“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it NOW!”
—Paulo Coelho
Bill and I hopped on the Los Gatos Creek Trail to downtown San Jose in what turned out to be interesting, colorful, educational and controversial. We made our way to the Three Creeks Trail head on Bird Avenue marked by a decorative water tower with the symbolic number 3. We crossed the pedestrian and biking bridge linking San Jose’s Three Creeks Trail System. Formerly known as the Willow Glen Trestle, the city of San Jose won the right in court to demolish the 98-year-old structure and replace it with a pedestrian bridge linking the city’s Three Creeks Trail system for everyone to enjoy. We continued on to the Guadalupe River Park Trail. Sadly, hundreds of homeless human beings have taken up residence in one tucked away section during the pandemic to avoid encountering scorn from the housed community. Unfortunately, a solution to this humanitarian crisis still appears to be a distant dream.
Moving on, we passed the controversial Thomas Fallon statute which sits at the intersection of West James and Julian streets depicting him on horseback raising the US flag in Jose in 1846. Fallon was an Irish-born Californian politician, best known for his role in capturing El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe (now the City of San Jose) without bloodshed. He went on to become the 10th Mayor of San Jose’s history. It has become a magnet for vandalism in recent years and is perceived as a symbol oppression of Mexican-Americans. Hence, a call for its removal is open for public debate.
On the other hand artists like Jesse Hernandez who prefers to go by his social media handle “Urban Aztec,” are transforming blank walls as in nondescript overpasses in San Jose into beautiful murals to honor Native American and Mexican culture [Photos]. I am a big fan of murals.
By this time, Bill and I were ready for a bite to eat. We circled around the arch of San Jose’s Little Italy but ultimately decided to have an outdoor lunch at Kazoo Japanese Restaurant in Japantown, one of the last three authentic Japan-towns in the United States.
From there we rode to San Jose State University. We checked out the historic Olympic Black Power Statue honoring alumni Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the campus grounds of San Jose State University (SJSU) for their social justice protest gesture at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. It happened to be a welcoming back students celebration. Bill and I stopped at the California State University Police booth to get deputized as Junior Officers and were given a gold and black decal to prove it:-) I took some photos of the palm trees and fountain of this spacious charming campus. A yell out from Cecile and I to our long time friend, Judith Lessow-Hurley, who was a professor in the Elementary Education Department at SJSU with an expertise in bilingual and multicultural education prior to her retirement.
After passing the Discovery Museum on the way back home I got that sinking feeling that I had a flat on my front tire. It was 90 degrees. At least when you are riding a bike the ambient air gives you some relief from the heat. We had some decisions to make. Bill recommended we go to his cousin Del’s home which was a few blocks away. Well over a year ago, Bill, Del and I rode our bikes at Shoreline. I had my battery charged Inflater pump which allowed me to ride just a half a block short of our destination before the tire went flat again, so I walked my bike the rest of the way. The option was that Bill would ride his bike home and get his SUV with attached bike rack which would take an hour and a half. Del informed us that Mike’s Bikes was a couple of blocks away in downtown Willow Glen. Luckily they were able to replace the tube right away and before we knew it we were on the road again.
