“There’s no way that was Michelle Obama.” I had to twist around so my boyfriend biking behind me could better hear the argument. The presidential vacation was the furthest thing from our minds when Tim Ashe and I left Cape Cod last Friday for a day trip to Martha’s Vineyard. We planned to cycle from Oak Bluffs to Gay Head, on the opposite end of the island — about 25 miles.

Halfway there, on a stretch of bike path surrounded on all sides by forest, we noticed an SUV coming toward us on the narrow ribbon of pavement. Lights on, New Hampshire plates. “Total idiots,” was our shared assessment. We had to navigate around the vehicle — carefully avoiding the side mirrors — to get past the rig. 

About five minutes later, we passed the first bikers we’d seen in a while: an African American family… normal looking, except for the single white guy trailing behind them. “Whee,” the mother exclaimed as they contemplated the steep downhill we were climbing. 

Once past them, I said to Tim, “God, everyone around here looks like Michelle Obama.” Tim quickly concluded that we had just seen the First Lady, Sasha and two bodyguards. 

I was so busy disagreeing with him that I didn’t even notice the oncoming entourage. Then I heard Tim intone, “Hi, Mr. President.”  

This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2010.

Paula Routly is publisher, editor-in-chief and cofounder of Seven Days. Her first glimpse of Vermont from the Adirondacks led her to Middlebury College for a closer look. After graduation, in 1983 she moved to Burlington and worked for the Flynn, the Vanguard Press, the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Times – in that order. In 1995, she and Pamela Polston started Seven Days newspaper. Routly ran the business and built the news side of the operation, which she edited for years. She has spearheaded...

27 replies on “Biking With Barack”

  1. “Nobody rich likes to admit they’re rich.”Wow, you haven’t been outside Vermont much, have you?”Choose your words about meeting him carefully.”Hey, at least she claimed that biking past a bike-loving president while riding bikes in an area that the entire free world knew he was vacationing was a surprise.

  2. You should have stopped him, gotten him to say something, and had a picture of yourself taken nodding and looking as if he intended to have a conversation with you, even though you really just stopped him from getting where he was going. It makes for a perfect home page for a campaign site, just ask Baruth.

  4. “If you’re inferring my New England Bone Fides aren’t all that . . .”You meant, “if you’re implying . . .” Speakers and writers don’t infer things; they imply them. It’s the listerner or the reader who does the inferring.By the way, MV is now indeed the playground of the rich. But it was once a poor whaling and fishing community. Much like Vermont and the dichotomy between the natives and the flatlander transplant liberal elites who now own the place and claim to speak for what “Vermont stands for.” Blech.Have a great day.

  6. What’s a “star-Fu*%er?” Yesterday I woke up in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and drove through 4/5 of the NE states to get home to Burlington. I was born in Burlington despite my father’s immigrant status, on my mother’s side I am a direct decendent of Thomas Rogers who came on the Mayflower in 1620. My grandfather Benoni Griffin was a farmer in Sudbury and he served in the legislature from Rutland County.If you’re inferring my New England Bone Fides aren’t all that, well- Yeah. I’ve never been skiing. I don’t know Martha’s Vineyard from Nantucket island. Most rural New Englanders- the descendents of the farmers who used to own this land- do not. I am well aquainted with the impoverished, indigenous population of Vermont who have been economically displaced by newly arrived money- all trendy, alternative, progressive wealth. Burlington is artificially perceived as some sort of LL Bean and Ben & Jerry’s utopia to many of these newly arrived, well intentioned rich people. Newsflash: It isn’t. But I digress.This is an interesting piece. It was no mistake that Paula mentioned that is was a “day trip.” She wanted to be clear the she and senator Ashe were not vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard itself. I don’t know, but I’ll bet anything Cape Cod is seen as more middle class. You know. They got fishermen. Hearty stock. Hard work. Middle class.Nobody rich likes to admit they’re rich. It’s embarassing. But, still- an encounter with the president should be shared, so the sheilds have to come down just slightly to tell the story- hence “day trip.”What I don’t like is the commentary on the security detail. Don’t say “stabbing distance.” What’s the matter with you? It’s up to all of us to keep this man safe. Every sane, patriotic American should do what she can to protect this man. Choose your words about meeting him carefully. Jesus.

  7. Coming from a publication that carries itself as too cool for school, it’s pretty funny to see that one of the owners is a regular old star-Fu*%er like the rest of us. And Haik, if you knew anything about new england, you’d know that the rich guy playground is Nantucket.

  8. Great story, and that comes from a Republican.If Pres. Obama is ok with the security provided I guess we need to be as well, but it does bring up two questions.Did Tim pass security by giving a John Kerry”do you know who I am”, and did Paula pass security by flashing her Burlington bike path press reporter credentials.

  10. I love this story! A friend of mine once ran into MC Hammer in Times Square. All she could muster was “Holy S**t!” and he smiled and said, “Hi!.”

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