It's Mostly About the Bike

Commute to Work

2009-02-10T16:06:00.004-05:00

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. iMapMyRide Feb 10, 2009 8:40 AM
Find more Bike Rides in Baltimore, Maryland

Expressway Ride

2008-09-22T20:36:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-22T12:41:00.007-04:00

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

2008-09-16T17:09:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-09T18:26:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-04T19:17:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-04T18:44:00.002-04:00

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)

2008-08-31T19:31:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-26T21:39:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-24T21:55:00.005-04:00

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...

2008-08-21T13:44:00.012-04:00

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

2008-08-17T21:28:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-17T21:20:00.004-04:00

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

2008-08-11T19:26:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-08-10T22:19:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-08T21:14:00.002-04:00

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

1823 Miles YTD

One last observation

2008-08-08T21:03:00.006-04:00

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

2008-08-08T19:46:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-27T20:52:00.006-04:00

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

2008-07-24T21:41:00.006-04:00

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...

2008-07-24T21:39:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-10T21:26:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-09T16:13:00.007-04:00

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

2008-07-08T17:05:00.007-04:00

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

C & O Canal Towpath

2008-07-06T20:29:00.011-04:00

30 June - 2 July 2008 Steve and I decided it was time to try out hands at a bit of bike touring/camping/trail riding - which we thought could all be neatly wrapped up by a trip along the C&O Canal Towpath. It seemed the wise choice for a first attempt at such an adventure - close to home, many camping options (sites every 5 miles or so), plenty of towns along the way for resupply and meals - and now that this trail connects to the Great Allegheny Passage it could act as the shakedown for a much longer 350 mile tour from DC to Pittsburgh one day in the future.

The original plan was to set out early from Bethesda and ride out to a campsite shortly past Harpers Ferry the first day. On Day Two we would ride out and back to somewhere beyond Shepherdstown. Then on Day Three we would ride back to Bethesda. We mostly managed stick to our plan...

After sitting in a traffic back up for an hour or so (ah the joys of the capital beltway) we arrived in Bethesda almost on schedule... We parked Steve's truck at a friends house (thanks Astrid) and headed down to the towpath.
Our first challenge appeared to be getting down to and over the canal - first a dirt trail with a steep staircase of switchbacks and then the bridge pictured above - the trickiest part was a rather steep staircase down from the bridge and onto the towpath. Once we were off and rolling I was amazed at how quiet empty the trail was even though we were still well within the beltway. While there was the occasional walker/jogger/biker we mostly had the trail to ourselves.

We quickly came up on the first of many locks we'd pass in the next few days - in this lower section not only has the park service managed to keep the canal watered, but many of the locks are still functioning and they offer rides on a canal boat up near Great Falls.

I was quite pleasantly surprised at the condition of the towpath throughout the trip - especially the first 20 miles or so when it was a hard packed stone/dirt surface. We found that even loaded down as we were we could keep a reasonable pace of 10-14 miles and hour and for the most part we able to ride side by side and pass the time chewing the fat.

One of my favorite stretches on this first day was around Great Falls when the canal widened up with sheer rock faces lining the opposite shore. Another striking feature of these watered sections of the canal was the freakishly bright green algae that covered the surface in some parts - there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason about which parts had it and which didn't - sometimes in very still sections and sometimes when the water seemed to be moving, sometimes in open sunny sections and sometimes in forested shady stretches....

After a couple hours we reached Whites Ferry - the last regular ferry service still operating across the Potomac - we had lunch at the general store here - I went with a grilled cheese and Steve went with the "Barge Burger" (which was just a hamburger) and we split the "Ferry Fries" which had to be the greasiest fries I've ever eaten. My favorite tidbit from this pitstop was the sign for canoe rentals explaining that you had to be 36 years old to rent a canoe - I was dying to ask how they came up with 36 as the cutoff point, but the kid behind the counter had already informed us that it was his first week there when I asked another random question.

After lunch we passed across the Monocacy Aqueduct, the largest of the many large structures built to carry the canal and towpath over the many rivers and streams that feed into the Potomac. It must have been an amazing site to see a barge carrying 100 tons of coal floating across this structure over the Monacacy River. There were two new treats beyond the Monacacy - things got a bit muddier and the canal began to parallel the old B&O (now CSX/MARC train tracks) - the first train to pass announced itself with an astonishingly loud horn that nearly threw both Steve and I off our bikes... we would eventually become quite accustomed to this sound more on that later.

