing will make you feel like a bad parent faster than dropping your kids. Trust me, I’ve done it - accidentally of course.

We made it without falling (yay!) and had lots of fun. The kids waved at everyone, we got tons of compliments, met some new people (including a mermaid), and we can check “be in a parade” off the bucket list. I added a parade to my list just so I could check it off. :)

Ironically, the only kids who got any candy were the ones on my bike because, apparently, on the side lines there was more competition than free candy. He, He, He – that’ll teach Linus. :)

3./4. En Route

(we're behind the mermaid)