Foggy Ride to Treasure Island - Fun but no Sun

Today’s ride was a little different.  I organized a ride to Treasure Island inviting both my bike club (VeloRaptors) and Oakland Rotary 3.  I set the start time for 10 am, hoping the fog would be burned off by then, but no such luck.  The temperature wasn’t bad (52 deg), but the fog was thick enough that we couldn’t see the bay, thus no pictures.  Dennis showed up with his 89 Toyota 4Runner, and was impressed that another rider (Mark) had a '92 version.  Dennis didn’t ride but decided to meet us at the MerSea restaurant on TI. 

Seven of us pedaled out from the Brickyard Pavilion and stopped to give our respects to the Bridge Troll hidden in a secret location along the way.  

I got a call from Dennis just as we reached the end of the bridge path on Yerba Buena island.  He wanted to let me know that the power was out everywhere on Treasure Island.  While I was taking the call, the others passed me and headed up the Yerba Buena Island hill.  Dennis decided to hang around the closed restaurant for a few minutes until we arrived. 

When the group rendezvoused with Dennis, we realized that Mark wasn’t with us.  I called him and learned that he was at the nearby Aracely café which was open (albeit without power) and where Carla from Rotary was waiting to meet us. We cycled the short distance over there and as we rode up a group of firemen were leaving.  Turns out they got the last cup of coffee.  We were relieved to learn that there were still pastries and hot water for tea. We had had nice snack and somehow Carla ended up volunteering to SAG for one of our rides!

The ride back was uneventful and once back in Oakland, several of us stopped for coffee at the Blue Bottle Cafe on Broadway.  I learned that one of the new riders (Kate) teaches 6^th grade math.  I asked what subjects she covered during the year and our discussion led to me volunteering to come to her class and do a brief show and tell about my career in earth science. Basically, kids in her class have little exposure to career opportunities beyond service industries, etc. I think my 3 minute Rotary self-introduction talk can be expanded to 10-15 minutes and expose them to career paths beyond their local experience.