As we passed Brunswick we met a backpacker, surprisingly one of the only ones we saw on the towpath, he was attempting to put on his poncho, but needed a hand getting it over his backpack. He more than returned the favor by giving us a tip on a restaurant to check out in Brunswick on the ride back.

It had been raining on and off throughout the day, but luckily the towpath was fairly tree covered. As we left Brunswick and got closer to Harpers Ferry the tree cover began to thin and we started to get a little bit wetter with each passing shower. This coupled with a desire for dinner and a hope to set up camp before sundown led us to pick up the pace a bit. For a while we were hammering along at a pretty good clip (>15mph), and then about a half mile out from Harpers Ferry, Steve got a rather loud flat tire. We quickly changed the tube and got rolling again - hoping to set up camp and then double back to Harpers Ferry for dinner. We got about a half mile north of Harpers Ferry when the same tire blew again - this time blowing apart the dollar Steve had inserted as a boot to cover the slit in the tire. At this point we decided that a new tire was perhaps in order - so we headed back to Harpers Ferry hoping the bike shop would still be open, but we missed it by about half hour. Dinner seemed the best plan and we set of in search of a restaurant. Over dinner we regrouped and made a plan to stay somewhere in town so we could hit the bike shop when it reopened. We found a hostel just around the corner - the Town's Inn.

We had breakfast with a two guys from the hostel - one a retiree from Massachusetts who was thru hiking the Appalachian Trail to raise money for the Lion's Club charity for sight, a very nice guy who it seems had never really done any back packing before he set out. The other guy was bike touring on a trike - he had started out from Florida and seemed to be one of those people who has done nearly everything. It was a lively breakfast conversation of tales from the road and trails.

Once back in town we eventually got into the bike shop to acquire the new tire and some more spare tubes - managed to get back on the trail by 11 or so. We started out with a jaunt north about 10 miles or so to Shepherdstown where we had a great lunch at a quite unexpected middle eastern place - Shaharazade's. Then Steve and I both went off in search of a treat to celebrate before beginning the journey back to Bethesda - for Steve a slice of chocolate cake and for me a peanut butter smoothie. Then it was back on the road - the climb up from the trail to town had been a bit grueling with our loaded panniers - the descent back proved to be a little terrifying all that weight and cross winds across the bridge really tested my bike handling...

The rain kept threatening, but never really got to bad and we made good time as we headed for our next goal - dinner in Brunswick at Beans in the Belfry - the place the hiker tipped us off about the day before.

This was a great little cafe in an old church - that seemed to be a real diamond in the rough based on the little bit of riding around town we did trying to find the place. We had a very tasty dinner and some more treats from the bakery case... then it was back onto the trail to find a campsite to bed down for the night. We both feared that there wasn't enough daylight left to get far enough down the trail to find a site past where the train tracks split away from the trail - and indeed we did wind up camping quite close to the tracks. Now I've camped near train tracks many times - as a kid I always assumed that KOA was owned by the railroads as the always seemed to be close to the tracks. However this was closer than I ever remember being - I could swear I could feel the ground shake as the trains approached and we seemed to be near some kind of intersection as they seemed committed to laying on their horns just as they passed our site. I've definitely slept better - but did manage to sleep some. Sharing our site was one guy traveling alone and another guy traveling with his two daughters (college age?) both seemed to be working at traveling a different section each summer to the end of seeing all of over time.

In the morning we set out early - probably packed up and back on the trail by 7 or so and made good time back to White's ferry for a late breakfast. This left us with 20 or so miles to get back to Bethesda. It was a gorgeous day and those really pretty stretches around Great Falls were all the more scenic with bright sunshine and blue skies.

