Last Critical Mass in Chicago

Last night, I did my last Critical Mass in Chicago. For those of you who don't know, critical mass is a big bike ride the last Friday of the month. Hundreds of people come out (more in the summer, less in the winter, the most on Halloween) and start downtown, riding wherever the people at the front take us. Last night we went to the southside and ended up on the beach. The Chicago skyline was amazing. It was a nice finale. http://chicagocriticalmass.org/

The first time I ever heard of Critical Mass, I was eating an early dinner in Amsterdam. All of the sudden everyone left the restaurant. Salmonella? Dine and dash? I decided to follow them to see a giant bike parade and people lining the streets to watch, cheer and videotape. "Vas ist das?" I asked in the worst German anyone has ever heard. "It's Critical Mass," explained the very polite Dutch passerby in perfect English, "it's a bike ride on the last Friday of the month." "Das ist megaguile!" I switched to bad Swiss. "Tot zeins!" (this is all fiction, the only other language I knew how to speak badly at the time was spanish)

Once Jen G. and I started a Critical Mass in Tahoe. We started out with about 20 riders (alot for our first ride, we thought!). We began at Stateline, rode through the Y and ended at Divided Sky, a bar named after a Pink Floyd song. (for anyone who knows South Lake Tahoe, that means no hills). It was fun. It might still be happening, in the summer of course when there are no 8-foot berms of snow in the way.

I'm looking forward to riding the Boston C.M.s.

Congratulations are in order!

Megan is smarter than she was last year, as stated and approved by Northwestern. Congratulations on finishing your finals, Megan! (now we can start training ha ha)

Ferry!

When I first told my dad about the bike ride, he was all about taking a ferry across Lake Michigan. My response, of course, was the usual d-a-a-d with a little roll of the eye leftover from the teenage years. Lo and behold, dad is right (this is your father's day present, dad, admitting that you can be right sometimes!). This is a great idea and solves all of our problems. Biking northwest through Wisconsin to Milwaukee then taking the ferry to Muskegon allows us to skip biking though Gary, IN. AND, that means that anyone who wants to ride with us out of town can find easy transportation to get back home. (July 12th, folks. Pump up your tires.) Plus, how pretty is this going to be?

Upon taking this ferry, I will have ferried across my top five favorite lakes in the world:
1. Fallen Leaf Lake, California
2. Lake Atilan, Guatemala
3. Lake Tahoe, CA/NV
4. Lake Baikal, Siberia
5. LAKE MICHIGAN!

The fee is $70. There might be a small fee for the bike. There's another older, cooler ferry, the SS Badger, but it is much further north and basically the same price. So we're going to take the fancy one...

http://www.lake-express.com/schedule/index.aspx


June 11 - September 1, 2008 - 3 roundtrips daily
Sail Arrive
Milwaukee 6:00 AM Muskegon 9:30 AM
Muskegon 10:15 AM Milwaukee 11:45 AM
Milwaukee 12:30 PM Muskegon 4:00 PM
Muskegon 4:45 PM Milwaukee 6:15 PM
Milwaukee 7:00 PM Muskegon 10:30 PM
Muskegon 11:00 PM Milwaukee 12:30 AM

Photo credit: Jen Dunn