Creve Coeur Mystery Bike Tour 2010

We had a great turnout at the Creve Coeur Mystery Bike Tour! We were a little nervous with this being our and DASA's first bicycle tour event, and we only had a small handful of riders who registered in advance, despite the blood, sweat and tears we all put in to promoting it for the last several months. But many of our cyclist friends assured us that a lot of people don't register in advance for this type of event, as they'd rather wait and see what the weather will be like, etc. So, we kept our fingers crossed! They were right. We had lots of riders and blew through nearly every t-shirt (free with registration). We even had a few random people riding or walking elsewhere in the park, who just came up and gave donations!

We were fortunate enough to have one of Allen's friend's, Derwood Tinny, who works at a local medical equipment shop (and who helped Allen get his new wheelchair recently) help us out bigtime with some last minute premium radio air time. His company had a commercial for the event professionally recorded and aired all day Saturday on 97.1. In addition, Derwood discussed Allen's trip in detail with the morning show radio host during his interview!

Creative Mobility was on site with their adaptive sports equipment and cycles, and had a solid crowd all day. Tim, from Sunset Cycles (Allen's bike shop) was on site offering free bike tech support and Children's Hospital's Safety Stop was on site doing free helmet fittings.

I had Ella's helmet fitted and also bought Chloe a helmet, since we couldn't find it at the last minute. The helmet was only $8 and it's awesome! It looks really cool, and it's much better quality than any we might find at Wall-Mart or Target for $15, much less $8. I wish I would have had more cash on me because Ella's helmet was really a little too big and it's old and a bit faded from the sun, and I would have gladly spent $8 for another one. And I think she was a bit envious once she saw the helmet Chloe got.

Al Swacker showed up with his band, Devil Baby Freak Show, just as the ride was wrapping up and played an awesome set live in the parking lot. There was one little boy who was maybe only three years old. He was completely transfixed by the band. I think he and his family were actually leaving the Lake House Restaurant and walking to their car, but he just stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the band, and then he started rocking out, jumping around and dancing. He would freeze every time a song ended and stand perfectly still. And as soon as the first strum of the guitar hit for the next riff, he would go crazy again. He had everyone cracking up. I think he ended up staying for almost the entire set, with his grandma and mom just watching him (along with everyone else, including us!) He even made a debut on stage, and the lead singer(who tap dances while she sings!) stepped aside to let him have a few moments in the spotlight. I made Allen record a bit of it with his phone video camera, so I'll have to try and get him to upload the video before he leaves on Wednesday and share it with all of you!

All in all the event was a big success. A BIG THANKS to all of our volunteers who did an awesome job! We couldn't have done it without the help of all of you.

- Andrea