Woke to find a flat front tire... which considering what I ride through on the way to work should be a much more frequent occurrence - Luckily I was up a little early and still managed to leave the house a little earlier than I usually do.
Another lovely day and I decided to take advantage and wander a bit from my route.
Wildlife Sighting in Guilford - a pair of Golden Retrievers, a big black russian terrier? & a corgi? the smaller of which was walking circles under the larger, and a pack of stone masons.
When I got to my turn off to Falls Road I kept going straight thinking I would take in a couple of laps around the reservoir, but then spun off to see how the new portion of the
Jones Falls trail was progressing. On the north side of the park they have created a series of switchbacks to take the trail down to TV hill. Since my last trip they've finished all the railings and landscaping - it looks great - not sure where they are taking the trail from here... at the bottom of the switchbacks I turned around and headed back to the reservoir. Instead of doubling back and heading down to Falls Road I decided to cut through the Reservoir Hill and Druid Hill neighborhoods.
I picked up Madison at the edge of the park and passed under the gate that once marked the entrance to the park
I stayed on Madison past North Avenue which allowed me to stumble upon the Madison Street Synagogue - which was the home to the
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation from 1891 to 1951 and is now a 7th Day Adventist church. According to the historical marker this was the third home of the first Jewish congregation in Maryland.
A few blocks south of the old synagogue I switched over to Druid Hill Drive and realized that I had intended to be a few blocks over on Eutaw Place for this journey as I had wandered into the location for much of the first season of
The Wire - The
McCullough homes were the backdrop for the
pit.
Shortly after crossing MLK, Druid Park Drive turned into Centre which I followed all the way to Calvert - which was a nice long down hill and I got up a pretty good head of steam - Unfortunately just before the turn onto Calvert Street my chain came off - which is a great deal more alarming on a fixed gear... luckily I noticed early enough to brake and turn onto the sidewalk as the light changed.
A map of this trip is
here
All told nearly a 20 mile ride to work - basically reversed my usual morning commute for the ride home...
30.5 Miles on the day
1023 Miles total to date for the year
While riding you notice that people lose a lot of stuff in the road - I suggested to Steve at some point that I thought we could start a good business reselling rubber tie down straps as it seems like I see one on every ride. Steve responded that we could also sell single gloves and shoes... just as he said this we passed a badminton racket laying in the road - not something we see everyday.
Soundtrack - a medley from the Talking Heads 1985 album - Little Creatures inspired by hearing 'Stay Up Late' on the radio as we got to Oregon Ridge - then kept alive by Kelly who kept singing the refrain throughout the ride. Somehow this also prompted 'And She Was', 'Give Me Back My Name','Walk it Down', and 'Road to Nowhere' all from that album.
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