Wildlife Highlights included: A gaggle of Canada Geese that scarcely moved as we passed them on the towpath, many large turtles swimming an sunning themselves in the canal and one small one that I nearly ran over on the towpath, several Great Blue Herons - including one on the towpath that allowed us to get quite close and then flew beside us on the canal, a dozen or so Turkey Vultures blocking the path that eventually shuffled out of the way once we rang our bike bells, a doe grazing at dawn in Harpers Ferry, and one large black snake that Steve tells me we nearly ran over in the towpath - I have no idea how I missed that one... More trip photos HERE, or as a SLIDESHOW, and organized on a MAP 150 miles over three days
1598 YTD

Tour of Pennsylvania

2008-07-06T19:01:00.004-04:00

26-28 June 2008

Off to PA for the weekend to visit our friends Tom and Kate - and to watch a bit of bike racing!
The inaugural Tour of Pennsylvania is a six day stage race across PA for young riders - a so called 'espoir' race for riders under 25 - espoir being the French word for hope.

Joanne and I arrived in Bedford in time to watch the finish of stage 3 which started in Camp Hill. This stage brought the first two major climbs of the race at Tuscarora Summit and Sideling Hill.

The story of the day was that of Peter Stetina who broke away from the pack on the first climb and stayed off the front all day. By the time we arrived the race announcer reported that he was nearly 3 minutes ahead of the pack. Once over the final climb the group began to reel him in, but as they started the final kilometer he stubbornly refused to be caught. It was until they came into sight of the finish that he was caught about 75 meters from the line. He still managed to pick up the King of the Mountain and Most Aggressive Rider Jerseys.

Stetina receiving KOM jersey

On Friday we made our way to an overlook on the first climb of stage 4 - Mt Ararat - the former site of a rather famous landmark on the Lincoln Highway (PA rt 30) - for years it was known as the Grand View Hotel, but in 1978 it was renamed The Ark - they kept the slogan on the side 'SEE 3 STATES AND 7 COUNTIES' - it was in pretty serious disrepair the last time Joanne and I passed through the area in the late 90's on a trip to see nearby Falling Water and Kentuck Knob (houses by Frank Lloyd Wright) Sadly it burned to the ground in 2001 leaving only the view.

Thanks to the joys of the google image search I discovered on this persons Flickr site that it also lives on in what looks to be an excellent model train garden at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Joining us on the side of the road was a cameraman and reporter for the Versus network - below is a shot of them trying to take in the long shot of the peloton coming up through the valley on the approach to the climb.

From them we learned that Senator John Kerry was riding in the Z TEAM car for the day to watch the race - he is an avid cyclist and a supporter of the team - apparently they were dropping him off later so he could fly to Saudi Arabia for a meeting...

We also learned from the Versus folks that it might be possible to make a detour around the race and get to Latrobe in time to catch the finish. We raced across Western PA in and out of heavy rains arriving in Latrobe with what we thought was plenty of time, but instead watched the race zip past us at a traffic light just outside of town. We still managed to catch the podium ceremony and other festivities. Peter Stetina came in 4th on the day and wound up holding onto and winning the overall KOM - I think he might be a name to remember.

A few more pics are posted HERE

Fell off the blogger wagon...

2008-07-06T18:55:00.004-04:00

Catching up a bit on the blogging - in a few postings...

25 June 2008

The usual commute

17.5 Miles
1453 YTD

Davidsonville

2008-06-21T19:21:00.002-04:00

Carpooled to the Davidsonville Park & Ride with Kelly and Lindsay to meet up with Steve, Aesha, Vinnie, and even got to see Bart for the first time since he got back from his California ride. This was also the first time I'd seen to Team Jack Ass group this year - quite crowded at the park & ride this morning with several groups meeting up.

A beautiful day - a little on the warms side by the end, but bearable. Today's cue took us on a slightly different route to North Beach - eventually heading in the same way I've usually left North Beach which was a little disorienting.

Today was my first ride with the new rear dérailleur and it seems to have finally fixed my shifting problems post crash.

Wildlife - an enormous Bull Mastiff that was hanging out in the back of an SUV parked near our lunch spot. We couldn't resist going over to pet it, but then it was so scared it cowered and shook so we left him alone.

Roadside Attractions - half a dozen ears of corn in the road

58 miles or so
1435 YTD

Commutus Interuptus

2008-06-20T09:23:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's ride home was brought to an abrupt halt by a staple in the road - to add insult to injury I had neglected to return my tire levers to my bag after using them on a rebuild for a friend that I finally finished last night. Luckily my dad was home and came to the rescue.
Soundtrack for the week - various tracks of the Clash's 1980 release Sandinista - especially "Ivan meets G.I. Joe.

