Special Recognition

Before Ride 12 I stopped in the office and saw an envelope addressed to me with return address of "Latino Bike Tour families". The enclosed:


Thank you! Nice Ride!

Ride 12

Two things played against us for Ride 12's low attendance. First, being the start of the school year, none of the kiddos came because of Open House. Second, it was pretty cloudy with chance of some "weather". And here I thought the cool temp would bring droves.

So the three of us took Q street down to campus for a tour of the Kruger Collection, a miniatures gallery and one of UNL's best kept secrets (located in Arch Hall, if you're interested). I found out about it a few years ago because one of my best friends' sisters used to curate it. Full disclosure: Amber from the Great Plains Art Museum (from Ride 5).

Curator DiAnna showed us this year's exhibit, plus the back room where all the miniatures are stored. The collection is mostly furniture, but my favorite was a Japanese carving of a boy tugging a seated man's beard - carved out of a hardened peach pit. Maybe you can find it here, or just snoop around the thousands of other pieces. It's fun - as photos, they look like the real thing, but remember the pieces are 1/12 scale! For example:


Nice Ride!

Ride 11

Sorry, no photos! Jorge the photographer was not present for Ride 11. You'll have to trust my prose:

A new, fourth component of this program would be heat. But last Saturday was bearable, so I had to boost the "community integration" piece to compensate. I took riders down to the Haymarket, this time for an exclusive visit to Maggie's Wraps. Special thanks to El Centro board member Staci Bell for donating some cash to sponsor a ride, and in this case, snacks. Maggie shared her history in the biz, and then some cantaloupe.

So the bike tie-in: I remember back in '06 when I bought my first awesome bike (you know, upgrade from a long run of Joe Schmoe mountain bikes to a Bianchi). I went down to Maggie's to show my friends who were working there, and we immediately called a "Maggie's Ride" and got a rad group of about 25 people for a nice Friday afternoon spin all over Lincoln that went well into the evening.

ANYWAY. Maggie is a cycling enthusiast and local food activist with a sweet restaurant. Thanks, Maggie!

Nice ride!

Ride 10

Took 'er downtown to check out some arty activities and expose some of the charm of 14th Street. First stop was Gomez Art Supply where we were supplied with a key to Tugboat Gallery to check out the latest exhibit.

We poked around Parrish Studios for awhile before descending onto the Art of Rock street festival to find sidewalk art, a fashion show, and some live folk performances. Academy of Rock (from which came the Art of Rock event) is an interesting Lincoln program that focuses on empowering young people to develop their music/art/creative skills, deftly implicated by a sidewalk chalk rendition of Mona Lisa as KISS enthusiast.

More chalkies on the walk over to A Novel Idea Bookstore...

Our photo man Jorge standing proud:

Nice ride!

Ride 9

Ride 9 took us to 21st and Holdrege where we found the John Dietrich trailhead on the edge of cute Lintel Park. Dietrich twists quite far northeast after linking with the Murdock Trail on 48th Street, but we hooked a right at 33rd and pedaled around the leisurely East Campus Loop.

Along the way we had a few chain drops, but a quick tightening trick had us back on the road.

I'd like to think Latino Bike Tour has all the excitement to keep a child awake, but nevertheless...

Our ultimo destino was the UNL Dairy Store, where they make everything from ag dept animals and such, including ice cream. Everyone was happy.

Ride 8

Well it was another hot one. Attendance suffered as a result, but fun didn't. We checked out Sunken Gardens, Re-Cycled bike shop, and then popped into Leon's grocery for some A/C and refreshments before sweating back to El Centro.

As ever, mil gracias to Jorge Palacios for the photography.

Nice ride!