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

Bay Country Century (almost)

Joined the gang on the road for the Bay Country Century on Saturday. Started off as a very gray day, but it burned off as the miles passed and it wound up being a lovely day for a ride. We passed the miles chatting about the Democratic convention - Michael had just returned from it and told us what it was like in person. We also chatted about McCain's VP choice - I think my friend Marni's blog entry about sums it up.
Sometime after a pit stop at the 50 mile mark, I began to have stomach cramps and general lack of energy. At the time I was sure it was too much of the electrolyte drink, but in retrospect I think I was seriously under hydrated and probably could have used a few more calories... Everybody kindly took turns hanging with me as I dragged my way into the next pit at 80 miles. After a bottle or two of water and a bit more food it was clear to me that I wasn't going to bounce back fast - so I told them to head out without me and called the SAG hotline to get a ride back to the start. I suppose on the plus side I was lucky to be on a fully supported ride for my first serious bonk.

a small handful of other photos HERE

80 miles on the day, plus almost
30 miles from the commute a half I did this week
2200 YTD

A Night at the Fair

Joanne & I made our annual trip to the State Fair on Saturday evening - ginsu knives, cows, milkshakes, pigs, corn-on-the-cob, rabbits, funnel cake, goats, quilts, chickens, french fries, ferris wheels, and this year a first for us - a sheep with gold lame fleece: Had a grand old time wandering around watching the animals and the people. Also had fun taking pictures of the rides - more HERE.

Ride Round the Severn

Saturday morning we met up at Steve's for breakfast and a casual spin up to BWI followed by the length of the B&A trail. We headed into Annapolis for lunch (mmm peanut butter smoothie) then circled back to Steve's.

This was our first ride in the new kits Aesha acquired for us. It was great fun rolling along in a paceline decked out like a team - definitely turned a few heads. This was also my first ride wearing bib shorts and I'm sold - won't be doing long days without them again.

Many more pics HERE by Aesha (merci)

50 Miles
2090 YTD

A week of meandering commutes...

I'm trying to get in some extra miles this week to get back in shape for next weekend's Bay Country Century - so a couple of inventive detours to extend my commutes a bit;

FRIDAY
My usual roundtrip with a spur on the way home to our company picnic in North Baltimore(+3 miles).

Alex & Charisse at the picnic

THURSDAY
Woke early and added on the length of Roland Avenue/University Blvd from Hopkins up to lake avenue to my regular ride(+5 Miles).

Sunflower on Evergreen Avenue

TUESDAY
In the morning I took a little detour to have breakfast with Joanne at the Common Ground (+2.5 miles)- but along the way I took some pics to document some of the highlights of my morning ride. Then on the way home I took a loop through Roland Park and back through Homeland before rejoining my usual route (+5 miles).

Old Firehouse on White Avenue

Old Streetcar Substation - also on White Avenue
served the 15 & 19 lines
http://www.btco.net/ghosts/streetcars/subs/substations.html

formerly Sonbergs - the corner store I went to as a boy

Woodbourne Avenue - my first sprint of each morning

Cell Tower 'disguised' as a tree

Community Garden on Woodbourne
almost always someone here working their plot
wearing a big straw hat

San Marten Drive

70 miles for the week
2040 YTD

A bad week for squirrels

Did a modified version of the Boordy loop today riding from home to add a few miles and save a little gas...

Seems like it has been a bad week to be a squirrel - saw at least one 'napping' in the road every 10 miles or so.

I'm definitely suffering from a month or so of inconsistent riding - was pretty slow today - hopefully I'll get back in gear by Labor Day weekend when I'm signed up for a century.

A first today - I nearly ran over a rather large serrated lock-blade knife laying in the road.

68 miles
1970 YTD

Another commute

Rode to work on Thursday - finally admitting that the pain in my knees is coming from the fixed gear that I've suspected was a little over geared for my commute from the start...

22 miles
1902 YTD

A lovely day to ride to work

A nice summer day - not too humid.

A fairly uneventful roll into work and back.

Wildlife - a grey cat bathing in a driveway on White Ave.

Soundtrack - inbound - a medley of Social Distortion tunes, mostly 'Ball and Chain' & 'Ring of Fire' - outbound - thanks to a Rastafarian in a mini-van that I passed on Woodbourne - Bob Marley's 'Stir it up'

22 Miles
1880 YTD

Fabian Cancellara I am not...

Photo by Flickr user Will Rose

Yesterday Steve, Vinnie, and I went to Cambridge, MD for the Church Creek Time Trial. 40 kilometers against the clock. It was an interesting adventure - I'd never before gone all out like that over any distance. I finished 28th out of 33 participants in my group (Cat 5) and learned many lessons - like the value of aero bars, remembering your heart monitor, and perhaps training for such an endeavor.

Beforehand, Steve and I joked that we figured we would need to average better than 21 mph to be reasonably competitive and dubbed this the threshold of embarrassment. I fell just shy at an average of 20.8 and Steve clocked in at 21.8 - five places higher.

24.8 miles in 1 hour 11 minutes 41 seconds
(plus 10 miles getting to and from the course)
1858 YTD

And back to the bike riding

Two commutes last week, Davidsonville this past Sunday, and two more commutes this week.

1823 Miles YTD

One last observation

Throughout our trip I marveled at how friendly the people of Vancouver were - I took this little video of an out of service bus that I think summed it up for me - can't imagine seeing this simple apology at home.

