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RR: May Day 2000
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I love days that start out with a ride on my bicycle. Most of them do. But if they don’t, it seems like it makes for a kind of miserable day. There have been times when I didn’t get out on a bike for almost a week, and I tell you, I can start to feel it. I get edgy, and irritable… but if I get on my bicycle and go for a good ride, it will often do wonders. So when this morning started out with a short bike ride to work, shortly followed by a pretty decent critical mass ride, I was very pleased.

When I showed up at Loring Park, only one other person was pacing back and forth on her bike, looking a little confused. So we talked and waited, and about 5 minutes later, people started actually showing up. Only about 25 people showed up, but it was a heck of a lot of fun anyway. We started off going down Hennipen, and then up Washington to 3rd Street where we took a little ride through dinkytown, then back onto third street and into downtown where we ended up having a police car follow us to the May Day Rally at Peavey Plaza.

Usually, critical masses are at least a little bit scary. We often have cops following us the majority of the way, and usually some people get arrested before the ride is over. But I guess for any number of reasons (this one was in the morning, this one was smaller, there was a rally getting underway elsewhere, etc.) we didn’t have any cop problems until the end. The only really scary thing was the absolutely insane motorists who just about ran some of us down at a couple places. But for the most part, the ride was very relaxed and fun and an excellent way to start a day.