Let me get this out of the way — I don’t like scavenger hunt style alleycats, at least not as much as the standard checkpoint driven races. When faced with four pages of stuff to do, in divergent corners of the city, I tend to stare blankly at the manifest, hoping that I can find the wheel of someone who actually has a plan. This would be no different, except that Eli and Josh were actually expecting my feedback on a plan for the race. Umm….

The race was a benefit for Book’em a books-to-prisoners run out of the Thomas Merton Center. The stops on the manifest were heavily library or prison-centric, so at the very least, the race promised to teach us something. The three of us mulled over the manifest in the Free Ride parking lot, trying to find the balance between the lower valued, but more local stops and those high point stops that were on the fringes of the city. We decided to take a library-intensive route, going to Wilkinsburgh, East Liberty, Oakland (with multiple stops), perhaps downtown, and then Garfield to the finish.

From the start, we quickly got on Penn Avenue and headed to the Wilkinsburgh library. The wind was, in a word, terrible. It was nearly constant, with gusts that pushed my front wheel off course. It dampened any thoughts of perhaps getting to one of the more distant checkpoints, especially those along the rivers. Once at the library, we had several tasks — get information from a Wilkinsburgh map, and check out a Herman Hesse book. Both were easy (Hesse’s books were within sight of the door), and I quickly checked out Narcissus and Goldmund. Joshua, however, had a tougher time at the counter, and Eli and I had visions of unpaid fines and Joshua being taken away by the authorities. A few minutes later, however, he appeared, book in hand, and we were off to the East Liberty Library.

This stop was quick and mostly easy as well — a Langston Hughes book and some research about Mr. Rogers (which, apparently, I forgot to write on my manifest — oops). Quickly, we were off to The Big Idea bookshop. Another quick stop and we were on our way to Oakland to the main branch of the Carnegie and Hillman Library at Pitt.

Before we hit the libraries, we made a quick stop on Craig Street for two different checkpoints — one in Phantom of the Attic, the other in Caliban (a vintage, used book store). The Caliban activity was to discern a rather old train schedule, the format of which resembled this:

1. Afternoon train with seating for two, beds for two, and space at the Hotel Omnium.
2. Same as #1 with seating for one.
3. Same as #1 with one bed.
4. Same as #2 without Hotel Omnium.
5. Same as #1, but evening train.

Repeat up to #20 or so. After a few headspinning minutes, I tapped on the window and requested reinforcements.

A few notes from the libraries:

1. It looked like there were lots of points to be had, especially at the Carnegie, but it was a bit of the Big Lie™. Yes, there were points to be had, but we spent a full 30 minutes (at least) in the Carnegie. We could have used that time on the road to a higher value stop.

2. I apparently can’t type the number from my library card properly. After trying five times, I asked for help. The kind gentleman keyed in the number, and I had access.

3. Despite having only one copy of Prison Memiors of an Anarchist, the value for checking it out was a paltry 200 points. I do intend, however, to read the book.

4. There’s a coffee shop in the Carnegie. What? Beverages and books, together?

From the Carnegie, Eli and I hopped across the square the Hillman, whilst Joshua went off to the Carnegie Library for the Blind (or is the deaf?) to dumpster dive for government issue tapes (hmm, blind methnks). The Hillman tasks were relatively quick and easy, and Eli and I were soon riding across Oakland trying to find Josh. Apparently we blew right by him, so we headed to the Thomas Merton Center to package books for the books to prisoners program (and get 1000 points in the process). One interesting note — while I was packing fantasy and sci fi for one prisoner, Joshua was busy searching for existential philosophy. Different strokes, I suppose.

One last stop at a small book seller (the name escapes me), and we were checking out manifests outside the Arrow Gallery on Penn Avenue (the finish line). Apparently, I was a bit hasty in preparing my manifest, and I left off an answer or two, since I finished behind Joshua and Eli, despite having the sole copy of the anarchist’s memiors. So well. I still managed to get a multi-tool out of the deal for finishing 18th, and there was a dinner spread from Sree’s Foods, so I more than got my $5 back.

Joshua found that the folks who won did manage to hit highest point stops at the edges of the city in the North, East, and West, but apparently they suffered for it. The wind was unbearable in the city, so I can’t imagine what they dealt with along the rivers. I don’t know what their point totals were, but they were enough to compensate for finishing nearly an hour late (10 points were deducted for every minute). Perhaps had we tried to go the jail, at least, we may have cracked the top ten, but we were no match for roadies on their fancy bikes.

Posted on 18 October 2005