Bike to work, dammit!

Once again, it is bike to work week here in MN.  And once again, I'll be leading a group of cyclists from Minnehaha Park to Downtown Minneapolis on Bike to Work day.  This is my fifth year leading this group, and it might be on it's fourth name.  Commuter Convoy is the only old one I can remember, but I'm sure there were more.  This year they're calling it a "Bike Bus" which is a silly name, but that's just my opinion.  The details are pretty much the same, with some minor variations:

The biggest difference this year is the organizers want us to do a "bus stop" where we stop, midroute, and pick up additional bikers.  I decided to keep this minimal, since I don't think we'll pick many, if any, people up.  The last few years there have been less than 7 people on this route, and often several of them aren't biking to work but just joined to have an excuse to ride (Hi Jim and Kevin!).  So my idea was to stop at the Green Institute.  Last year, they were rumored to have the best food of all the Bike to Work celebrations, and I've always meant to stop and check them out.

So with that in mind, we'll convene at Minnehaha Park between the Falls and the Sea Salt restauraunt/shelter. I plan to be there around 6:30-6:40. Leaving at 6:45 should put us at the Green Institute around 7:15 or so.  We'll take a temperature check with the riders to see if we want to make it a quick stop or linger a bit.  If we don't linger we should be downtown around 7:30 or so, depending on red lights and the overall speed of the group.  If we do stop, it could be closer to 8.

A couple of quick points:

• If you haven't already, register:  www.bikewalkweek.org  It sounds as if you will need a printed copy of your registration to be eligible for certain prizes.  So if you're into that kind of thing, register.
• If you forget to register, they will have forms to fill out downtown.  But it's a hassle, and everything's more fun to do on the web.  And, as of this writing, my picture is still on the website.
• Um, I can't think of anything else.  Oh, wait, the date!  It's this Thursday, May 14!  See you then!