Bike Riding During Wartime
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Today is the first bike club ride since the order came down to close all restaurants and coffee shops in Los Angeles County, and for people to stay at home. So I figured we could ride to Donut Man in Glendora, since the only service they have is a walk-up window. Since our bike riding groups are almost never more than 6-8 people, it seemed like it should be all right, and we never touch unless something goes very, very wrong.
It was a nice day for riding. And the whole ‘social distancing’ thing, and the ‘stay at home’ thing meant that the streets were pretty deserted. The last time I saw streets this empty was during the Arab oil embargo, when there were no cars out because people couldn’t get gas.
At Donut Man, there was a line wrapping around the building. But that’s normal for them. What’s not normal is the tape marking 6-foot intervals to keep the people apart. That was very odd-looking.
On the way back, we rode through downtown Glendora, and it was a ghost town. We stopped off at Encanto Park for a bathroom break. That was where we saw the roped-off playground. That had an apocalyptic feel to it. And downtown Monrovia was also a ghost town. The whole thing was a weird mix of being nice having empty streets to ride on but feeling like it’s the end of the world.
38 miles.
