Saturday’s Fixie 60

Saturday was a pretty crazy biking day. I knew I wanted to get out and ride so I woke as early as my old bones would let me. I was out the door about 9:30 AM. I headed downtown on some of my normal routs. I was down there in plenty of time to catch the farmer’s market happening. The crowds at the farmers market are a great way to practice riding at a snail’s pace and trying not to touch the ground. I got behind people and just followed them through the crowd. If they stopped then I did a track stand as long as I could and either wait for them to continue or pass them and find a new person to follow. Dogs messed me up most of the time. But it is fun.

Terra and Ella came downtown and met me for lunch at El Bait Shop. Tasty fish tacos, nachos, and a few Fat Tires refilled my batteries. They heading to do some shopping and I jumped back on my Swobo for more pedaling.

On the way home I did have a head on collision with a lady flying around one of the greenbelt corners. She was on her sissy geared road bike and I on a bullet proof Swobo Sanchez. She crossed over into my lane at a tight corner and we just collided at a decent speed. With no breaks on my bike there is not much I can do in that situation. It was hold on and don’t go off into the woods. I held my line and did not slow at all. We hit each other. I stayed up on my bike and she hit me like I was a locked door. She went flying down on the hard paved trail. I did not fall off my fixie. She was pretty shaken but that is what she gets from messing with the Swobo!

Here is the rout tracked on my GPS and uploaded along with photos I took on my AM ride. Zoom into the map to see a few photos I took along the way. Good time!

After I made it home I refilled the body and hung out with the family. Saturday night was the Freedom Riders movie premier at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. The plan was to take Noah down with me and watch the movie. Afterwords we would then head over to Raccoon River Brewery for a swag raffle. I was not sure if Noah could make the full 30 mile round trip. I figured we would try. It took us almost 1.5 hours to get down town but Noah did fine. We watched the movie and Noah won some new grips for his bike and a Pabts Blue Ribbon t-shirt. Might make a good shirt for first day of school next year.

We headed back from downtown to the west side on our bikes. We made it home with just a few sprinkles around 11:15 PM. It was a fun experience for Noah to ride such a long distance at night with a light on his bike. We reached home tired but dry.