Tweed Indeed

Kansas City Tweed Ride 2013. It was a great morning for a ride and picnic. The BikeWalkKC group was fun to hang with today! KCTweedIndeed.Wordpress.com

At the beautiful Colonnade near Cliff Drive.

1937 Raleigh with original paint 

Wicker filled with baguettes, brie and a bottle of wine! (I wish that was MY bike!)

A stopping point on Cliff Drive, near St. John Avenue and Gladstone Blvd.

We stopped for a picnic at Scarritt Point.
There is a fantastic view of downtown KCMO from this hill.

Unrelated commonalities

Two completely unrelated photographs. Where is the connection? They were taken on the same day; is that enough to tie them together? The coloring is similar, but not exact. Light plays an important role in both pictures; in the first one, the sun is behind me and in the other the sun is to my right. The sun was setting on both of these shots. But, are those enough to relate the two pictures together?

Do these photographs share anything in common?

Both pictures show a journey. The cyclist is only seen in shadow. The viewer doesn't actually see who's on the bike, where he is headed, what he has seen on his ride or how many miles he has already travelled. The spider's web is also a journey, of sorts. The spider, like the cyclist, is out of view, but has been busy. How many times did he circle round and round? How long did he work at it? It's difficult to tell from the shot because there is no perspective, but the size of this web was about 2.5 square feet.

As I think more about these two photographs, it's the circles that connect them for me. The wheels with the spokes radiating out to the rim; and the fragile, thin silky thread, moving with the wind. Both of these photographs remind me of Kelly's and our family's journey over the past nine months. An exciting, wind-in-the-hair experience, but also hanging on by a thread at times.

Through the years, photographs with circular focus have collected in my albums, but I'd never tied them together before, until now. It's fun to pull them out into a group, and to remember where we were, what we were doing, why we were there... the journey for each picture.

Kelly left Afghanistan yesterday and is in Kuwait. The loop in this circle is almost completely closed up. I'm looking forward to some long bike rides in our future, ...and no more hanging on by a thread!

Bikers for Babies - they all have a story.

Warning: it's a lengthy post tonight... feel free to skip right to the photographs and the last paragraph!

Ian and I spent part of our morning today on a highway overpass, watching the 19th annual March of Dimes Bikers for Babies. Kansas City has the largest Bikers for Babies event in the country; 6,000+ bikers started their ride from the Kansas Speedway and headed south on 435. In years past, because of my job, our family has had the opportunity to see the starting line and the opening ceremonies from the inside of the Speedway. It's incredibly impressive to see that many motorcycles all lined up waiting to ride together as a group. You can not imagine the noise all those revving engines make. 

But today, I wasn't working! Ian and I staked out a great viewing spot on the Kansas Avenue bridge over 435 before the bikes made an exit on K-32 to head west. As we waited, several other cars joined us on the bridge. One family brought a big flag and draped it over the side of the bridge. One family had made a sign that said "Thank you for riding! We love you!" A group of bikers stopped to take pictures before getting back on the highway below to continue their ride. Everyone on the bridge had a reason they were there. One was a grandpa whose granddaughter was a 1 pound 10 ounce 25-weeker who spent 7 months at St. Luke's NICU. He took out pictures from his wallet to show me how "normal" she looked. One family had a daughter who had been a preemie with a 2 month NICU stay. Two parents were there wearing their matching t-shirts with a picture of their twins with the words "Riding for Aubry". We all had our story to share.

The bikers started out in small numbers, only one or two at a time, interspersed between cars and trucks. Within 10 or 15 minutes, the groups of bikes started getting bigger. In no time at all, I realized that I had snapped 168 photographs from the bridge. 

My favorite pictures are the single shots of the riders. They all have their own style of waving: peace-sign, thumbs-up, high-5, love-sign, power-to-the-people, we're-number-one... we definitely felt the love up there. I think I've said it before: I'm a novice at taking pictures. I'm still working out the whole shutter-speed/f-stop/ISO thing... those darn bikes were moving pretty fast, so none of my pics today will win any awards. Some are a little fuzzy, but the individuality is still fun to see. 

Behind the hard exterior, the leather chaps, the tattoos and the noisy bike, all you have to do is ask one of them why they ride in this event. They immediately melt and soften, usually pull out a photograph from their inside vest pocket and tell you a story. It's my story, too. I simply love this day.