Back from the Bike Ride!

I didn’t get a chance to update before I left last week, but just in case anyone missed me, I was gone for the Tour De DREAMS bike ride.

I didn’t do the whole 511 miles; I joined the riders in Santa Cruz because I came back from Pittsburgh and felt sick. When I recovered, I couldn’t find a way to meet up with the riders. I called Amtrak for transportation and they said the only way I could bring my bike on the train was by dismantling and boxing it up. I said ‘Uh…no.’ So I took BART from Pittsburgh to Millbrae, transferred to Caltrain all the way to San Jose and then took an Amtrak Bus connection to Santa Cruz. And I found the riders eventually, who had actually gotten lost.

I knew there was drama on the ride, I just didn’t know the extent of it till I met up with everyone. Now I detest getting into these situations — I have had enough drama in my life and don’t need the entertainment. The good thing about new media work is that if someone is giving me a hard time, they are simply removed from my sphere of communication. And we know that assertive WOC are given the toughest time. Obviously, I won’t say anything about anything that happened here. I am just glad that everyone made it all the way up to Berkeley and to their homes, safe and sound. And that we were still able to have a blast!

These kind of events require a lot of planning, organizing and resources, not to mention funding. It’s an incredible feat that DREAM Act students were able to pull off, once again, without much institutional support. And everyone is already very excited about next year.

A big thank you is in order to everyone who supported me during this endeavor and even those who didn’t want me to do this bike ride. Maybe I’ll see you on the road next time.