By the time I finished the 8 mile trek, in about half-an-hour, I felt a little warm and had gotten a bit sweaty. It felt like a nice day.
I was slated to do 2 Obama tours, riding down there in the morning with some people at 9, then meeting some more people down in Hyde Park at 10, finishing at about 12, sending the first people back to downtown, and meeting a new group at 1. Busy. There was only one woman who rode down at 9; though she seemed incredibly high maintenance at first, she turned out to be a good conversation partner. Good thing, since I basically hung out with her the whole first part of the day.
She also turned out to be a good rider and pushed the riding tempo faster than I would have on my own. At least, faster than I wanted to go that day, for I had already ridden a tour Friday, 2 tours Saturday, and one on Sunday with all the requisite commuting from Andersonville; I was really hoping for some relaxed riding.
We got down there in 29 minutes, about 15 minutes faster than with a "normal" group. On my road bike, I've made it in 22, but we were riding hybrids, quite a disadvantage.
The two people who were supposed to meet us in Hyde Park didn't show up, so we were still on our own. We ended up finishing the tour in an hour-and-a-quarter, 45 minutes faster than usual. And just as we pulled into the cafe at the Hyde Park Arts Center, it started to rain. I knew about the rain, I knew it was coming, but all signs pointed to it blasting through quickly. We watched it pour, and she shared some of her nosh, me waiting for my next tour, her waiting for the rain to clear before heading back.
The rain didn't end up stopping before the next tour showed up, snapping me out of my rainy-day reverie and into the reality of work. The four of them were of two groups: a mom from Pittsburgh visiting her daughter living in Chicago; a couple from something like Ft. Wayne, IN.
Fortunately, they were great sports, since the rain didn't let up till just after the tour ended. I was doing my best to be a great sport but was horribly unprepared, thinking that any rain would be brief and avoidable, and only had shorts and a t-shirt. The temperature dropped with the rain, and, in stark contrast to the first tour, I couldn't get the tour to go fast enough to build up any body heat; by the end of the tour I was shivering and cursing under my breath as we rode.
And then we couldn't see Obama's house. He was in town over the holiday weekend, so the security was much more strict. On our way out through Kenwood, in the blocks behind his house, we found nothing but blocked streets. I kept us going--mostly to stay warm--until we got to 47th street which was all blocked off. We stood there on the corner of 47th and Ellis, paralyzed in all directions by flashing lights: city cops, uchicago cops, state troopers, secret service, traffic management.
And then, in lieu of any glimpse of the house, we saw his motorcade. That seemed to suffice. Warmed the cockles of my heart but real warmth had to wait.
The tour ended, I got another coffee--my 3rd of the day--but this one mostly to warm up. It maybe worked, maybe not but ended up not making me feel great. At least I could fly up the lakefront and build up some heat. I took this photo on the way back as the rain finally cleared. I got back to the shop and stood in front of the hand driers for a while, warming up and drying off. I borrowed a hoodie to ride back and was plenty warm, sweating just slightly. Had dinner at Corbett's--fish'n'chips, yum--and rode back. The weather had returned to perfect after a long, strange journey.
[I was a little disconcerted when I struggle to remember the people on the second tour--names, faces, origins--since the tour seemed so memorable. But then they came together like remembering a dream. I guess it's only normal; I figure I've seen a hundred people or more over the weekend.]
No comments:
Post a Comment