14 - Tuesday's Shortest Distance Commute
22 - Thursday's Commute out and back the longer way
1377 - YTD

Another Boordy/Jericho Saturday

2008-06-15T11:30:00.003-04:00

Kelly, Lindsay, and I once again met up at Hydes Road Park for the Boordy/Jericho Loop - this time an earlier start and a less muggy day made for slightly cooler ride.
This time around we made a brief detour to climb the short hill to the top of Rocks State Park - only a half mile long, but a 15% grade - which was a brutal out of the saddle climb...

Roadside Attractions - the foreleg of a deer, a turkey vulture, and a queen sized boxspring.

50+ Miles
1341 YTD

Friday's Commute

2008-06-13T21:01:00.002-04:00

The usual ride in and the longer way home retracing the morning route.

Soundtrack - Wild Life from the Talking Heads 1986 album/film True Stories

22 miles
1290 YTD

Wednesday's Commute

2008-06-12T15:53:00.003-04:00

Not much to report - the usual ride to and fro

Soundtrack - the theme from Candid Camera - where does this stuff come from? I think I may have passed someone wearing a Price is Right t-shirt - and somehow my brain took me to Candid Camera... the link above is to the wiki page as usual - I had no idea that started as a radio show called Candid Microphone.

17.7 miles
1268 YTD

Beating the heat

2008-06-10T20:32:00.005-04:00

or trying to beat it...

awoke early and took a quick ride down Walther blvd. and 5 laps around the lake before driving in to work - hopefully this heat will let up soon.

Soundtrack - Beach Boys 1965 #1 - Help Me, Rhonda

Wildlife - Two enormous Sheepdogs walking a small woman dressed head to toe in hot pink.

14 miles
1251 YTD

Lindsay & Kelly made the paper

2008-06-09T20:48:00.005-04:00

Below is an excerpt from this morning's Baltimore Sun article on the Tour Dem Parks ride:

Lindsay MacCuaig took up bike riding about a month ago, at the encouragement of her girlfriend, Kelly Walker. They rode 55 miles Saturday in and around Oregon Ridge Park in Baltimore County, and when MacCuaig woke up yesterday she was still feeling the effects of that grueling ride in the heat. Still, she had agreed to yesterday's ride and was out on her bike early again.

"If you want to ride, you have to deal with the weather," she said. "I'm one of those psycho people who goes running in the dead of the summer."

MacCuaig and Walker not only rode the 40-mile route yesterday but rode in 12 miles from their home in Hamilton - and would have to ride the 12 miles back home in the afternoon. Still, they were smiling as they rested in Carroll Park, lying out among the dozens of bicycles scattered in the grass.

They didn't plan to rest long. Later in the afternoon, when it got a little cooler, they were planning to do 20 miles of inline skating around Lake Montebello to prepare to skate 87 miles at a fall event from Athens, Ga., to Atlanta.

The full article can be found HERE

Tour Dem Parks

2008-06-08T21:24:00.007-04:00

Today Kelly, Lindsay, and myself were joined by Steve for a ride around Baltimore city to celebrate the parks and raise money for the various non-profits whose work support, restore, use, and advocate for the city's parks. Kelly, Lindsay, and I started out from home and rode to the start of the ride in Carrol Park. It was great fun to ride through the city at 7 in the morning - so quiet and virtually no traffic. After a very peaceful journey we were pleasantly surprise to discover a large crowd had gathered in the park to participate in the event. We quickly found Steve and got signed in...

The ride included 4 routes - 20, 30, 40 and 60 mile options - the three longer options mostly paralleled each other, but at times it was more than a little confusing keeping track of the cue sheets and markings on the road. We headed from the park towards the stadiums and immediately missed our first spur down to Middle Branch Park. Once we passed the stadiums we headed up Federal Hill and then down around the inner harbor - it was here that we had the first of several interactions with a running event that was also happening around the harbor. For the next few miles we either paralleled or criss crossed the running route - which was more than a little clumsy. Thankfully when we reached Canton we headed away from the water and the runners. Our first rest stop was at Patterson Park at the Pagoda providing us with a nice view out to the marine terminals and beyond. A history of the Pagoda is HERE and a nice article about the 2002 renovation is HERE. After the rest stop we headed up Washington Blvd. past Hopkins Hospital - then at Gay Street, Kelly and I realized the we were going right by the 1887 American Brewery building and decided we had to take a detour to show it to Steve and see how the renovations were going. A little bit of info can be found at Urban Atrophy. From here we headed up past the old Clifton Park Valve House. Then past Clifton Mansion - the former Hopkins estate.

