Boston All Night Ride

so I've lived in Boston (or within spitting distance) for a little while - 5 years in college (go NU!) and then since 1985, after coming back from 5 years in southern Cal. That's a lot of years, and most of my life by more than a little. I really do love this town. and every place I visit gets viewed in comparison, and few make the grade. Yeah, Joe taught to me to recognize the ugly side of Boston (and I think that's what made him leave), and PJ could never envision staying here (nice place to visit, but...) but I came back and will probably stay.

every once in a while, while wandering around the city (or Cambridge or Somerville or Arlington or...) I remember why I came back and why I love this town.

last month, I got pretty stoked about the CowParade - yeah, some aspects of the concept and the internationalized commercialization of the "CowParade" brand rubs me the wrong way, but some of the cow paintings (should I really call them sculptures? the cows themselves are just a mold, it's what the artists did with them that counts) are truly wonderful. I ended up making the Unofficial CowParade Map web site based on google maps to show all of the cows in their correct locations (the official web site has a few errors, and their map only gives very rough locations) along with artist info and a link, if I could find one. I had a fun time, running around the city, obsessively snapping pictures and updating the site with info and hearing from some of the artists and a few folks that stumbled onto my site and wrote to say "hi"

last night / this morning, I rode with Back Bay Midnight Pedalers on their annual 18th annual Boston By Bike At Night ride - a midnight to dawn ride around Boston, Brookline, Allston/Brighton and Cambridge that started at Copley Square, made it to sunrise at Castle Island and finished with a picnic breakfast. I have heard of this ride before and wanted to go on it several times in past years - either I chickened out or got spooked by the weather or let my bike snobery get in the way of having a good time or thought I was too old to stay up all night.

last night I finally dropped all those excuses (and the weather one was pretty fucking valid last night!) and went out and had a blast. Greg and Ann were the primary ride leaders and they kept us entertained by describing the architecture and history of the city at our many and frequent stops (how the hell else can it take all night to ride around Boston if you don't make lots of stops!). The coolest parts of the ride was going places I had never been to before - like the locks at the mouth of the Charles (love that dirty water!) and riding underneath the Zakim Bridge, and I had never even heard of the South Bay or Bay Village neighborhoods before.

I will add a few of the picture I took a little later...