Adventure with the Bicycle Archaeologists

I was headed to Maplewood Bicycle's Saturday morning ride. I got there a couple of minutes late and there was nobody there. Either the ride started exactly on time or the weather (upper 20's) scared everyone off.

On my way to the bike shop, I had seen a couple of riders headed perpendicular to my path. I turned around to see if I could catch them and join up with whatever they were up to. Fortunately, they hadn't made any turns so I was able to catch them in a mile or so.

When I reached them, I saw that they were both on nondescript mountain bikes with flat pedals. They both seemed to be older than me (I'm 40). I asked them what they were up to and if I could join them. They introduced themselves as Dave and Rand and described themselves as bicycle archaeologists. They were on their way to do a bicycle tour of Sunset Hills. They had a book about Historic sites in Sunset Hills and an itinerary that was actually designed as a driving tour. They graciously allowed me to join up with them but warned me that they would be going slow. I didn't mind that, I thought that it would be more fun to do a slow ride with other people than a fast ride by myself.

Since my office is in Sunset Hills, the first part of the ride followed my daily commute. I was able to show them a couple of tricks that I use to avoid some of the busier streets. I was also able to help them find the starting point of the tour. They had turning directions, but no map. I was glad that I could help out since I was a stowaway on the ride.

The tour was pretty interesting. At one point we stopped to look at a house that was built around a log cabin. There wasn't really anything to see from the outside. As we were looking, the owner came out. One of the people I was with asked him if there really was a log cabin inside. He told us that there was but there were only a couple of places that you could tell. He then invited us in to show them to us. I was really amazed at how friendly he was to us, three total strangers. I can’t help but think that if we had arrived by car he might have been a little more defensive.

We saw some other interesting sights on the tour. Apparently they do these tours every weekend. We ended up cutting the tour short because we all had commitments for later that day. Before we parted ways, Dave mentioned that he was a major investor in a Saint Louis tourist attraction (I’m not mentioning which one so that I don’t reveal Dave’s identity). He gave me a free pass for my family and me.

When I got home and told the story of my adventure to my wife she asked, “Can you just go up to any group of people and join them while they are riding?” I thought about it for a while and said, “You can always ask, and I imagine most people are going to say yes.” I think that’s one of the neat things about bicycling. You can easily meet other people and talk to them. You can’t just casually start talking to people in cars. My day certainly did not turn out like I planned, but what happened was a lot more interesting.