About a year and a half year ago, Joseph earned a new bike through the BWorks program in St. Louis. Since then, he and I have enjoyed a number of biking adventures through BWorks’ alumni rides, including riding the Riverfront Trail, and then canoeing back downtown.
But this November, BWorks sent us a very unexpected last-minute invitation: Did we want to ride our bikes in the Thanksgiving parade downtown?
I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be cold? Would it be really long? Our family hasn’t really watched or participated in downtown parades before, since Ferguson usually has its own parades each year.
When I told Joseph about it, he seemed surprisingly game to give it a try. So we said yes. I’m glad we did because it turned out to be a lot of fun, once the parade started moving.
Early on, we were kind of riding too close to the group in front of us. But after a while, we figured out that there was lots of room behind us, so everyone in the BWorks group began riding in big looping circles, even doing tricks. It was sort of like the Shriners, but on unmotorized bikes.
Joseph said riding in the parade helped him learn how to honk a bike horn while riding, which is harder than it looks.
The parade was live-streamed by KLOU on Facebook. If you watch the video, skip ahead to the 52:00 mark to see the BWorks group.