Saturday Coffee Shop Ride: Next! 7/25

First. The next Saturday Coffee Shop Ride will be Saturday July 25. We'll depart at 9am from the Falls Park Farmer's Market. This is near the intersection of 2nd Ave and Falls Park Drive. "What? When we're done with the ride we're going to eat lettuce?" No. Cherrybean Coffee is always there with the piping hot liquid. Skipping Stone Wood Fired Pizza makes their pizzas to order. Dakota Natural Beef always has burgers and brats on the grill.

Here is a link to the general expectations of the Saturday Coffee Shop Rides. Faster riders may find the speed of this ride a bit mentally challenging. If you want to see the entirety of the Saturday Coffee Shop Ride posts follow this link.

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Unlike our truncated wintertime attempt at this loop the weather took care of it's business in the early morning hours. By the time we rolled from Scooters the last bits of moisture were evaporating from the roadway.

Scooter's presents some interesting challenges when it comes to access. Situated near a 40,000 vehicle per day intersection with roads that were created to offer drivers a false sense of safety and efficiency as they move their cars through at 10 to 15 mph over the speed limit, this area is not welcoming to riders or walkers. Thankfully The MinusCar Project's Rides have many of the most experienced urban riders in the city - setting examples and providing confidence.

We departed Scooters moving south on Western and quickly found the relative tranquility of Ralph Rogers Road. Ralph led us to a bit of travel on 69th, the four lane divided roadway. Finally south into the neighborhoods of grand back yards, creative unique siding, and more square feet than I need or imagine.

For this ride we accepted a mascot. After a brief tour of Harrisburg's Journey Elementary student drop-off area we stopped to quickly greet Hazel and mark the moment with a photo.

After riding much of the length of a road that is most excellent for biking South Tomar Road, and the fast sweeping downhill left turn that is Plum Creek Drive we made our way to the bike path at Tomar Park.

What I thought would be the final road challenge of the day, a short bit on 57th Street to Scooters proved to be a non-issue. Our group managed to find a gap big enough in traffic which allowed us to complete the section as one unit.

The parking lot proved to me to be the greatest challenge as we arrived and faced 25mph Escalades and drivers departing parking spots without seeing. Surprise!