Hot Turkey, Albuquerque!

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The cool turquoise and sand colorway flyovers of Albuquerque

I've just spend an intense week in Albuquerque jam-packed with stuff centered around the fine work of the LAB (League of American Bicyclists) - and in 100+ degree heat... 

 

... surrounded by Adobe, the concrete, not the software kind:

 

Learned how to ride a bike at the LAB Traffic Skills 101 course and LCI (League Certified Instructor) Seminar: 

 Yikes! Preston Tyree tries to teach me the life-saving Instant (Counter) Turn
Watch a movie explaining this
Proving to ourselves that a bike can lean right over in the Instant Turn and still have traction

Because if I'd studied this course earlier and learned the mantra:

BICYCLISTS FARE BEST WHEN THEY ACT AND ARE TREATED AS DRIVERS OF VEHICLES

... I would not have been doored the week before in NYC:

 

Thursday: Ride and cocktail reception, featuring a ceremonial guard (is that what you call it?), mariachi band and exhibiting the Giant Halfway folder donated for the Raffle by the Kickstand Bike Shop. And a Traffic Cone Bag donated by yours truly! 



Friday: Belen ride led by Bicycle Touring Club of NM leader Tom Sullivan



Friday night: Showing my Route 66 movie as part of the LAB National Bike Rally:

 A group of 50 or so watched my Route 66 by Bicycle: Pedaling the Mother Road movie at a genuine Route 66 church on Nob Hill. That's LAB Exec Dir Andy Clarke in the safety vest.



Saturday: The Albuquerque century. 100+ degree heat. I stayed inside and polished off my talk. And taught myself Powerpoint in the last hour ("not a good idea" - Fred). 

The three takeaways from my talk:

1. To change you life, say yes more often than no
2. Don't nickle and dime bike shops, eat out once a week
3. Be the change you want to see

Keynote speaking at the rally banquet honoring bicycle advocate Gail Ryba:

MC Craig Degenhardt cut a far more memorable visual than I!



Following a tribute by Kalil Spencer, Tom Robey delivers two very moving anecdotes about his wife and much-loved advocate, Gail Ryba:


"Gail turned off the heat at the start of winter because 'it was the right thing to do'".
She went for a bike ride the day before she stopped eating."

City Councilor Issac Benton named the new Bike-Ped bridge over the Rio Grande at I-40 the Gail Ryba Memorial Bridge, opening September 2010.

Of course, there was schwag ... 

I had a little table at the Bike Expo, and someone bought a Traffic Cone Bag (shown here in stealth mode).

Riding in 100+ degree heat (like opening a wood fired pizza oven and getting inside):

Scott and Preston of the LAB. Note the Gal's Traffic Cone Bag slung over Preston's tikit handlebars. It's my ibag, he says!

Sunday: The Handsomest Man in Albuquerque: Book signing and slideshow for The Handsomest Man in Cuba at Bookworks on Rio Grande ...
Thanks to Craig D for setting this up for me! Below: With events coordinator Laura. 

And meeting a local Albuquerque icon, Mr Babcock, "The Parrot Man" on his recumbent menagerie.

Thank you to my wonderful hosts, Craig Degenhardt and Betty Serfazo, who treated me like a surrogate daughter (perhaps because they have two boys, Baron and Derek, and a family of pet tortoises).

Watch this space for movies ... 

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