We met in Warren, RI with the intention of riding the East Bay Bike Path. It was also the last night for Waterfire, in Providence R.I. We made the decision to ride the 10 miles to the city and join in on the celebration.
It was 70 F and mostly cloudy at the 6 PM start of the ride. The weather got better as we progressed and the sky gradually cleared. We stopped on the India Park Bride in Providence and just kind of sat around. One of the riders decided to look up Waterfire on his phone and told us that the event was tomorrow night. Four of us decided to ride into the city regardless and three decided to ride back. Not wanting to ride at night in city traffic was their reason. If they only knew. The street were pretty much void of any traffic except for Thayer St. in the Brown University area. The traffic was heavy but also at a standstill, which made easy riding for the four of us. All the food trucks has long lines of coeds which made for interesting visuals, if you know what I mean. Kind of made me wish I was five years younger.
We did manage to get lost in the heart of the city. That’s not a bad thing on bikes. We rode around the financial and historic districts till we got our bearings and found our way to the ten mile ride back to Warren.
Once back on the bike path, one by one our lights failed. Four riders and only one with a light. But….the sky had cleared and the full moon lit our way. Kind of. There were a few dark spots and naturally there were bikers and walkers traveling toward us. On of the highlights was a group of eight or ten high school kids on bikes, (sans lights also) who saw us coming. As we approached they all began yelling, when we saw them, we began yelling. No words, just yelling. It was all in fun and it was obvious that both groups enjoyed the encounter. Also along the way we would pass someone who had pulled over when they saw our one light approaching. None of us saw any of them till we were along side and riding at a pretty good clip. The possibilities of an incident were pretty high.
Beaver Full Moon Fiasco Nov 3 2017 from John Sullivan on Vimeo.
A Midnight Rider 