DC Bike Party's Gender Equality Ride takes place safely outdoors as pandemic of fear grips DC
Video: Early portions of the DC Bike Party-and ugly reality on way home 2 min 28 sec
On the 11th of March, a pandemic of fear could not stop the DC Bike Party's Gender Equality Ride from taking to the streets. Organizers warned riders to leave some distance between each other, but also reminded everyone that the ride is outdoors and thus well ventiliated. The ride was a success, and was seemingly the busiest traffic in otherwise near-empty streets
The original halfway stop for the ride was at RFK Stadium, but two police cars sat at the periphery and shined lights into the stopped ride. Seeing the spot was hostile, riders moved on to a backup location and the rest stop went without incident there. Finally the ride returned to the streets, ending at a Barracks Row location.
On the way home after the bike party, the author of this story encountered more fallout from the World Health Organization's declaration that the Covid-19 coronavirus is now a global pandemic. Radio news was reporting (and possibly CAUSING) runs on toilet paper and hand sanitizer in grocery stores. Indeed those shelves were empty as shoppers pushed mountainous loads in their carts, even after midnight. There was no toilet paper whatsoever to be seen, possibly due to radio newscasters going on the air and telling people that a toilet paper crisis was coming while it was still available. This is not the first time toilet paper has been stripped from store shelves due to rumors and hysteria and probably won't be the last. The first "toilet paper crisis" was at least as far back as the 1970's and even spawned "the toilet paper crisis is a load of crap" bumper stickers.
The DC Bike Party was an anchor of normalcy on a crazy day where it seemed that the only thing missing was the zombies to go with the apocalypse!
A rider pulls a wheelie early in the ride
Beautiful steel tandem bike
Another scene early in the ride
Entering the RFK Stadium area for first attempt at the mid-ride rest stop
These cops disrupted the original location for the halfway point stop by shining their lights and were deemed enough of a threat to move the halfway point stop
Riders lit up by cop lights
Back to reality: store shelves stripped bare as shoppers (thinking a 2 week quarantine will somehow use up two month's worth of toilet paper) hoard vast mountains of toilet paper
