Urban Kookage

Twas a strange evening in Kaimuki. Plans for an urban ride to shake out Ckucky’s 24″ BMX, and for Scat and I to just shake ourselves out with an urban ride got pushed back to tonight. I hustled from a training session in Aina Haina and managed to get to Ckucky’s house just before 5:30PM, and Scat was still stuck in his car somewhere on the freeway.  He arrived, not specially happy, but pulling out a bling bling 26″ BMX SE OM Flyer, you can’t stay depressed for long. He also had a 20″ beater BMX. Plans for me to jump on it were aborted when we found the rear tire flat. Time  was being lost, so I decided to just use my full suspension pig.

That all settled, we decided to cruise on over to drug dealer Jeff’s to bug him about building up his brand new BMX frame that he’ll never ride. The usual jaw jawking ensued, but we eventually decided we should leave Jeff & wife in peace and actually do for a ride. Head out of Palolo and turn up Kaimuki. The guys point out some new fixie bike shop and hangout hidden up stairs. Guess you need to be special as you need to ring a buzzer for assistance. Then head up a block to the “Multisport” shop since they are a SE dealer. Guess BMX is not one of the “Multisport”.

We left and cruised down Kaimuki, and this is where the real kookage started. We came to a stop at one of the lights, along side some dude out for his evening run. Nothing strange there. The light changes and we start rolling down hill, and the dude starts running along. OK, fine, he’s going the same direction as us, totally expected really. Ckucky is in lead and I get front row seat to the bizzarre show that is starting. The guy starts matching pace, and then he jumps into the street. I can see Ckucky is quite perplexed and can’t make out what this guy is trying to do. Ckuck gradually speeds up with the downhill, but doesn’t make any sudden moves. I figure Ckucky is still trying to figure out what the heck this guy was doing, as Mr. Spazz is now alternating from side walk to almost shouldering Ckucky in the street. Ckucky starts pedaling now to speed up and I see he’s contemplating going to the sidewalk, but Spazz speeds up to match, thus blocking Ckuck. Scat passes on the traffic side of Ckuck,  I think partially to get out of the potential mess if Spazz bites it, and also maybe to indicate to Ckucky that we should ditch this kook. Ckucky is still mostly perplexed as he speeds up, and Spazz is breaking out into a full sprint.  He shoots off somewhere before we reach the McDonalds. It is just too bizzarre and all we can do is exchange puzzled looks until we get to St. Louis. WTF?!

We ride through UH lower athletic complex and abort going through the parking garage. Scat’s hooligan radar had spotted an insecurity guard at the top of the ramp. We take the road out and the boys break out into a BMX sprint up past the music building. I’m left in the dust struggling to turn the big fat downhill knobbies up the hill. We go into the art building for a water break, and then are drawn to Kuykendal. We don’t actually do anything but putz around in the courtyard talking, but I guess habits die hard. I’ve actually been hungry from the time I arrived at Ckucky’s, so I field the suggestion we check out the new Mexican place up in Manoa. An easy sell, we head up past East-West and out the back gate. It’s fully evening now and the back trail to the grassy field across from Manoa Marketplace is completely dark.

The new mexican place is called Serg’s and is across the street from Manoa Marketplace in the spot that formerly was a gas station, and then a drive through espresso stand, with a Boston Pizza. Boston is still there. It’s pretty busy. I guess lots of people are checking it out, and there isn’t any other mexican food place in this area. Taco Bell doesn’t count, and it’s no longer in Manoa Marketplace anyway. The girl maning the window likes Ckucky, they get pretty chatty. It takes a while, but we eventually all get our plates and chow down. It’s decent stuff. I’d have to try a few other dishes to make a final decision, but I’d say this isn’t a destination place, I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here. But if I were in the area looking for some Mexican I’d come here.

Full of enchilada, we decide to cruise it back. We backtrack our course, and again I find myself struggling to keep up with everyone as we head up Kaimuki. So much for “taking it easy.”  We turn onto Palolo and suddenly are faced with a wall of flashing blue, red and white emergency lights. Looks like there was some kind of auto accident and the road is shut down. We gawk for a while, but nothing really interesting is going on, so we go back up a block more and head toward Ckucky’s. And then see another blue light pulled into a nearby house. Ah, Palolo. Finally make it back and we pack it in for the night. We see some of the police go by. Donut raid! A bunch of them join the lone blue and white we saw.

And just as I thought the night was finally over, just as Scat was about to pull out from where he was parked, two fixies with their abnormally skinny riser bars rolled past him. Ah, we’d forgotten how entertaining urban rides could be, and it wasn’t even a full moon.