626 Golden Streets, 1 May 2022: It Was A Smash

 The train ride over was virtually empty; it was the end of the line, the APU station in Glendora, and the only other bicyclist in sight was someone exiting. This seeming omission would prove to have no bearing on events once we reached our destination a short time later. The latest edition of the 626 Golden Streets event took place today with a five mile winding route between South Pasadena, through Alhambra, and into the Mission District in San Gabriel, proving to be a highly popular route, attracting great numbers of bicyclists, rollers on skates and boards, and more pedestrians than (I believe) I have previously seen at one of these. All three of the event hubs - one for each city - were particularly thronged with people out enjoying the sunshine, mild temperatures, live music, games and other entertainments.

Beforehand, I had envisioned riding the route twice in order to get some kind of half respectable twenty mile distance, but as things turned out I was more than content to poke along and people watch while the mrs. checked out all the various information booths and picked up a new collection of event stickers. That tends to be a time-consuming endeavor, and there is no use fighting it. So I didn't, and had a good time in the process. That's the thing about these shorter rides, you can spend more time doing things.

While it was interesting visiting old stomping grounds, seeing how Main Street in Alhambra has evolved since 2004 when I moved further east, and how South Pas has remained much the same (although the new bike lanes are cool), it was San Gabriel that proved to be most interesting. First of all there was the mission, the church an erector set of scaffolding, then there was the lunch, a little place right near the far end of the hub called Dancing Spoons - when the mrs. asked if I wanted a dumpling, I answered sure, expecting a little snack. Instead, what I got was a full, filling meal of rice, award winning shrimp dumplings, vegetables and curry. I'm not a big fan of curry, but maybe that is because I had never had curry like this - I can most certainly understand the whole award winning thing.

A few minutes later I stood watching a bike mechanic as he worked away, helping a few bikes suffering from maintenance deficit be made more rideable. Once he had finished up with one of those bikes, the mechanic strode over to where I stood and, holy-moly, beard is longer, hair is longer, but I'll be darned if it ain't Demi, taking a break from wrenching for Canyon to, well, to do some volunteer wrenching. How cool is that! Have not seen Demi in years. Turning around I notice someone taking a photo of the mrs. so I say fare well to Demi, and amble across the street and I'm like oh, its Karen of Bikie Girl Bloomers, no wonder, she's recognized a pair of her bloomers. After that came a visit to the old (1861) grapevine, giving a little listen to the band up on stage, a moment to enjoy the fountain outside the San Gabriel Playhouse, before mounting up for the ride back to South Pas where there was Dancing in the Streets:

"Callin' out around the world

Are you ready for a brand new beat

Summer's here and the time is right

For dancing in the street..."

(Stevenson, Gaye, Hunter)

I don't know, but there's something about the way they're looking at me...

mission bells

double hooping

return to Alhambra

drummer into his craft

ice cream time

that's one tall Wonder Woman

kudos to REI for their memorial to victims of anti-Asian hate

Alhambra hub

finally, at the end of the line, I found Gabe the Sasquatch

Photos are in the album here, and see you next time.