Rally to.restore sanity and/or fear?

[ny biker]

Is anyone else going to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's rally on the Mall on Oct 30?

www.rallytorestoresanity.com

[Cataboo]

I'm debating. I already had plans for that weekend - but am having friends fly in to attend.

[Trek420]

Don't forget to print out your signs :D

http://www.saneornot.com/

[divingbiker]

I'll be there.

[Trek420]

Pictures, please! not to politicize TE maybe you'll ride there. :cool:

[Kalidurga]

I've also got a friend flying in from out of town with whom I'll be attending. For those of you not riding bikes, what are your transportation plans? I'm in Gaithersburg, but my friends are staying all the way down in Springfield. Has anyone seen details of how the march/rally is being set up?

[ny biker]

I'm only coming from Arlington, so I will probably either park at work (also Arlington) and take the orange line to the mall, or park at Arlington Cemetary and walk over from there.

From Springfield I would probably just take metro.

The rally is at the eastern end of the Mall.

http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/faq/

[7rider]

I'll try to be there.
WABA contacted them (http://waba.org/blog/2010/10/bike-valets-bike-racks-and-wabas-parking-efforts/) - if perhaps only half-heartedly - about setting up a bike valet, but I guess they never heard back from the rally organizers.
That's a bummer. The rally's FAQ's talk of lots of ways to get to the event, but ignore cycling as an option completely. :mad:

[Kalidurga]

I like this--


5) Can I make a donation to support the Rally to Restore Sanity?

We encourage you to make donations to the Trust for The National Mall. We feel it’s important to preserve this historic site for future rallies and for future Americans to rally on! And let’s face it; we’re a little afraid that you might make a mess. We really, really hope you don’t — we hope that, in the name of sanity and reasonableness, you won’t be dicks and will actually pick up after yourselves. But just in case you accidentally, like, put a beverage down on the Mall’s coffee table without using a coaster, we figure that giving a little something back to the National Mall might, at least, soften the blow. But really, mainly, it’s about the “preserving the historic site” thing. Donate here.

Also, all proceeds from sales of the official Rally to Restore Sanity merchandise will be donated to the Trust for the National Mall.

[ny biker]

Good news! The porta-potties have begun to arrive.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2010/10/jon-stewarts-rally-porta-potti.html

[7rider]

WABA says (http://waba.org/blog/2010/10/ride-your-bike-to-this-weekends-events/) ride if you can - but they won't watch your bike.
Bring stout lock(s) and be prepared to walk a few blocks.
Have fun. Take pictures. Report on it here.
I don't think I'm going to be able to make it. :mad:

[Cataboo]

I think I'm taking the metro unless I rush to finish a bike -but despite being supposed to be a beater bike, it's ending up too nice for me to not worry about getting stolen.

anyone have any suggestions on about what time I should try to face the metro rush?

[divingbiker]

I'd say go early and get coffee and lunch beforehand.

I think I'm riding my old pink mixte down the met branch trail. While I'd hate to lose it, it's replaceable and the cheapest bike I've got.

I'll be carrying a bright yellow or pink sign that says

"You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own spelling"

on one side and

"come on people now, smile on your brother"

on the other.
:):):)

[7rider]

I even had 2 signs planned.
:(

One:
Calm.
Down.

The other:
"Your politics is not my cup of tea."

Cat - Is that your flame Surly on CL? Good luck.
Those are my blue Sidis....

[divingbiker]

Why can't you go, 7?

[7rider]

Why can't you go, 7?

Too many other things on the "to do" list this weekend. :mad:

[channlluv]

I love those signs, ladies. Very clever.

Roxy

[ny biker]

I'm not sure now if I'm going. I've had a stomach virus for the past couple of days and it's entirely gone yet -- I'm still living on ginger ale and toast (and pepto bismol). :(

[divingbiker]

I'm not sure now if I'm going. I've had a stomach virus for the past couple of days and it's entirely gone yet -- I'm still living on ginger ale and toast (and pepto bismol). :(

Hope you're feeling better today and can make it. Sign making starts after my first cup of coffee.

[sfa]

Have fun today, everyone! I wish I could be there, but there's way too much else going on this weekend!

Sarah

[pfunk12]

Wow...that was insane. :D In a very fun way. So many people...so much positive energy. Although I didn't get close to the stage, I was glad that I went. Very funny, upbeat crowd. I rode down so it was a little tough getting through the crowd with my bike. Had one guy behind me yelling, "Bike! Bike coming through! Cyclist in training! Let her through! Female Lance! USA! USA! USA! Let her through!" :D Everyone was laughing.

