Father’s Day wasn’t spent running this year, like it was in previous years (Mom did an awesome job in the Manitoba Marathon! Way to go!). Instead, I divided my day between the Car Free Commercial Drive Festival and the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival.

I volunteered at the Car Free Drive Fest, being a barricade super hero in the morning. It was a great opportunity to use my only super power – the ability to stop cars with dirty looks. The volunteer shift was uneventful, not even a single confrontation with a cranky motorist.

Afterwards I wandered through the festival. They closed Commercial Drive down for 8 blocks, replacing cars with pedestrians, cyclists, street performers, and merchants. It was great. Even sketchy weather couldn’t keep the crowds away. All the local activist organizations had information booths. I spent a long time talking to the lovely people from the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, anti-Gateway groups, COPE, and numerous anti-poverty groups. One section of the drive was sectioned off for Pedal Play. They had all these pimped out bikes and a DJ spinning mad tracks powered by 3 stationary bikes ridden by volunteers. It was so rad. They had a bike you had to pedal backwards, a tall bike, a couples bike, and much more.

I can’t wait to go back for the 2nd Car-Free Fest on July 22.

                       
I was sad to leave the festival, but Christina convinced me to head down to the Dragonboat Festival to see Dan and the BOBJ team in their final race and listen to Five Alarm Funk. They were awesome as always – Five Alarm Funk that is. The BOBJ team did well, but not awesome.