The Rest of our Trip to Vancouver

More photosets from our trip... A hike along Wreck Beach
Photoset - Slideshow Granville Island Train Museum and other loose ends
Photoset - Slideshow Crazy Ewok bridge from Capilano Suspension Bridge/Treetop Walk
Photoset - Slideshow Our last day - A Walk in the Woods
Photoset - Slideshow

A Spin around Vancouver

I spent day two in Vancouver exploring the city on a bike rented from the kind folks at Reckless Bike Stores. I headed out from their shop and in just a few blocks I was on a bike path that would allow me to follow the shoreline for the next 20 miles or so. First it took me around False Creek with great views of the downtown residential and office towers. Then a a spin around the perimeter of Stanley Park. The first half of the seawall path around Stanley Park provided me with excellent views of a very active working harbor including; container ships, cruise ships, sailboats, power boats, tugs, barges, ferries, and my favorite float planes taking off and landing. Around the back side of the park I passed under the Lion's Gate suspension bridge and a more rugged section of the park with longer views out to the Strait of Georgia before the western suburbs swung into view. Besides the fabulous views a great feature of most all of these bike paths was the the bikes and pedestrians/joggers were on separate paths - making it much safer. After the park I followed the shoreline of those western suburbs passing a handful of beaches - taking a lunch break at the last of these - Spanish Bank - the low tide here creates massive shallow water perfect for the skimboarding.

After leaving the beaches behind I followed Marine drive up through the park land that seperates the University of British Columbia (where we were staying) from the rest of Vancouver. It felt good to climb a bit after the mostly flat seawall - it was also great to be off the path and on the road which meant I could finally ride fast - which I did over the next 10 miles with virtually no traffic lights. After that I decided to try out some of the designated bike routes through the western suburbs. These routes are typically offset from the major arteries by a block or two with various measures taken to make them safer and more efficient for bike commuters - these measure seemed quite effective and I'll be missing them as I head back to commuting in Baltimore. Where these routes intersected major arteries car traffic was forced to turn right(to keep traffic low) and bikes are provided with a crosswalk button (to stop traffic and keep you going). At smaller intersections they have installed circles to slow the traffic or put in stop signs for the side streets. Since these routes don't always follow the same street all the way across the city - they each have their own names which appear on yellow signs on top of the street signs making it fairly easy to follow them. The Cypress St. route took me to the Ridgeway route which delivered me to the highest point in the city - Queen Elizabeth Park. From there I dropped back down to the water on the Ontario St. route. Realizing I still had a bit of time on my hands I followed the shore back out to Kitsilano Beach and relaxed in the sun for a while before returning the bike. More Photos HERE
And as a Slideshow HERE

42+ Miles on the day
1678 YTD

Tour de Gastown

In researching for our trip to Vancouver I discovered that there was a bike race there each July, but never quite got around to finding out when exactly it was held and really forgot all about it. When I arrived I was leafing through some of the tourist brochures that Joanne received from the conference she was attending and realized that the Tour de Gastown was happening that night just a few miles from where I was... with very little prodding Joanne agreed to make the bike race our first exploration into Vancouver. The race is held on a fast 1.2km course in the historic waterfront neighborhood of Gastown on the edge of downtown Vancouver. The women's race was well under way when we arrived, but we probably caught half of the 30 laps. We watched from the hairpin corner at Cordova and Water Streets. Between races Joanne and I wandered around the course looking for a new vantage point to watch the 50 lap men's race from - eventually we settled on a spot along Cordova from which we could watch them come out of the hairpin and accelerate towards us. This made for a fun place to watch, but meant they were moving too fast to get many good photos. After a very back and forth struggle between several leaders the winner was local rider Gina Grain in a bunch sprint - who I believe is also on the Canadian Olympic team. Astana's Chris Horner was the big name in the race and for a while it seemed like either he was tearing the rest apart with a blistering pace or they were waiting to see what he would do... after leading for most all of the race a few riders made long attacks of a lap or more - eventually one of these succeeded and Andrew Pinfold took the win. A few more pics on my flickr site HERE
And in the form of a slide show HERE

Fell of the blogger wagon...

a series of home improvement projects and another quick vacation derailed me from both the blog and the bike for a while - but I'll try to catch up in the next few days...

Half commute

Only made the ride into work today - Joanne retrieved me and we did a little shopping for her trip.

Soundtrack - Bob Marley's Could you be Loved and Redemption Song

10+ Miles
1635 YTD

In Memorium - Alice Swanson

photo by Ryan Dudek

Ghost Bike at Connecticut Ave and R Street NW DC
a memorial to Alice Swanson
who was killed yesterday while commuting to work

WABA Press Release
Wash Post Article

Dead Star Creates Celestial Havoc

Crab Nebula: a Dead Star Creates Celestial Havoc

Just the long version of my commute plus a 5 mile loop to have lunch with Joanne at the Space Telescope Science Institute (Hubble & others)- which is just a few buildings away from her department at Hopkins. This is where they translate the data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope into "scientifically meaningful units" (what a great phrase).

The drawing below illustrates how starlight turns into pretty pictures...
As it turns out in addition to taking amazing pictures of far away things they also make good sandwiches.

Good to be back to commuting after a bit of a break - definitely more productive at the office when I start the day with a little exercise.

Today's Soundtrack - Simon & Garfunkel's El Condor Pasa - which as it turns out is a cover of a 1913 Peruvian folk song or at least the melody is - they made up new lyrics - "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail..." etc... - this brought to my subconscious by David Sedaris' new book - When You are Engulfed in Flames - in which he refers to the ubiquitous Andean Street Musicians that seem to be found busking in every major city of the world. I made this same observation in 1994 while backpacking around Europe - when I could have sworn we saw the same 5 guys playing in Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Rome, Paris, Edinburgh...
27 plus miles on the day
1625 YTD