[malkin]

Saw a bit of the rally online.

Really, really eager to hear more reports from you luckies who got to go!

[divingbiker]

I rode down, too, and it was too much for me. Too many people, and I couldn't get close enough to hear anything. It was overwhelming. So I came home and am watching the dvr version of the rally.

[azfiddle]

Got home from my morning ride in time to watch most of it - what a positive thing!

[ny biker]

From what I'm hearing, biking was a better way to get there than metro.

I decided to sleep late and watch it on tv. I loved the whole Peace Train vs Crazy Train thing with Yusuf and Ozzy Osbourne -- when will those two ever share a stage again?! And then the O'Jays doing Love Train was great.

Also loved it when Kareem Abdul Jabar came out. And I liked the tunnel analogy in the speech at the end. It's too bad it was hard for people to hear.

The Roots were great. I loved the tuba player. Now that man has endurance.

[7rider]

Bummer you left early, DB. (congrats on the new pup, btw)
PF - did you go with anyone else from the N2 ride? I saw that PP was there, as was K1, MyMy and Josh, I hear.
DH and I went to the LBS (item #3 on the list), dropped off the Cafe Racer for its tune-up and some additional work, and Mike had the rally broadcasting on the computer over by the coffee machine. I stayed and watched (Yusef and Ozzy was great!) for a bit longer than I planned. The crowd was amazing. It looked almost as big as O's inauguration. :eek: (I left town for that, too. :rolleyes: Most awesome skiing ever up at Cannon!)

[badgercat]

DBF and I biked to a hotel/bar/nightclub in downtown Tucson to watch it live on TV this morning with probably a couple hundred other people. It was fun--the crowd even played along with the Wave at the beginning. :)

[Cataboo]

I spent the night at my friend's near the cathedral after a 4 am jaunt for korean bbq. She has a disability, so had a handicap parking decal. Around 11:15, we left her place and drove down towards the courthouse where she knew there was some handicap parking spots - but around 6th & H there was parking at a meter - there were other spots at meters available as we walked down...

The handicap accessible area was at 4th & Madison - so we went towards that area where there was a throng of people pressing... The shuttle for the disabled would come up to that corner and basically noone would let the wheelchair people through without someone having a screaming fit at everyone. So we had to push up to get to the disability entrance basically being fairly well smashed - in the front, there was a guy that my friend asked if he would get the sheriffs attention so we could go through the gate, the guy basically refused and was really really rude about it. Eventually we managed to get the sheriff's attention on our own and get around obstructionist guy.

So we basically got there maybe 10 mins after 12, which really wasn't all that bad. My friends from florida had gotten up to the mall at 8 am and had a spot at the front next to the sound van, but there was no way we were going to get up there to join them without doing a lot of pushing and shoving and it was nice in the disability area, lots of great energy, old ladies in wheel chairs dressed up and waving signs who would get up to dance in the street - lots of the wheelchair people would start twirling in circles or hold hands dancing in their wheel chairs.

Once we got into the mall area, there was so much going on that the cell phones didn't work for the next 4 hours, everything was overwhelmed. The bf & his parents had tried to get on the metro at Glenmont, but there was a mile and a half line out the door - so they went over to one of the other stations that wasn't so bad. So they got to the mall area around 1:30 and really couldn't get close enough to see anything. When we were getting dinner afterwards, some guy had said that part of the problem with the metro was people were getting on in the inner stations and taking the trains out of town to the end station and riding the train back into town - so the trains were arriving at the end of the line already mostly full...

THe stage was set pretty low, so while we could see the stage, we couldn't see who was on it - we also sat on the ground so we weren't blocking the view of people in wheelchairs around us.

I went to the porta potties at some point and was shocked to see how many people had climbed up on the row of portapotties to get a better view - and how many people had climbed up in trees. the bf said that a woman was on a porta potty near him and a police officer kept telling her to get down sayng that one of the porta potties had collapsed and a woman got hurt - we did see them using a motorized cart to pull a strapped down woman on oxygen out... I'm not sure if she was the same one that fell off a porta potty.

So we actually had a relatively easy time of it - I did have to cajole my friend to get her moving in the morning and make her a couple cups of coffee because she has difficulty getting moving - we'd planned to leave earlier than we did.

It didn't end up as cold as I thought it would be - I'd loaned my friend my icebreaker sweater which I nearly had to peel off her to get back afterwards (I guess I know what I should get her for christmas)

[malkin]

Wow!

[Trek420]

My favorite sign so far :)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/30/the-funniest-signs-at-the_n_776490.html?ref=nf#s169327