This weekend the bf and I rented a Zipcar and drove to P-town. Our goal was to get caught in Hurricane Danny (sadly later demoted to Tropical Storm Danny),  get rained on at a local campsite with other members of the Gozerian Society, and possibly get swept out to sea on my first visit to the homosexual capital of New England. Though we did plow through some pretty deep puddles on the highway, the storm sadly petered out as we were dining at Bayside Betsy’s (which I don’t really recommend, it being typical in the lobster/chowder/deck shoes way of restaurants on the seashore). What I didn’t expect, however, was the mindblowing number of bikes I saw there. There are bike racks EVERYWHERE, and even during this ‘hurricane’, people were pedaling up and down the main strip in flip flops, some even holding umbrellas! All the bikes I saw were of the beach cruiser variety, owing to the fact that there’s only about two miles of rideable area from one end of Ptown to the other.

the moustache helps him blend in

I'm also blending in, with my 'sloppy chic' duds

P-town people relaxin' by the pool.

Ultimately, I give P-town a 6 on the Biketastic Rating Chart, because there’s a ton of great parking, and (apparently) low bike-related crime, but it’s really an all or nothing geography – you have about 5 miles of road altogether in town, and if you live out of town it’s a huge undertaking to get there via bike.

Thursday, August 27th, 2009. North Harvard St.

blue skies and open roads

I need a new bike. I have a nice big chunk of change earmarked for this new bike. I know exactly what I want to be riding, from stem to stern, as it were. You’d think it’d be easy to walk into a shop and/or a custom build boutique and say “here, have my moneys and give me this not so complex item” but noooo. It seems that all the shops are too busy (or too cool) to need my cash, and the designers are all so backed up that there’s no way I’d be getting anything concrete until the middle of next summer. What’s a girl to do? I want a bike, and I want it NOW(ish)! I know that if I don’t get someone to help soon, I’m going to just break down and get a pre-assembled POS to ride for another year, and I won’t be satisfied. Grr.

In other news, it seems that they have decal’d and signed the bike lane on N. Harvard, which is awesome. Not so awesome is the fact that it seems tickets are no deterrent to the people who really want to park there. I wonder how much they are ticketing for. I think this afternoon I’ll stop and take a peek at the total price of being a douchebag. At the same time I may leave a ticket of my own. Here’s a peek:

My phone cam is crappy, but on the back of the fake ticket you can check boxes on such violations as:

• Parking like a Jackass
• Taking up 2 Spaces (Jerk)
• Being Illiterate (it says ‘RESERVED’)
• Ugly Driver Violation

And much much more! You can get these fakey tickets at bigmouthtoys.com.

Remember this, score one for the good guys, right?

And they’ve also repaved N. Harvard Street, so fresh and so smooth, complete with bike lanes! oh yay!

Oh… wait.

There are also signs like this posted all along this lane.

But nobody seems to care.

Great work, guys.