September 30, 2007

Critical Mass Chicago - Friday Night

Friday night was the 10th anniversary of Critical Mass in Chicago. 3000 of us rode for about 5 hours. It was such great fun, I'm doing it again next month. It'll be Halloween, too, so weird costumes are in order.

There were some flaring tempers (bikers, motorists, and pedestrians included) and a cop bumped into my bike at one point (he was splitting to make an emergency run). Me, I just like to bike ride. The longer, the better. 5 hours hit the spot very nicely. Plus, with all that caloric output - two dinners!!

Highlights of the ride: the happy baby (captured clapping on film), the pissed off pedestrian who stood on the street corner yelling "F*cking attention-needing motherf*kers!", the cheers and honks and thumbs up, little kids in Cabrini Green giving us high-fives, the rich dude in the Jaguar smoking a cigarette in a very "yeah, okay, I'll just chill here for awhile" sort of way, the cop who bumped into my tire while speeding off to a call (I hurt my knee trying to get out of his way), the random bumping into friends, and yes, two dinners. Vietnamese food AND greasy diner grilled cheese and fries. Mmmm.


EDIT: My video got posted in Metroblogging Chicago. Also, here are some Critical Mass events in other cities.

San Francisco:



Gandia, Spain:



Budapest:

10 comments:

nora leona said...

Wow, great video!
You are quite amazing, Miss Boone County.

Timothy Carter said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun. Gosh, I haven't been on a bike in ages.

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Oh, you afford me too much esteem, Madam Norah. I was merely a Little Miss Colonial (before they changed it to Little Colonial Miss, or Little Miss Akard's Hardware, or whatever the hell they call it now).

Elizabeth McQuern said...

It was a ton of fun, Timothy. If my battery hadn't died (and I had a better camera) I'd have caught more of the fun wacky stuff that happened toward the end.

Dale said...

Is there anything you don't do? My my my! The video (and event) looks awesome.

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Well, Dale, I don't balance my checkbook. I don't own a home. I don't have a boyfriend yet. I haven't hung out with Dale and Coaster Punchman and friends yet. I don't have a dog, and I don't know how to eat with chopsticks. But yeah, Critical Mass was fun! :)

AHP said...

We need a critical mass of cities to join in. I didn't know about this event, (which isn't a surprise since I'm in the Moown area). There was a bicyclists parade as part of the classic car filled Woodward Dream Cruise though.

Elizabeth McQuern said...

It would be cool to have one in every city!

Anonymous said...

Hey, E--

You did the MUSIC too? All of it?

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Yes, I wrote the music too, using Garage Band, which is super easy. I don't actually play all of those instruments - banjo, Nordic fiddle, etc. That's looped. But I put the arrangement together. Garage Band is like crack - soooooo fun.