Commute to Work

A fairly uneventful return to commuting - riding the Peugeot, but single speed rather than fixed and I've swapped out the gearing from a 46x18 to 38x18... Also my first time using my iPhone to track my ride and create the map below.

Expressway Ride

from the Baltimore Sun

On Sunday they closed down 7 miles of the southbound stretch of the Jones Falls Expressway (I-83) from Coldspring Lane to President Street here in Baltimore as part of the Rally for the River event to benefit the Jones Falls Watershed Association. Joanne, Dave, and I met up at Poly HS and made the trip down to the harbor and back. It was great fun to have so much open road with no cars - though in places it was a little dicey with all the skateboarders, rollerbladers, and worst of folks who clearly haven't been on a bicycle in years weaving all over the place.

photo by sneakerdog

14 miles, plus
33 miles - mostly around Montebello on Saturday
2389 YTD

Blow Torch Convention

Last weekend my father-in-law, Graham, came to visit us from San Diego for a gathering of Blow Torch Collectors from around the country. He estimates that he has 400 or so torches in his collection of varying types, sizes, and ages. An extremely avid collector of many things - radios, cameras, autograph books, and a variety of antique tools - what I find most interesting about his collecting is the depth of his knowledge on these things. He doesn't just acquire them for their aesthetic or monetary value, but is interested in who used these things, what they were doing, and how they worked. He also does a lot of research on the patents to trace down when they were made, and how each were an improvement on the previous model.

gas fired iron (no more wrestling with the cord)

Along with two other collectors Graham completed a book that chronicles nearly all the blow torches ever manufactured in North America. On Friday night we had dinner with one of his collaborators, Charlie, a geologist from Alabama. In addition to Charlie and Joanne trading geology stories, we also heard about how many other torches they've learned about in just the year or so from publishing the book - a supplement is apparently in the works. The convention was held at a nursery in Joppa about a half hour from our house. The host, a big collector is his own right, turns out to be an old family friend on my mom's side - a very small world.

Dental Torch

There were about a dozen collector's on hand from all over the country. Some with just a few dozen torches on display and others with hundreds. I was blown away with the variety - many different versions of what I think of as a blow torch, but also lots of other things like dental torches and these great little alcohol torches. I think I was most interested in the industrial design aspect and the old labels/ad slogans. Then there was this thing...

Hedge Trimmer Drill Attachment

A few more images in a slide show - HERE

Can't Win

So yesterday on my ride home from work I was stopped at Calvert and North Avenue when I noticed that the car behind me in the far right lane wanted to turn so I moved into the right/center lane on the crosswalk. That car and several others then proceeded to make the right on red - even though the sign would suggest that the authorities frown on doing so at this particular intersection. Then the 7th of 8 cars making said illegal turn yells out to me - " hey buddy you're not a car" - which of course wasn't news to me, but apparently he felt I didn't belong on the street...

21.5 miles last Thursday - which included a lovely mid-day ride through Druid Hill/Hampden and back
7.5 miles home on Monday
22 miles today commuting
2342 YTD

Take the long way home

Rode into work and then took a roundabout route home - out Falls Road to Oregon Ridge - then across Paper Mill down Manor and up Cub Hill to Old Harford which took me most of the way home.

The northernmost point of this ride takes me through Jacksonville - once home to one of the many Nike missile batteries that surrounded US cities in the early part of the cold war. My quick bit of googling about these led me - HERE - where I found a list of all these sites and discovered that many of our bike rides around MD take us past several of these former sites. A nice trio of decent climbs:
Falls Road from Seminary to Oregon Ridge
Paper Mill from the reservoir to Jacksonville
Cub Hill from Cromwell Bridge to Old Harford/Ranger Court
and some strong head winds here and there made for a nice effort on my little break from tech rehearsals.

51 miles on the day
2291 YTD

Another Quick Visit to NYC

Took the train up to NYC to see designs for our third slot and short break before tech-ing our first show of the season. Made my first visit to the Guggenheim Museum - found the building a bit more interesting than the art on show - Louise Bourgeois - but I did like the spiders above which were on the lobby floor. Then I spent much of the afternoon strolling and people watching in Central Park. The contrast to what the park looked like 20 years ago when I saw it in person for the first time and now is amazing and a testament to the success of the Central Park Conservancy. A couple more obligatory Guggenheim tourist photos HERE

Labor Day Meander

Monday 1 September 2008 Rolled out in the late afternoon for a loop around the city - headed down to Lake Montebello then through the old Montebello Rehabilitation Hospital which is now part, though unused, of the Morgan State University Campus. I followed roads and paths across the campus before coming out on Perring Parkway. From here I followed a variety of side streets that paralell the Chincapin Run up to Lake Avenue. Lake took me to Falls Road and the Old Pimlico which delivered me to Quarry Lake (pictured above). After looping around the old quarry I headed out Greenspring to Old Court Road. This took me to 7 Mile Lane then Cross Country Blvd. brought me back to Greenspring then Northern Parkway where I looped back to Greenspring on one of my favorite roads in town - Cylburn Ave. I tried to take a short cut across TV hill, but discovered that what looked like potential routes where actually construction sites. This delivered me to a quick detour through Medford and across the 41st Street Bridge to TV hill. Then it was up the switchbacks of the Jones Falls Trail and into Druid Hill Park. I then headed to Charles Villiage for a pit stop with Kelly and Lindsay at Starbucks before riding home.

Lindsay makes a new friend

40 Miles on the day
2240 YTD