The Mill River Greenway Ride: Two Final Words

As regular readers know, the Mill River Greenway Ride & Rally, which was presented by People Friendly Stamford, was this past Saturday. Possibly related to my involvement in planning this, Mother Nature went for the whip and Connecticut forgot the safe word.

Actually, the rain could have been a lot worse, but a lot of us showed up and some even did the (rain cancelled) ride from Scalzi Park to Kosciuszko Park anyway. As you can see from the great photographs taken of the event by Bob Luckey at the Stamford Advocate, my head stayed warm and dry thanks to the hotel shower cap I stretched over my helmet - which is THE fashion accessory for fall. 

Mayor David Martin was there and gave a nice address - which was easily heard in the crowded pavilion thanks to SpeakerBike. I'm thankful Renee Chmiel from News 12 came as well - you can check out her excellent coverage of the rally; taken with a news camera covered in a black trash bag to keep out the rain.

I'm also thankful for the band, Institute of Rock, for making the rain go away while they played under the pavilion at Kosciuszko Park. Actually, they may not have made the rain go away, but it felt like they did.  

I'm also thankful for the food trucks that were at the event: the Meltmobile ("To the Meltmobile!") sold me some pretty extraordinary tomato soup. I'm also thankful to one of the co-founders of Bike Stamford who fed me the soup one spoonful at a time while I fixed her flat tire. I'm equally thankful for the tacos I bought at Taco Loco/Crazy Taco Mex. 

I would write more about this great event, which I was very thankful to take part in, but I am suffering badly from jet lag (more on why later) which kicked in at 7:25pm on Saturday. I know the exact minute because that was the time I tweeted that "Bicyclists braved the rain" were the "best five words ever" (referring to Renee Chmiel's News 12 story) and I didn't notice those were only four words until the following day. 

But for now and going forward: if you are a cyclist from Stamford, please thank anyone and everyone who supports cycling in our city.  If you need a place to start, I suggest the sponsors of the rally, for the money, time or both they gave to this event was what made it a successful one. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding - especially if you live and work in Stamford.