Today a drive to Placerville for bike club. This is a great group of kids, they are learning bicycle driving skills rather quickly and I have to make weekly lessons more challenging whenever possible. 
At right is Alyson Fox, staff advisor and an excellent support for the bike club. Alyson keeps track of attendance, waivers, communications with parents and principal. I’m a lucky coach.
After pedestrian education after school today, I went directly to the bicycle club. I wasn’t sure anyone would attend today, so I didn’t even bring my bike. But surprise! quite a few kids were there. And the biggest kid was there too, Lindsay’s dad Brian – he’s such a great supporter of the bike club.
After one good picture, students in invited to make a goofy face for the second picture:
This can be a tricky intersection for about a half hour after Auburn Elementary School lets out at 3 pm. Lots of cars, parents, kids walking, bicycle riding, a crossing guard who’s periodically ignored or almost run over. Safe Kids California asked me to spend two afternoons at the crosswalk, reminding students how to safely cross the street even when a crossing guard is present.
It’s hard to tell if my presence, my words, or the goodies I passed out had an impact or not. But we continue to teach, don’t we?
Here we are, ready to ride to Natomas Marketplace, have a hamburger at In N Out Burger, and stop at Tanzanite Skate Park. Except NO one showed up except for staff advisor Megan McManus and me. So Megan and I visited for a half-hour or so and then went on with the rest of our day. I call this receiving a “gift of time”.
Another great bike club day in Placerville. I set up the day’s course during the hour before the end of school. When classes go out for PE or recess, I keep my fingers crossed the cones remain undisturbed.
I love this sandy beach in one corner of the playground.
Today I created a very simple skills course at Ella Elementary in Olivehurst which lasted about 2 hours.
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This boy was very excited to show me how he could sit backwards and ride his bike. He did pretty good, although Coach couldn’t really endorse this style of riding.
What a fantastic experience this has been and it’s only week 2! Alyson Fox (the adult in the picture below) has been an excellent staff liaison between school/parents and me, Coach. This is the third bike club I’ve started in the Sacramento region.
We started at Leroy Greene Academy, rode across the Jibboom Street Bridge at Discovery Park,
through Old Sacramento to Marie’s Donuts at the corner of Freeport Blvd and Vallejo.
We met up with Elle Steele and Kidical Mass. They were having a group ride from Marie’s Donuts to William Land Park, about 2 miles away. The variety of child-carrying bicycles was amazing.
The Kidical Mass group went to Fairytale Town while our bike club went to the Sacramento Zoo.
A lion and a jaguar.
L-R: LaTraye, Andrew, staff advisor Megan McManus
A very successful 20-mile ride.
Odin was so excited to show me he didn’t need training wheels and could ride his bike really well. The grass in the backyard at the G St house is really tall (and needs to be mowed or plowed soon) – a challenge to ride through the first few times to make bike trails.
It was important to keep pedaling no matter what. Getting started again was difficult.
And then I went for a pre-ride of the route for an upcoming LGA Club Ride. Vallejo Street: narrow two-lane road with no bike lane or shoulder which means our group will take control of the lane during this stretch.
Destination #1:
Destination #2:
The next step is to create a ride plan to share with students, parents, and Megan, the staff advisor.
What’s tabling? That was my first question anyway when offered this job.
Elle Steele and I set up a table at the entrance to the cafeteria where the pancake breakfast was taking place. We snagged whoever we could to give away safety information, brain erasers, reflective stickers, and hopefully get some parent names on a list for the upcoming Bike Rodeo. My compliments to Elle’s tabling skills, she’s an expert at pulling people in.
And we got two names on the list for the Bike Rodeo!
arletelouise 