I joined the Green Party of Sacramento last April on Earth Day. Main reason is because I was disappointed with Obama not being outspoken enough about climate change. I have always wanted to make a difference somehow. Yes, I go to the GP meetings and yes, I have already made a prototype site for the group but that was not enough. I really wanted to make a tangible difference. I remember a while back passing by a store that sold electric bikes on Blue Ravine near Folsom Blvd. But the store vanished and a massage parlor opened up in its place. The store was called Shocking Rides. I was curious to know what happened to it and looked it up on the internet. I found the site and it looked like it could really use some tlc. The address of the store had changed to some place in El Dorado Hills which was a few miles up the road.
Right around the same time, I was in the middle of learning ModX Revolution 2.0, yet another CMS that was radically different than the other flavors I was used to using such as Drupal and Wordpress. The main feature of this system was its flexibility which attracted me. So I thought to myself, "why not redo this site in ModX?" The thought intrigued me. I could learn a new CMS and help revive a company that sold a product line that meshed with my values. I could then show the site to the owner and if he liked it, he could pay me or if not, I could just add it to my portfolio.
I was surprised at how easy it was to create a site using ModX. In fact, the template I used was the one in the beginners tutorial. I had the site up with just a few tweaks in less than 3 days. The next step was to meet the owner, Jon Jacobson. My plan was to visit him at his store and surprise him with the new site. I looked up the El Dorado Hills address. This was no short bike ride. It was 12 miles all uphill from Gold River up through Folsom to Blue Ravine and then all the way up Blue Ravine until it turns into Green Valley Road. This was an area that I had only traveled to maybe twice in my life so I was not too familiar with the location or the terrain. I headed out the door at 9 AM since his site said that the store hours was from 10-2 Monday through Thursday. I knew based on the hours that this was probably a business in contraction.
I made it as far as the light rail station on Folsom and Iron Point. As soon as I crossed the street, however, bad luck struck as the front tire suddenly went flat. Not a good place for this to happen since there are no bike stores around and a walk back to Gold River would take over an hour. I just stood there on the corner contemplating my predicament. I didn't want to give up because I had already ridden a decent distance. I thought and thought and suddenly remembered that there is a bike store in Folsom. I had stopped there a while back and now that store was going to be my savior. Fortunately the light rail stopped just a few feet away from the store and I was right in front of a light rail station. I quickly purchased a ticket and a train picked me up and whisked me to downtown Folsom in less than 5 minutes. I arrived just as the store, Bicycles Plus was opening for the day. The clock had just struck 10 and I knew that my adventure had just begun.
After getting the tire fixed, I headed up Riley Street and back over to Blue Ravine. I had a near collision with more than one huge SUV driven by a soccer mom who was yacking on the phone and not paying attention. I used to get pissed off by these encounters but they happen so frequently, that I have resigned myself to expecting it to happen. My goal was to hurry up and get the hell off of the street and onto a bike trail. There is a nice bike trail that runs along Blue Ravine and I picked it up at East Bidwell. Suddenly, the scenery became pleasant and quiet. I was enjoying myself until the trail came to an abrupt end. An old man was there preparing to start a ride and mentioned that it was dirt from that point on. Oh well. I got off and walked the bike back to Blue Ravine. Being the chicken that I am when it comes to cars, I simply rode on the sidewalk and that was nice too until that ended as well. Now I had to get on Blue Ravine and the cars were doing at least 50 MPH. The hill became steeper and I had to pump harder. I made it over a hump and looked down on a valley of houses and strip malls. My destination was way on the other side of the valley. I pedaled through the valley and then had to huff and puff going up another set of hills. Finally, I saw a sign that pointed to a street called Hidden Acres which was the street name of the address I was looking for. I was expecting a unit in an industrial park but the only commercial building was a self-storage company. I wheeled myself over to the front office and walked inside. It was nice and cool and there was a a drinking fountain. I slurped down 4-5 cold cups of water and immediately felt much better. "Can I help you?", the attendant had just put down the phone after complaining with someone about not having a credit card machine. I glanced over at the front door and saw a sign that read, "Locks changed in accordance with court order." I asked the guy if he knew the tenant in C40 and he said he wasn't allowed to reveal any information. I then told him that it was supposed to be a store selling electric bikes. He looked up on his computer and found out that the tenant had vacated a few months ago.
Son of a bitch. All this riding 12 miles and one flat tire just to find out that he was out of business? And not to mention all the time spent creating a site? Was I being foolish? Yes, yes and yes. I gulped down some more water and headed out the door to start my journey back. The ride back was much easier - all downhill so travel time was cut in almost half.
I arrived home around 12:30 - a 3 1/2 hour ride. Determined to pursue this to the end, I called the number and left a message. About 30 minutes later, the phone rang and it was Jon. I introduced myself and explained that I wanted to help him and he could pay what he wanted. There was a lot of silence on the other end, probably due to his surprise at something like this coming out of the blue. I gave him the site address and invited him to call me back with his feedback. He admitted that the site needed a lot of work and agreed to take a look at it. So we will see if he is interested.
