MAKE IT RAIN!!!

So, another Friday comes, the day started out beautiful! Shorts and a sleeveless-t, nothings better. After the shop closed up a few of us rode out to NoHo to the Smith Bike Kitchen to say hello to the gals that work there. It was a nice ride, back roads not too hilly but burned the legs. We got there after a little search around campus, it must have looked a little odd for a pack of eight or so guys riding through the all girls campus, yelling at each other and not paying any attention to the people around us, I don't think people knew what to do when they saw us coming. Well, we find the Kitchen and introduce ourselves check out the space and start helping out with bikes. We were working outside then it began to rain. The Kitchen is no bigger than the Coop at UMass, but a little more out of the way and looks like Freddy lives there, but its a space and the girls there enjoy it. We say our goodbyes and are off to ride the 9 or so miles back to campus.


We get back, riding through some farms and nice mellow hills and some great flat sprints. It was raining pretty heavy at this point, so we jump onto the bike path ans I cruise back to my house, the path conveniently come out behind Amherst College a few doors down from my house. I take a shower, have a beer and re coop before heading out, grab a nice meal with Dorthy Mantooth and never call her again.

Well, now its raining really hard and it is Ten so time to hit the spoke, we don't get asked to move and hide under the over hang. We decide to hit one party and hang there as long as we can. its a friends house so we know it will be alright to be there all night. Route 9 in Amherst is a long stretch of strip malls and gas stations. It all starts with a big descent down a monster of a hill. We get going after our booze is picked up, the rain is still coming down hard and the roads are soaked, I forgot my rain pants and most everyone else didn't even have rain pants. Down the road we go, single file, not much talking or laughter going on like we usually do. I hang at the end of the line and look on as everyone rides on, my clothing beginning to collect the rain. I get into a rhythm, ten pedal strokes to every drop of rain from the brim of my cap. Smooth and fluid as the water around me. I just hang back, keep a mellow pace and just enjoy the hum and swish of the road. Then we get close to the house and I sprint to the front to show the group the drive way and we are there, damp and ready for a beer.

We enter and are welcomed, told the dryer was ours for the night and to toss our things in. This is nice, I grab a seat on the counter and don't really move say for another beer, or a quick dart outside.

Time to leave and we put our half dry clothes on and head back out into the cold rain night moving toward morning. We jump out onto Route 9, and jump on the bike path home. Bad idea, its dark and they mixed glass into the asphalt to lower the cost, this means a lot of flats, out comrade got one so we walked the three or so miles back with him. Well riding a bike drunk is easy, but walking one is a son of a bitch.

Next morning, wake up late and need to get to the Coop, 15 pieces of glass in my front tire, I walked, used the spare tube the day before. Just another Friday night, don't know the extent of it all until the morning.

A little late, but I need to take it all in.

Ten in the p.m. and the red lights come flashing from in front of the Spoke as the early birds show up to ride. I get there, as an early bird and in about fifteen minutes we are a pack of about 20, bags at the ready with beer and goods for the night, red embers hissing and glowing from cigarettes. As the group forms and addresses are put on the table for party locations we move to our friends house to put a few back and wait a bit for the hosts to be in a more inviting mood. It is hard for a group of about 20 guys (there are only 3 girls if that in the pack on any night) to just show up at a party and not get kicked out. So, we have a beer or two, a toast and jump on the bikes. Away we go, down Triangle Street to Main, 699? was the location. Triangle Street is down hill to the intersection of Main, needless to say we are all a little buzzed and the skids feel like butter, but loose chain lines and potholes make for a harsh ride, about a quarter of us lost our chains coming towards the red light. My buddy Brian wasnt so lucky, he came to the light and went OTB from the sand on the road, or something the details are still up in the air as to just how he ended up face first in the pavement.

With some cheers from the rest of us we were on our way once the light blinked green and down Main in a hurry, this road is longer and steeper than the last with a few more potholes. I think the term "Masshole" cmae about not because people from Mass are assholes, but for the abundance of potholes to screw up anything on wheels.

Well, in one piece we make it to the house, right away things look out of place. Not to many cars in the driveway and no noise coming from it either. The door opens and a small, average college guy comes to the steps.

"Who are you guys, who do you know here?" the figure askes to the group, one dude who "Knows someone" speaks for the group. I never knew what was really said untill days later, but i went up took one step in the door and turned to leave.

"To my house!"

So we end up at my house, a little place that looks like a Doll House, I live with some Hockey guys and my brother, its alright.
We are there for about 15 minutes before the guys come home with a look of anger and defeat on their faces, it was time to leave again.
Out to a house where i know a few people, most of us never make it inside and just stand at our rack of bikes telling every drunk bro the same thing abotu how our friday night works.
I dont know about the rest of the guys and girls I ride with but I get a great sense of pride everytime I have to explain my motives for riding my bike.
That party was cool, nothing all to crazy went down, from here the group split, people heading off on their own, to their girls/guys place or sticking around.
A majority of the group and I went off to a small house just about on campus. This place looked dead from the outside, and as we moved closer looked like a satanic ritual was going on on the inside. We stand outside waiting to get the okay from someone who knows someone when our connection comes out in a white hat and sun glasses and tells us all to come in and have a beer. We have a 30 handed to us and start dancing, there were only about ten kids from outside our group in this place and we swarm and take over. As we get a roaring thing going some girl crys out, "If you only know the guy in the white hat, Then LEAVE!"
Well, it sucked but we had our time and beer there so we left, stealing another 30 on the way out and heading for home.