At Bike Dog East Sac.

8:30a Sunday, cold and foggy, as I waited for Brenda to meet me at Peregrine Park for the ride in.

The starting point was Old Soul in Liestal Alley.

Riding through Firehouse Alley in Old Sac.

BarbaraL and I were co-leaders for the ride.

We started with 26 but finished with 12 at Cantina Alley in Jazz Alley.

Good food at the after-party:

The winner of best alley cat costume .. our very own Brenda .. who also took all the the bicycle-action photos above.

Fun day. My first time leading a SABA social ride. 32 miles!

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.

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.

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.

AARP invited local advocacy organizations to an all-day workshop in Hagginwood to learn more how to do a walk audit.

This location – Marysville Blvd between Arcade and Grand Ave – was chosen because the City of Sacramento is moving toward road improvement projects to address this high-injury corridor. We broke into three groups and were given a section of the project to make observations.

The four-lane road plus center turn lane will get a “road diet” – down to two lanes with center turn lane and buffered bike lanes.

Although the project provides many benefits, it does not address the sidewalks which are in terrible condition. Poles and posts need to be relocated and the width of the sidewalk needs to be consistent.

The mobility scooter used the crosswalk then the traffic lane to better access a grocery store.