The Letter R and a Rendezvous of Riders

This week, the Alphabet Photo Challenge letter is "R".

"R" is for a Rendezvous of bike Riders at the annual Tour de Fat in San Diego.

Tour de Fat is an annual summer event with about a dozen stops across the U.S.

The money raised at the events is used to improve bike access in each of the cities.

They've raised millions of dollars for this cause.

It is sponsored by one of our favorite breweries, New Belgium.

They're based in Fort Collins, Colorado.  We toured the brewery a few years ago.

Their philosophy of brewing and life is awesome...earth friendly and fun.

And, their beer is pretty darn good too!

Last Saturday was their annual stop in San Diego.

We've heard about it for years and finally went.  And, boy...are we glad we did!

Talk about a great day, filled with tons of fun and thousands of happy people!

The day started with parade/bike ride about three and a half miles long.

Many of the participants dressed up in costumes.

These were two of our favorites...Steam Punk...

There were a few go-go girls...

 Some were just funky and fun...

How about a furry bike and some German (?) costumes?...

A skeleton made with PVC pipe...pretty clever...

I thought she was dressed cute and I loved the yarn fringe on her handlebars...

 A few doggies came to enjoy the fun...

This one was dressed up and trotted along in the parade...

Of course, there were a lot of great bikes...

A LOT!  This is just the main area where people parked their bikes.

There were hundreds of them throughout the park too.

There were lots of crazy bikes to try out.

We saw these before the parade but forgot to go back and give them a whirl.

It looks like this one goes in circles...

How about a John Deere, tractor bike?...

A car tire bike...

A little Penny Farthing made with modern bike parts...

Hey!...I think I could actually ride this unicycle!

Wheels made out of shoes.  Hmmm?

Another bike that spins around...

This was funny...it's a bike made with a wheel chair.

The one wheel is offset so it goes up and down as it goes round and round.

It was hilarious to watch and many people fell over trying it.

Here's hubby giving it a whirl...

 I think this was the tallest bike at the event...

And, yes...he could ride it.  Very well, too!

There were lots of fun things to do besides biking.

Check out this giant kaleidoscope...

 The end is made with bike wheels and parts.

A giant Connect Four...

We weren't sure what this was but what a funny sight...

It was a box filled with little hand-crank music box things.

They all made a different sound or tune.

Slinky!

 Giant Jenga...

More bike parts made into something fun...

This one has pedals to crank with your hands...

The top turns with a bunch of tubes that whistle and whine in the wind...

 This was made with some bike parts and it turned in the breeze...

This giant picture frame was a lot of fun for photos...

For more photo fun, there were a bunch of fun signs propped up next to one

of the tour trucks.  Visitors enjoyed posing and being silly for pictures...

This little Vaudeville tent was popular.

There was a long line for it the entire time.

We didn't feel like waiting in the hot sun to see it.

Maybe next time.

There was a big stage with concerts, comedy and other fun stuff.

Someone even traded their car in for a bike, promising to ride instead of drive for a year.

They do that at each stop of the tour.

Another stage had some fun, old fashioned entertainment.

They were funny and amazing!   He even juggled a running chainsaw, 

an egg and a bowling ball...all at the same time!

There were some food trucks.  More would have been better.

Of course, there was beer!

I like the sign where they sold tokens for beer...

We brought a blanket and found a nice shady spot to enjoy our beer,

lots of people watching and, yes, some crochet time.

They even had a cool way to get people to throw away their trash and recycling...

It worked!  There were several of these and people actually

stacked their cups and placed them in the "Compost Offices".  :-)

We posed our cruiser bikes next to one of the tour trucks.

The trucks are so colorful!

Yup!  We likes bikes!  They gave these out when we registered.

I hope you enjoyed the Ride!

We sure enjoyed our day!  We're definitely planning to go again.

Next time...costumes!  :-D

We Rode, Relaxed and Relished the Rendezvous!

UPDATE:  Just found out that there were over 6,000 people there last Saturday
and they raised over $40,000 for San Diego bike advocacy, outreach and education.