Furries, new places and not-crashing

Pittsburgh is the Furries Mecca. They have had an annual convention here for the past ten years and strangely enough... Pittsburgh, which would normally eschew the new and odd world of Furries, has welcomed and embraced them. This is one of the anomalies of Pittsburgh that makes me smile: backwards, conservative Pittsburgh Yinzers and Furries mixing it up.

On yesterday's ride, while we missed a Furry Parade, we did see some Furries using the Party Pedaler.

Marko asked where I'd like to go and I said I didn't care. After the words exited my mouth I knew he was going to drag me up hills and yes, he did.

He took us up to Riverview Park, which was a nice low grade hill, but looooooong. The only other time I was up there was for last year's Pedal Pittsburgh ride. I love most of the downhill from the park: the road surface is good and you don't have to ride the brakes and weave around a myriad of potholes and other hazards. Then, he showed me how to get to the new section of trail along route 28 with murals and former Saint Nicholas church.

Riding through the Strip, we bumped into Kristin, the Bike/Ped coordinator for the City. She was riding a HelBike and passing us.... Arrrgh! I'm getting passed by bike-share bikes! I'm soooo slow.

Marko started chatting with her and as the three of us passed Kindred Cycles, we saw Jonathan, Tricia and Joanne congregating on the sidewalk in front of the shop and then I nearly collided with Marko. Oooops.





It seems I'm at my clumsiest and most awkward when I'm riding with Marko: I'm either falling over, unable to keep balanced to get a roll going up a hill or I'm nearly crashing into him.
Derp.


Some interesting things with my bike leaning on them:

Roberto Clemente

Hills: we can do it!