Boulevard Lakefront Tour

I got to do two of my favorite things today, biking and volunteering. Unfortunately, I had to get up at a quarter to three in the morning to do it. The Chicago Bicycle Federation hosted their longest running ride, the Boulevard Lakefront Tour today. It starts in Hyde Park on the University of Chicago campus and the 35 mile route visits several major parks within the city that are connected by Chicago's boulevard system. The ride started at 7 AM but things had to be set up so people could register and such before the ride actually started. I have become friends with Cathy Haibach, the Event Director of the Chicago Bicycle Federation so I decided to help her and everyone else out. I was asked to be there at 4 AM, so in order to do that, I had to get up at 2:45 AM. This was really rough. I was a zombie when I arrived in Hyde Park but I did get there at 4 AM. I then got to run to Dunkin Donuts to get two Buckets of Joe, a cup of Hot Chocolate, and a dozen donuts. While I was at Dunkin Donuts, who should arrive but four police officers. I hate to use the stereotype about cops and donuts but when they feed the stereotype, its really hard to avoid. The sugar and caffeine really helped. After I had my coffee and donut, I helped put signs up, put caution tape up, moved ice, and other things that needed to be done. While I was doing this, I was wearing a BLT T-shirt, but I told (and showed) Cathy that I was going to wear a Bike Against Bush T-shirt while I was riding. Cathy (and I have noticed, many in the biking community) is pretty liberal and she loved it, as did many that saw it on the ride. I did have someone glare at me and it looked like he was going to make an issue of the shirt but just glared.

I really enjoyed the day but it has made me feel pretty strange. By noon, I had been up for over nine hours and I have spent the rest of the day simply trying to stay awake long enough to go to bed at a reasonable time. It is now 7:30 PM and I am beat. I need to stay up for at least another 2 hours. It has been a good day even if it has been really long.