Sunday Trip (1 of 3): Tacos and hobos.

So the other weekend I biked down to hobofest, which was way on the other side of the city from me.

I mapped out a route that minimized my biking through ghetto, and it took me 2hrs and 2min to get there, including a stop for tacos...

Right before passing through the western part of a really bad ghetto, I saw 2 Mexican guys grilling outside on the street by their house under a big tent, and there were some neon green handwritten signs taped to a Range Rover parked there, advertising -

TACOS $1.00

GORDITAS $2.00

LEMONADE $.25

- so I stopped to get some tacos.

There was a (really black) woman and a (really black) teenager with her (her son?) getting some tacos, and she told me that she loved the place, and it made tacos better than in any restaurant, and they come there every chance they get.

I wasn't too too hungry, though, so I just ordered one taco (and even spoke some Spanish, since the guy couldn't speak English too well to tell me what kind of meats they had), and I had two lemonades, since I was thirsty.

The taco was pretty good, and a Mexican woman with good English came out right when I was finishing up, and she said that they set up there Sat. and Sun. and have been doing it most of the summer and will be doing it most of the fall.

After that, I biked another 35 minutes down to hobofest...

The ghetto wasn't too bad, there were a lot of old people out watering their lawns, as well as some occasional porches where guys were smoking up. There was a really nice bike trail just south of there, too, which I was able to take.

Hobofest was a disappointment, though. The setting was cool - it was this old fenced off factory, on the grounds of which was a community garden and beehives, and in one of the buildings where a wall had collapsed there was a big cavernous hall where chairs were set up and some guy was singing union songs - but the attendees were mostly leftwing eccentrics and aging hippies, and pretty much everyone was white...

There was a campfire outside with free mulligan stew, which was nice, and there was a local youth group that had chips and pop for sale, but the music sucked, and when my one (white) friend from Mississippi asked if he could play his guitar, they said the schedule was full - even though the people playing inside and outside had no voices to speak of.

Too, I asked someone about who camped out the previous night, and they said it was invitation only.

So, it was somehow the most rigidly scheduled hobofest ever.