I have been giving rubber chickens to Park rangers all over the bay... Mostly on my climbs up the mountains. I feel like I've been neglecting the park rangers in the valley. Today on the first day of the ride with GPS Bay area Bike challenge, I decided to do some flat to build up some miles on the front end of this event. As I was coming out of Coyote Hills Regional Park, I saw the entrance booth with a park ranger in it. I was about 50 mi into my ride and thinking to myself, " I'm tired, I've had a headache most of this ride, and I really don't feel like interacting with anyone... Including giving out a rubber chicken." But just minutes earlier I had joined a weekly zoom I have with former colleagues from VMware, and my good buddy Ross expressed to me how much he loves my rubber Chicken craziness. He gets a good laugh out of it. I also thought about my friend Genna Runs Happy , who runs incredible distances and shares the experiences with her friends with all kinds of positive, happy energy (including taking the time to add fun s thoughtful stuff to her posts) despite the challenges she faces. Finally, I thought about the fact that yes I have been neglecting the park rangers in the valley. Name a mountain around here and chances are I gave a park ranger on that mountain a rubber chicken after climbing it on my bike. I hope to be invited to a conference of Bay area Park rangers one day, as a speaker, to tell them all the cool stories of rubber chickening all of them over the years, and thank them for their service. So went past the booth on my way out of the park today, did a u-turn on my bike, went up to the window of the booth at the entrance, and said in a high voice, "Good morning!" Even though it was late afternoon. I then said, " You know, I have given rubber chickens to Park rangers in the Hills and neglected you in the valley. Here!" I handed her a rubber chicken keychain. She got totally excited. And she said, " I have a special relationship with Rubber chickens! As a matter of fact, I have a therapy rubber chicken. " She was so incredibly excited that I showed up out of the blue and gave her this rubber chicken. I asked her her name, "Tilly." Shortly after that experience my headache went away. There's something about that. The rest of the ride I had a smile on my face. Come to think of it. There's a park ranger on top of Sierra climb that I owe one of these stories to. Stay tuned! The Bay Area Bike Challenge is all month! I will make people chase the rubber chicken to get their mileage in! Muaàaaa hahahahahaahahaaa! BAWK! BAWWKKK!! BABC D1 PRNW 84.9 P.S. There is nothing wrong with the squirrel in the photo. It actually winked at me when I took it. I think it was being "facetious with foreshadowing" because later in the the ride I had grund squirrels running in front me! They do NOT belong in my spokes!