BLM and Starchasers Bike Rally from John Sullivan on Vimeo.

Thursday July 9

Join the NB Black Lives Matter Movement and the New Bedford Starchasers on an family-friendly, no-drop 6-mile bicycle rally, exploring the city’s stories, murals, and monuments to Black history.

Start: Buttonwood Park Warming House, 1 Oneida St.
Meet: 6:15p Thursday July 9
Launch: 6:30p

Wear neon colors, put a sign on your bike, and get ready to move at the speed of funk for a good cause. Masks and helmets are strongly encouraged. Extra masks, water, and lights will be available at the launchpad.

Three days of riding on the holiday weekend. Day 1 was around the peninsula of New Bedford, Ma. Day 2 was into Mattapoisett to check out the bike path extension and different parts of town. The weekend culminated with a full moon bike ride on the East Bay Bike Path in Rhode Island with friends.

One of the highlight was talking to three youngsters who were refugees from the war in Syria. We didn’t talk much about Syria but did spend much of the conversation in Arabic.

It’s time for another Sunset/Moonlight ride.  This time the full moon falls on the Sunday.  The ride will be on the East Bay Bike Path on Sunday 7/5/20.

  The Details:Date: Sunday 7/5/20.  Location:  EBBP off Rt 103 near Del’s Lemonade.  Set your GPS to 65 Child St, Warren, RI

Time:  Arrive: 6:45PM  Departure: 7:00PM promptly  Sunset: 8:22PM Moonrise:  12:49AM

Name: Full Buck Moon Distance is flexible.  
Rain cancels the ride.  

We will ride toward Providence till we decide to turn around.  Turn around point will probably be India Point Park unless we decide to turn around sooner (or later).  That’s around 22 or 23 miles round trip. 

Bikes should have adequate lighting.  If you have a second headlight as a backup that might come in handy if the first one goes out.  Bring water, snacks, cameras and anything else you might want or need.

 
Please take note:  As organized rides are not happening at this time, this should be considered an unorganized (disorganized???) ride.  Appropriate social distancing,  wearing of masks if that’s not possible etc. should be observed.  If we’re going to do this it should be done as safely as possible.  

The Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford, MA held an outdoor concert series at the Martha’s Vinyard ferry terminal parking lot. $50 per car got you in, and ushers directed everyone to distancing parking spaces. Trucks and large vehicles in the back. Sedan’s were directed closer to the stage.

Attendees could either set up in the parking spot to the left of their vehicle, or could stay in the car listening to the show on their radio. Some also chose to sit in the bed of their truck or on the roof of the car.

Ryan played a full two hours commenting that this was his first show since the virus hit. It was surreal to him, and all of us.

Ryan Montbleau from John Sullivan on Vimeo.

Author Rob Penn travels around the world collecting hand-built parts for his dream bicycle and charts the social history of one of mankind’s greatest inventions. His journey to Marin County (home of the mountain bike), has some great moments with icons of mountain biking.

I have been on the bike every day since…since…since a few weeks ago. I always pack a camera or two and a pair of binoculars. The binocs have gotten quite a bit of use between bird and boat watching. The camera not so much. Actually, I haven’t taken more than a couple of video shots in four or five days.

Over the past few weeks I have been, off and on, working on a project for my friend Larry. This guy has stories. It spans four decades, and is the stuff movies are made of. Fishing, treasure hunting, hobo, stow away and many more jobs. He settled down in New England a few years ago, bought a small boat, made some contacts and is now a pretty successful commercial diver. His main income is in clams and conch. Knobby conch to be precise.

Because of the times, he is unable to go home to visit his octogenarian mother and the rest of the family. It’s the first time he has been unable to travel in July, to the Yacima Valley of Washington State in a decade. I offered to do a video of him, his office and his job. He accepted. We sent it out last week and as I mentioned in my first paragraph, I had nothing to work on. I decided to re edit his video with some updated music. The original had stock easy music which was good for his mom and family. I did this one mostly for me and for Larry. And also youse guys.

Larry_Vimeo from John Sullivan on Vimeo.

I had been planning this for a couple of weeks while doing the series about Rail Trails of Rhode Island and Cape Cod.

Tourism on the Cape is very sparse. It was an easy ride to Falmouth, MA and another easy four miles pedaling on the Shining Sea Bikeway to Wood’s Hole.

Trucks dominated the ferry loading along with a few cars. Usually there are long lines of standbys for vehicles to board. Not today. Also, bikes are abundant on most crossings. Today it was only me.