From here we passed through Clifton Park golf course, Herring Run Park, Lake Montebello, the old Memorial Stadium site, Sherwood Gardens, San Marten Drive, Druid Hill Park, Jones Falls Trail, and eventually to the Gwynns Falls Trail which led us back to Carrol Park.

In Carrol Park we joined in on the post-ride BBQ and hung out a chatted for a while with other riders. We met the guy behind Baltimore Spokes - also known as Human Car and chatted about recent successes at the city and state level for better access and facilities for cycling.

All and all it was a grand day out.

50 miles total for the day
1237 miles YTD

A very hot ride

2008-06-07T19:55:00.006-04:00

Kelly, Lindsay and I headed out to Long Green Valley today to do one of my favorite rides starting near Boordy Vineyards and making a big loop around Belair past Jerusalem Mills & Rocks State Park.

Map of the route is available HERE

It was unbelievably hot and humid to the point that it almost looked foggy.

Wildlife Highlight - a very fuzzy groundhog crossed our path late in ride.

50 miles on the day
1187 miles YTD

A Happy Tax Payer

2008-06-06T21:53:00.007-04:00

This week the City of Baltimore made me very happy by re-paving what was the roughest section of my commute - the first block of White Avenue west of Belair Road. This morning on my way to work I was greeted by a beautiful, buttery smooth stretch of asphalt. It was even more exciting on the ride home when it came into view and I realized for once I wouldn't have to fear that the potholes would send me bouncing into Belair Road. Hopefully it won't take too many weeks for them to repaint the centerline...

Also of note - I spent about half my morning commute riding with a guy I met who has been commuting by bike since 1946 as a school boy - now a retiree he still rides over 4000 miles a year.

22 mile on the day
1137 miles YTD

The Lake at Dawn

2008-06-06T21:30:00.004-04:00

Thursday 7 June 2008The kind folks at Race Pace straightened out the derailluer hanger on my poprad - the worst lingering side effect of my crash. I got up early this morning to try it out and see if the repair undid the chain noise... I headed down to the lake for a few laps just after the sun came up. Unfortunately it didn't seem to do the trick, but it is definitely better... afterwards I put it back in the workstand and seemed to have eliminated it - I'll find out for sure out on the road this weekend. 11 miles on the day
1115 miles YTD

Giro d'Italia 2008

2008-06-06T20:22:00.004-04:00

photo - Igor Terzariol found at Steephill from Flickr

My favorite story out of the Giro this year was that of Emanuelle Sella winner of the King of the Mountain competition, 6th overall, and 3 stages - 14, 15, & 20.,

He may have won stage 7 as well, but a flat late in the race put him out of contention.

In Stage 14 he went out in a breakaway and eventually solo-ed to the finish 4 min 38 seconds ahead of his nearest rival on the day.

The day after he won stage 15 by just over 2 minutes.

Then came a mountain time trial (pictured above) which he lost by a mere 6 seconds.

On the penultimate day of the race, stage 20, he once again pulled away from a breakaway on a climb and won by over a minute.

One of the things I love about following stage races is that there are many races inside the race. In this case the story of overall winner, Alberto Contador, wasn't all that interesting in that he slowly pulled into the lead and then narrowly held onto it for the remainder of the race. Contador didn't win a single stage - in fact he didn't even finish in the top three on any of the stages. Meanwhile Sella so dominated in the KOM competition that his nearest rival had fewer than half as many points. Below is how he looked at the end of the race on his first wins.

photo - AFP found at VeloNews

Coupla Commutes

2008-06-03T18:21:00.002-04:00

Not much to report - commuted in on Monday and Tuesday...

Took the longer way home on Monday.

and the shorter way home on Tuesday.

