A few days ago, I penned my first diary on Daily Kos to introduce Team 26, the Sandy Hook Ride on Washington. That diary can be seen here, but I will start with a brief summary of what we are about:
Team 26 is a group of 26 elite cyclists who will ride from Newtown, CT to Washington, DC beginning on March 9 and arriving on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol on March 12. Along the way, we will stop in Ridgefield, CT, Frenchtown, NJ and Baltimore, MD. Our goal: to bring Newtown's message to Washington in support of common sense gun legislation.
You can read more about our mission at our
Facebook site (registration not required).
Today I wanted to provide our tentative schedule for Day 2 of the ride, Sunday March 10, after the jump.
1. We will start the day in Parsippany, NJ with a send-off from Mayor James R. Barbiero at 7:30 am and an estimated departure time of 8:00 am. We expect a number of cycling clubs from north central New Jersey to join us for the first part of our ride on Sunday. See below for a note on this.
2. We will head from Parsippany to Morristown, NJ, a quick jaunt of about 7 miles, and proceed past the historic Morristown green. We expect a number of people to await our arrival on the green and show their support for the ride as we go through. We will be hosted there by Morristown Councilwoman Rebecca Feldman, who has been so instrumental in helping us with our New Jersey preparations.
3. From Morristown, we will ride past Gov. Christie's home, and head to Frenchtown, NJ for an 11:30 event. We will be welcomed in Frenchtown by Mayor Warren Cooper, and our brief ceremony will include remarks by Michael Pohle, a father who lost his son at Virginia Tech and has been instrumental in pushing for the Mayors against Gun Violence measures at the local level.
Frenchtown will be our last event on Sunday.
A note concerning cyclists who would like to join the ride. We have received numerous inquiries from cyclists who would like to join us for a part of our ride. We welcome those who would like to express their support for our mission in this way. However, there are a few things that are important.
First, we have a schedule to keep and will be setting a brisk pace, so we cannot ride in a peloton with everybody. Our 26 riders will set their pace and go.
Second, our two support vehicles will have to be behind the 26 riders, so any cyclist who wants to join us should be behind the support vehicles.
Finally, we cannot provide any support for cyclists other than our team.
We hope you understand these restrictions. Our suggestion is that if you are interested in cycling with us that you join us for a short stretch, such as Parsippany to Morristown, and then proceed with a different route on your own or with your group.
Thanks again to everyone who has provided support for our ride and mission!