Tour de Fat

Today we got up early (ish), got on our bikes, and headed out to Gas Works Park to join the Tour de Fat; New Belgium Brewing's celebration of all things bikey. We arrived a little before 10, signed our waivers, picked up our "I LIKES BIKES" stickers, and then milled about watching the other bikeys. Wil and I were both impressed by how professional and high quality the event looked -- great signage, tents, stages, etc. Professional without looking corporate in any way. Very, very cool.

Slowly more people arrived, and eventually (after a rousing speech by the Reverend Ballyhoo) we set out, about 100 strong, with bike marshals and costumed cyclists and even a guy pulling a trailer with a bumping stereo. Very nice indeed. We rode very slowly -- not protest slowly, mind you, but family slowly -- out to Golden Gardens where we stopped briefly and then headed back. Only a few awkward moments -- an idiot who joined the ride late deciding to stop traffic by lying down in the street, which was stupid and very quickly stopped; and people running the light in Ballard along the lost stretch of the trail -- but other than that, it was a really nice trip. We laughed because for most of the trip we were riding at about 5 m;p.h., which is slower than we run.

On the way back we got antsy and, when the music guy went past us to get back to the fest, we followed, so we arrived a bit before the rest of the parade. We locked up our bikes, headed into the beer garden, bought some "Beer Tokens of Affection", and then got ourselves a pint.

We watched the very saucy Sprockettes, drank beer, and sat in the sun... It was too nice to leave, so we went out of the beer garden, got very nice t-shirts, signed up for Team Wonderbike, grabbed "Seattle's best falafel", and then back into the beer garden for another round. We watched the Slow Ride contest -- marvellous! -- watched a funny male dance troupe, and then felt like we'd had enough.

A nice ride home and we still arrived home in time for the block party... a perfect Saturday.