22 Miles Monday.
17.5 Miles Tuesday.
1104 Miles YTD.

My Parents went to Bermuda and all I got was this short bike ride...

2008-06-01T19:12:00.010-04:00

My parents left early this morning for vacation - leaving my dad's truck at a nearby park and ride where they caught a bus to NYC and from there a cruise ship to Bermuda. This afternoon I rode out there to bring his truck home which provided me with several views of the expanding I-95/695 interchange which not so long ago looked like this: And will eventually look like this:They still have a long way to go...

I also used this ride to explore some roads I haven't ridden over since I was in high school - Ridge Road and Bucks Schoolhouse Road - as I expected most of the farms have been subdivided, but they are still a bit of a retreat from the surrounding congestion. I think I may use this as another close to home loop for days when I don't have time to fit in a longer ride. Map is HERE

Roadside attractions - 1 rubber tie down strap, 1 opossum

Soundtrack - Too Much Joy's 'If I Were A Mekon'

Wildlife Highlights - a rooster wandering around in an unfenced yard, goats @ Bucks Schoolhouse Rd & Perry Hall Blvd.

8.5 miles on the day
1064 miles YTD

Badminton & Alpacas

2008-05-31T20:41:00.010-04:00

Steve, Kelly, Vinnie, and I got together for a 35 mile ride out of Oregon Ridge today. We were following a cue sheet from the Baltimore Bicycling Club, but missed a turn and wound up making things up for a bit before finding our way back onto the route - only cut off 2 miles.

A map of where we rode is here

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.

Just as we started up the final climb back over Cuba Rd it started to rain...

and then I got my second flat tire in as many days....

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.

Wildlife Highlights -a Baltimore Oriole, a black snake in the road, and a small herd of Alpacas that Kelly mistook for deer...

33 miles on the day
1056 miles YTD

Meandering Commute

2008-05-30T14:20:00.010-04:00

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

Back to Commutting

2008-05-29T21:58:00.005-04:00

A lovely day for a ride to work - fairly uneventful. Took the slightly longer way home...

Today's Soundtrack in my head... Inbound - Rio by Duran Duran 1982 - something reminded me of my ride in Ipanema
Outbound - Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash 1956 - perfect for slow hill climbing 20.5 miles on the day
992 miles to date

The Train to Chesapeake Beach

2008-05-27T21:42:00.004-04:00

Saturday 24 May 2008

Caught up with Steve for a ride with the Potomac Pedalers Touring Club - a great DC area bike club that seems to pull together lots of riders.

The ride started out at Southern HS in Harwood south of Annapolis. We headed out with the A riders at a blistering pace, but somehow managed to hold on for several miles. I think Steve and I were both relieved when we reached our turn off for the 47 mile route as that meant we split off from the A riders who were continuing on for the 61 mile route. That said we maintained a strong pace and averaged around 20 mph for the first half of the ride. After a quick lunch in North Beach we began our way back - the return route featured a few long-ish climbs, but we still managed to finish up around an average speed 18 mph for the day. For my sake it was a good thing Steve was suffering from a bad cold or I'd of never kept up.

A stunning day - loads of sailboats out on the water...

Wildlife highlights - two huge draught horses

47 miles on the day, plus
8.5 miles on Sunday (Walther & Montebello)
14 miles on Monday(Walther & a few laps around Montebello)
972 miles to date

25 hours in NYC

2008-05-27T21:15:00.007-04:00

Wed/Thu May 22 & 23 Popped up to NY to catch a play and visit a friend. Saw Thurgood at the Booth Theater - a one man show about the life of Thurgood Marshall - a great performance by Laurence Fishburne - an amazing story of an incredibly accomplished Baltimorean. Wandered around the new(ish) MOMA for a few hours... I also managed to squeeze in quite a few NY icons in my wanderings about Manhattan - including Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Wall Street, Battery Park, and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge - a first for me - and as it turns out just in time for it's 125th anniversary.

A Rainy Ride

2008-05-20T19:55:00.004-04:00

RIDE FOR THE FEAST 2008 - DAY 2

In the morning we rode a bus across the bridge to start our ride from a bike shop near Sandy Point State Park. Today's ride would take us back to Baltimore mostly via the B&A Trail. Once of the trail we wind our way to Carrol Park. The original plan was to regroup there and then have a police escort across the city to the Moveable Feast headquarters. Unfortunately the police backed out - so we transfered from Carrol Park to Paterson Park on a bus and then rode the final 10 blocks or so.

