Garvey music teacher and avid bike enthusiast, Mr. Drange began inviting fellow Garvey staff members to weekly bike rides in March of 2022. Mr. Alarcon, Mr. Naka, Mr. Grau, Mr. Huerta, Mr. Habibi, Mr. Ramirez, Mr. Kenny, myself and others have all joined the group rides. Mr. Drange has led us through a variety of bike trails from the mountains near the Santa Fe Dam to the coast around Long Beach and Seal Beach. It is no small thing Mr. Drange has accomplished, encouraging Garvey staff to join together for weekend and Wednesday rides. 

Deserving of extra recognition, no rider has been more faithful about attending these meet ups than Mr. Patrick Grau, our custodian. On October 9, Mr. Drange, Mr. Grau, Mr. Naka, and I participated in the 20.4 mile Long Beach Bike Tour. The Bike Tour is a part of the annual Long Beach Marathon weekend of festivities. Most of the riders completed the tour in 90 minutes, starting from the Queen Mary Area of Shoreline in Long Beach, circling the campus of California State University Long Beach (CSULB), and finishing the tour in the Queen Mary area. 

Most major streets in the city of Long Beach were closed for the marathon and bike tour which had up to 16,000 participants who gathered in the dark at the starting line at 5:00 am. 1,000 cyclists took off from the starting line at 6:00 am sharp. Starting in about the middle of a pack of 1,000 cyclists was a first for most Garvey cyclists.  It looked like a freeway full of red tail lights, both blinking and solid, as a column of 20 riders wide and a mile long flowed up Shoreline Drive and turned right on to Ocean Blvd in the dark. The first 30 minutes of the ride was completed in the dark!  It was not quite the Running of the Bulls in Spain at the start, but it was an amazing experience for all nonetheless. Thank you Mr. Drange!