How did you feel about Bike To Work Day 2009? From what I saw it was VERY busy at all the stations in the downtown area. Since I work at home, I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go so I followed the lead of Eileen and just rode around to a few stations to check out the scene.

Cyclists were rotating in and out at One Texas Center at a brisk pace.

My first stop was at One Texas Center, the City of Austin offices down on Barton Springs and 1st. I must have hit this one at exactly the right moment as there were no less than thirty cyclists signing in and grabbing a breakfast taco during the five minutes I spent there. The tables set up by city staff were tucked away a little but in just the right place to be in plain view of all the other city employees who had driven to work and were coming in through the parking garage. Many of them had looks on their face that seemed to be a combination of surprise and guilt for not participating themselves. Smart move!

The food: not bad. Half-size breakfast tacos with decent tortillas and salsa. Coffee, but I didn’t catch what brand or roast. The highlight was the cooler full of ZICO coconut water. I think they were all the mango flavor, but they were free. First time to try one and it was fairly refreshing – not too sweet or overpowering.

Robin Stallings greets cyclists at BikeTexas HQ.

Next was the east side, the move that would ruin any chances of my being competitive in the Juan Big Ride. Took me a lot longer to get over to the Texas Bicycle Coalition offices than I was thinking, maybe twenty minutes or so. There I saw another good crowd although around half of the numbers at One Texas Center. Still a good turnout for a locale that wasn’t necessarily on many people’s commuting route and pretty far away from any other breakfast stations.

The food: full breakfast tacos, potato and egg with some excellent salsa on offer. The one bummer was the tortillas, which tasted a little too “store bought” for me (but keep in mind I’m picky and not really a fan of flour tortillas in the first place). There were also mini Clif bars, coffee and cold water.

I used up any chance of visiting many more breakfast stations chatting with Robin Stallings and Emma Cravey over at BikeTexas; when I finally looked at the time it was around 8:30 already and so I abruptly got up and left (sorry guys!) to at least hit one more before my finish point at Mellow Johnny’s. What I can say though is Robin feels really optimistic about getting some good bike bills passed this time. Keep thinking good thoughts everyone.

City Hall was really busy but the food was long gone.

For time’s sake I decided my second to last stop would have to be City Hall. When I arrived it was getting awfully close to the station closing time of 9:00am and it showed. A good bunch of cyclists were standing around talking by then and Councilmember Mike Martinez was on hand to greet us. As I was about to leave, Councilmember-elect and bike advocate Chris Riley showed up too and showed ME up by saying he had already been to six breakfast stations. Nice going Chris!

The food: not much! Like I said, I hit this station close to 9. Mike Martinez was kidding around while I was there telling us the food on offer consisted of Clif bars and salsa. Yum. The breakfast tacos had been gone a while (I was told they had about 85 originally).

Relaxing after a long day chasing breakfast.

Time was up so I raced over to Mellow Johnny’s, just a couple of streets away. Juan Pelota was serving the food right from their normal counter, which caused a long line to form wrapping around the corner and into the service area of the shop. I spent way more time waiting to get food here than anywhere else. That said, it was worth it.

The food: ah, the food. Mellow Johnny’s always has excellent food no matter the event.

Actually, coming from the world of politics where events often serve the cheapest food possible (and we often shared an inside joke: eat before you go!), all the food I’ve eaten at bike events has been pretty damn good in comparison.

Look at what Juan Pelota was handing out to each person:

Gorgeous, no?

All of us were given a beautifully made cup of fresh, hot coffee in a real mug(!) along with a lemon bar and mini muffin. Absolutely delicious. The coffee tasted even better to me because I’m generally an addict but had held off getting any at the earlier stations. Well worth the wait.

I heard there was even better food to the north, where The Peddler had teamed up with students from the Texas Culinary Academy. Something about croissants… but too bad for me, I was out of time for this year.

My personal thanks to all the volunteers, bike shops, food vendors, volunteers and the Austin Cycling Association for putting all of this together.