Midnight Peloton through San Francisco

It was 12:10am. Yep just after midnight when my son and I arrived back to our parked car five miles away from AT&T park. We had just witnessed the Giants give up a 4-2 lead, and a spectacular fireworks show. And to top it off we got to ride along San Francisco's Embarcadero over through Fisherman's Wharf area to finish the night off. 

Although the walk down from the nosebleeds was slow, the process of getting our bikes was not. The San Francisco Bike Coalition provides free parking and they were great. I placed all my blinky lights on, along with my high powered beams on my son's bike and we were off.  The first mile was full of people on the sidewalks so we stayed on the bike lane on the street. It got a little dicey by the ferry terminal where I had to pin a taxi to the curb to ensure my son got by unscathed. But after that we jumped onto empty sidewalks and streets and ruled the town.

We raced each other through Fisherman's Wharf, amazed at the empty normally tourist ridden streets. Gliding past Ghiradelli Square I took him along the beach at Aquatic Park to take the hill up and over towards Marina Greens. Admittedly, it got creepy up the hill. Climbing a steep hill in pitch blackness with only our lights and moonlight reflecting against the trees, he was undeterred, as he climbed the hill. I was just hoping he didn't hear the homeless people camping out in the bushes yelling at each other as we rode by.

At the top Bryce, riding behind me shouted,"Dad, I can't make out the trail". I simply said, "that's ok son, just follow my line and don't venture off of it". Now we were slicing through the curves of the trail as if we were skiing in the night. My red blinking light blinked like only Rudolf could and have my son the confidence and trust to follow on. It was beautiful, our own midnight peloton.

In the car Bryce told me "Thanks dad, that was great. That was a great night". Ten minutes later he was out like a trout as I drove home. And not that we were racing, but incidentally we beat our neighbors home who we sat with at the game. We rode five miles before driving and got home first. If that isn't a pitch for cycling to the game, I don't know what is.