"There's only 3 things I break...

...World Records. Hearts. AND BUS DRIVERS' FACES!!!" - John Phillips

So as most of you know (or have figured out), I have ONLY been doing Day Bike/Segway for a while now. But the time has come for me to tackle Night Bike. Lets list the differences:

Day: less people on the tour, more bike lanes, more information, 6.5 miles
Night: more people on the tour, BBTM lane, less information, 9.5 miles

So Night Bike is more logistically challenging, and Day Bike is more informationally challenging. Make sense so far?

So finally – I have to give a Night Bike. I can read every street light on Blvd St. Germain. I know the route (finally). I can ride my bike while looking backwards. Its going to be great.

The only things I’m scared about are a) opening wine bottles, and b) making the boat on time.
Oh well – here it goes. My first night bike goes... pretty great. I make the 10:00pm boat (pretty good for my first time). But... my Crazy French Person tally is up to 3. I had someone threaten to call the police on me for being on the sidewalk. And then we had some drunk guy come up and talk to us on the Pont St. Louis – I’ve decided that his mumbling was him telling me that I was doing a great job. Fat Tire’s #1.

Then 2nd Night Bike – first of all, I had some friends there. VC goes global!!! But the best part of the night was the 15 minutes I spent in at shouting match with the crazy man at St. Chappelle. When we get to this stop, this guy comes up to us and starts reenacting “King Kong” – whatever, most of the time, if you give these characters about 30 seconds of attention, they’ll go away. So we listen to him for a minute, and then I say “au revoir.” He leaves... and then comes back and asks if I’m American. I say no... this seems to be a good answer most of the time if you’re dealing with gypsies and crazies. So he leaves... and comes back and starts yelling something about terrorists. So in the span of about 15 minutes, he would leave and then come back and start shouting behind me, and then walk around to the other side of the group and stand with his arms crossed, and then walk around behind me and start shouting again, and then walk down the street a little ways and then come back etc. And the whole time we were RIGHT NEXT TO THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE!!! WHERE THE HELL WERE THEY?! Ugh... stupid French policemen. They yell at you one minute for biking on a pedestrian walkway, but they’re not there to arrest the crazies. (But I think I gained some sympathy points from the local cafe.)

So that was my first couple of night bikes... good times. Crazy French People Tally = 4. I’m ready to fight some crazies/cabbies. Whichever comes first.

Oh... and I slapped one of the guys who sells key chains at the Eiffel Tower on the back the other day... he got in my way, and I ran over his foot with the Segway and then turned around and slapped his back. If one of them does it again... its on! Good thing the guys on my tour were from New York and totally approved.

On the downside – I’m sick. Megan is sick therefore I am sick. I’m eating oranges, sleeping, and taking airborne. Yay for days off soon :-D