The final meeting of the year for the Active Transportation Commission.
We approved the 2025 Annual Report which required a group picture for the slide deck that will be part of the presentation to the City Council.
ATC
Social Ride
Mather Veteran’s Village is part of Mercy Housing and provides 50 permanent supportive homes for formerly homeless and disabled veterans. Having a functioning bike is important to many of the residents and other who live in the surrounding community. SABA’s Ride Ready Repair team comes out regularly to fix bikes. Today we added a social ride afterward.
Before we left, Rick’s bike needed some air. Thank you Barbara for noticing and Ken for helping.
The guy on the left walked by as I took this picture. He didn’t go on the ride, although we tried to talk him into it – lol. Harry, Barbara, Rick:
It was a short ride, about 2.5 miles to Dutch Bros.
We bought coffee for everyone and mostly listened to Harry (smile). Rick’s drink was the Golden Eagle – we figured out a way to get it home without spilling.
On the way back, Rick and I rode side by side most of the way and he got a chance to talk about his military service and family. He asked if we could show him how to use his bike to go see his daughter in Folsom. What a couple of nice guys who served in the military and now need some help. And someone to talk to.
Shady Lady
Thank you Terri and Elaine for going with me to Tomato Alley Free House to get a gift certificate (to give away next Sunday).
Not certain we wanted to stay and have a beverage and snack, so we went to a place Terri likes, the Shady Lady on R St.
Woodworking
Thais and I finally found a day we could both go back to the woodworking class to finish our cutting boards.
Final touch: wood butter.
Thais had a laser image “burned” onto hers.
A better picture of mine.
Supermarket Sweep
I met Lorge, Kimberly and Hal at Bella Bru at 11a on Saturday forSupermarket Sweep – a SABA-sponsored bicycle-powered food drive.
We rode to three grocery stores in N and S Natomas. We had about $390 to spend. SABA gave us $100, Jibe $250, plus our own contributions.
Our final grocery store was on Sutterville Rd, close to our final destination – Two Rivers Cidery on Attawa St.
We unloaded the groceries from our panniers and trailers into bags, then the SABA team weighed everything. 158 pounds!
Ahead of time, we agreed we weren’t interested in competing or winning prizes. Nevertheless, we improved our strategy this year and it worked. We came in 3rd place! 1-Pull a trailer. Jibe loaned me a trailer, Hal already had one. Lorge bicycle tours so he has front and big rear panniers. 2-Have one rider in your group who can post on social media – thank you Kimberly. Go team! Rob, me, Michael:
Such a fun event. We are ready do it again next year. Thank you SABA for organizing this food donation drive and Jibe for supporting our N Natomas team.
Environmentalist of the Year
ECOS – Ecological Council of Sacramento – held their annual awards night. Anne Gehraty and I attended representing SABA. Fox & Goose downtown.
One of my neighbors, Edith Thacher, was awarded Environmentalist of the Year for her work with ECOS.
Rising Star Award to Mackenzie Hollender – a junior at Natomas Charter School.
Thursday @ Merrilyn’s
on Friday. A different kind of Th@M. We were supposed to crack and shell walnuts but it was drizzling outside, so we went inside and Merrilyn made crab cakes. We sat down and started chatting, lost track of time and – surprise – two hours had gone by and NO walnuts had been cracked. LOL – we know how to cover all the topics.
St Hubert
A rainy morning but .. off I went to St Ignatius to see the 4th grade presentations of the saint each student had researched and crafted. St Hubert: patron saint of hunters, archers, foresters, trappers and the city of Liege.
Polar Express
This is the 20th year of the Polar Express in Old Sacramento and I have never experienced it until tonight. Thank you so much BarbaraL for inviting me and a few other friends to be a part of “friends and family night” – a free event for those who will be working the upcoming holiday season.
Except for the Santa and entertainers, everyone else is a volunteer.
We were in a first class car, the French Quarter.
Paper cups of hot chocolate inside a commemorative mug .. and hot! Just made.
On the way to the North Pole, the book Polar Express was read aloud. Copies of the book were passed out, nice to be able to see author/illustrator Chris Van Allsburg’s illustrations. When we arrived, Santa and entertainers greeted us, then turned and walked down some steps …
and suddenly appeared in our car and gave out an engraved jingle bell to every passenger.
While Santa made his way to the rest of the cars, staff interacted with passengers. A long-time friend of BarbaraL, they’ve worked together for years. She’s a retired teacher who can translate Russian and Ukrainian.
Coming back to the font of the car near the end of the ride. Santa “ran” down the aisle and make to .. ? as the train arrived back in Old Sac.
A final stop before heading home. This is where BarbaraL will be working for the next few weeks, attending to Santa.
Thank you Barbara for another wonderful experience. You are the best!
Pre-ride
I was tasked by SABA to organize the next couple of social rides. For November, I decided on a tour of Sacramento’s kinda-famous alleys with names chosen to reflect the city and its history: Blues .. Victorian – in alphabetical order. Today BarbaraL and I did pre-ride based on a route I created using Ride w GPS. We started at Old Soul Co in Liestal Alley. Liestal Switzerland is one of Sacramento’s sister cities.
Rice Alley has been recently renovated.
Old Sacramento is getting ready for the Christmas season.
Next came Firehouse Alley (one section closed, another filled with construction or delivery vehicles – this is why you do a pre-ride). On to Improv Alley, Fat Alley, Eggplant Alley, Democracy Alley, Chinatown Alley (several blocks are not paved). The end of the ride will be at Cantina Alley which is the name of a business in Jazz Alley.
After lunch at Sellands, we drove to Rancho Cordova: Mather Veterans Village where we’ll be leading a social ride next week.
This pre-ride was short, quick and easy. There are some very nice infrastructure improvements in Rancho Cordova.
arletelouise 