Friday Coffee Club started when a tweet went out from Felkerino to #BikeDC  suggesting a Friday morning rendezvous at Swings Coffee, a local coffeehouse near the White House Plaza.

The original edition of Friday Coffee Club looked like this:

Since that January 2012 meetup, Friday Coffee Club has grown steadily, with cyclists from various parts of the city stopping by Swings en route to the office or other Friday activities to sip coffee drinks and hang out together.

Now the group looks more like this on any given Friday:

It’s been such a treat to get to know the people of Friday Coffee Club. It’s a warm, friendly, and inviting group where all are welcome. You don’t even have to drink coffee (though it helps). Or ride a bike (also helps).

Felkerino and I joke that Friday Coffee Club is a group ride that is all about the rest stop. The only real group riding that happens is the “rollout,” where those who stay until the unofficial end of Friday Coffee Club roll out together from Swings and through the White House Plaza. That’s about two blocks of group riding in total.

Over the past year and a half that Friday Coffee Club has been a thing, we have experienced many firsts.

We celebrated our first anniversary.

We welcomed cyclists from other places.

We have our first member who is even younger than Friday Coffee Club!

Today we celebrated another first, although this one was bittersweet. Our friends Crystal and Adam left today from Friday Coffee Club to begin their cross-country tour and move to California.

Like many of those I’ve met through Friday Coffee Club, I’ve enjoyed getting to know Crystal and Adam. Connections like these make the city a smaller place.

While I will really miss seeing Crystal and Adam around town, D.C. is a transient city where moving away is fairly common. Most people’s moves do not include a cross-country bike tour so their departure is particularly exciting.

Crystal and Adam will stay in touch with the BikeDC crew through Twitter as well as a blog of their adventure. I can’t wait to read about how their tour unfolds.

Thank you, Crystal and Adam, for launching your cross-country tour from Friday Coffee Club. It was a privilege to roll out with you Friday morning, and Felkerino and I wish you all the best on the exciting journey ahead of you.

We’ll miss you.