G8 Day One: A whimper of a protest, but a good day for the Green Hummer

The first day of the G8 Summit started with a protest march with an inconspicuous route by the fast food restaurants on MLK Jr. Boulevard and used car dealerships on Montgomery Street.

The Green Hummer was not allowed into Forsyth Park, and we had to meet up with the parade once it started on Gwinnett Street. There were maybe seventy-five other protesters, and about as many news crew and maybe as many spectators. Pretty sad.

A few camera men used the Hummer as a platform to film the parade, stepping on parts that probably shouldn’t have been stepped on and putting a lot of pressure on the Hummer.

After the ‘parade’, the Green Hummer was rolled up onto the sidewalk at the south end of the park. There was very little activity in Forsyth or in the rest of the city, and the parade crowd and journalists disappeared.

After the parade, Patrick noticed that the cameramen had damaged the Green Hummer’s metal frame, so Stephen rode his trike to Johnie’s house, grabbed the welder and some tools, and rode back to fix things.

While welding, a group of three cyclists—Matt, Shauna, and Kathryn—came by to see what was happening. They were in town for a day, and said that they would like to ride with the Hummer later in the day.

At 4:15 pm, the Hummer was ready to roll again. Jarrod and Stephen picked up Danyelle from work, and rode around a while. (Later, we realized we left Patrick at Green Hummer HQ by mistake. Sorry, Patrick!)

The Green Hummer kept picking up extra people as we went. Patrick, Daniel and Mark were picked up at HQ. Will came along, Nate and Linsey joined in, and in City Market we met up with our new cyclist friends from earlier in the day.

And moments later, Renee arrived with our spiffy new Green Hummer Project t-shirts, so a quick wardrobe change was in order.

After leaving City Market, we headed up Broughton Street for a short distance until we were pulled over by a motorcycle traffic cop. He didn’t seem very familiar with traffic laws, so he was lecturing us about all sorts of things that really aren’t problems whatsoever. (In fact, the SPD was kind enough to check out the Green Hummer before the G8 and make sure we complied with all traffic laws.)

The rest of the night consisted of taking turns riding the Hummer through the empty streets and sometimes getting a friendly picture taken by a curious cop.

On the way home, Kathryn and Patrick set a new speed record of 14.0 mph!

Once home, some of the crew went across Forsyth to the grocery store and got some supplies. The rest of the night was spent on the deck, eating, drinking, and having a good time!