Happy to hear that Velo Champ, a SWFBUD bike shop in Seminole Heights, will be celebrating its one-year anniversary on Thursday, May 17 at 7P M. (Velo Champ's actual anniversary was April 15 but the store felt the celebration was better left for May -- National Bike Month in the US.)
Look for craft beer, soda, coffee and Belgian waffles at the anniversary celebration.
Jordan Miller, owner of the bike shop with his parents Doug and Sue, invites Seminole Heights residents and the Tampa cycling community at large to the celebration at the store at 6112 N. Central Avenue at Hanna Avenue in Seminole Heights.
You can expect some additional festivities over the course of the night, including a Seminole Heights neighborhood circuit race, as well as the first installment of Nicole Kibert's (
www.elawgrrl.com) Bicycle Portrait project.
Summer is kicking in here in Florida, so I cranked the starting time back to 6 am for an early-morning ride. And it was great to see that the Temple Crest Baptist Church updated its sign on 40th Street just south of Busch Blvd. Here, the bread-toast combo is used as a powerful 1-2 punch to deliver the message.
I also met a bike commuter on 40th Street. Say hello to Pete, who commutes on two wheels from Seminole Heights to the USF campus via 40th Street. He works on physical plant assignments. On the way home from Flatwoods I was back on McKinley/40th Street heading south to the Busch Blvd. light and I noticed a coomon scene -- a driver reading her hand-held electronic gadget while also driving. She was staring at the smart phone while also driving into the left-turn lane. And there she is below. And when the green arrow came on she was clueless and didn't start to go until five seconds or so. As a Guy who's biking on the loacl streets and has a close-up view of drivers, I can tell you a stunning percentage of drivers are distracted by their phone gadgets. 