Steve, Matt, and myself were riding sweep - meaning that we would ride at the end of the group to make sure that everyone made their way to Carrol Park. We waited a while to let everyone get a ways down the road before heading out and managed to get almost to the first pit before encountering another rider. We then lingered a bit longer than we needed to at that pit as discovered that everyone was doing quite well and at one point we began to fear we'd be holding things up at Carrol Park. After picking up the pace for a couple miles we finally reached a small group of riders and rode with them into the second pit.

Shortly after heading out from the pit stop it began to rain... at the same time we started to hit the biggest hills of the ride and started to catch up with more riders. At the top of a long hill we pulled of to help with tire change. As we started to get back on the road we discovered that three more riders also had flats. To make things even more exciting a nearby power line began to shower sparks into the street as the wind and rain tangled it up in a tree. Eventually we got back on the road and caught up with the other riders at Carrol Park for the transfer to Patterson Park.

In the rush to get rolling again in the rain a few of us didn't leave with the group - so Steve, Matt, little Steve, and myself had our own little trip through East Baltimore. We arrive not longer after the group for the post-ride celebration.

All told we raised over $200,000 for Moveable Feast - not bad for a bunch of knuckleheads on their bikes.

30 miles on the day
899 miles to date

A tale of three Steves...

2008-05-18T21:31:00.007-04:00

A Kelly, a Matt, a Kristin, and 80 or so others who spent their weekend riding in the wind and the rain to support the Moveable Feast.
RIDE FOR THE FEAST 2008 - Day 1 - Rehoboth to Easton
Above is the gang of seven, mostly Steves, who I spent the bulk of the ride taking turns in the wind with [Kristin is the 7th - see here - for another version minus one Steve plus Kristin]. To get to the sofa you have to rewind 95 or so miles to Rehoboth.

As usual the ride rolled out in one large group headed up the coastal highway and I must admit that my recent spill made me want to get out of the pack ASAP. After our first turn onto rt. 24 things start to string out and I began to make my way to the front in search of a less congested spot in the group. By the time we reached the first pit at mile 20 much of this group had taken shape - Kelly, little Steve, Florida Steve, and myself... after that pit we got a bit more organized and began a paceline. About half way to the second pit we passed Joanne (who was volunteering as a sag driver) I broke off to say high and shed my arm warmers - then got a nice workout trying to sprint back onto the group. I reached them just in time for the second pit stop.

After the second pit the brothers eschmacher joined on and we started to get our paceline a little more organized with everyone taking fairly regular pulls on the front - though it did seem for a while that a certain Steve's turn at the front kept coinciding with the towns rather than the windy farms...

Somewhere between the third pit (lunch) and the fourth we picked up Kristin, who Bart, Steve, and I met last year on this ride. Between the third and fifth pit we mostly kept together making a great team effort of covering the miles, sharing the wind, and encouraging each other.

A few miles after the fifth pit Kelly was taking a turn on the front when the rest of us splintered and she opened up a pretty good gap. After a bit I decided this was a good chance to get out of the saddle and sprint to catch up with Kelly. When I reached her we tried to pick up the pace and quickly learned why two person break aways rarely work. We did OK for a mile or so, but it didn't take long to exhaust ourselves - as a two person paceline offers only brief shelter from the wind. Which is when the sofa came into view - remember the sofa...

There on the on the side of the road was the most remarkable orange velvet sofa basking in the sun atop a manicured lawn with a hand lettered sign "FREE" - It seemed obvious to Kelly and I that this would make the perfect pit stop to chill out and regroup. We had just begun to sit down when the gang began to come into view... naturally it also seemed a great photo opportunity...

We made short work of the few miles we had left - finishing roughly 8 hours after leaving Rehoboth - minus the lunch and pits we pedaled for a little over 6 hours.

Today's soundtrack included - Lollipop (thanks to Lolly Pop Lane) and Victoria (thanks to first person I rode this route with two years ago)

Wildlife Highlights included - numerous turkey vultures including one group working over a deer carcass on the side of the road, a pair of shaggy donkeys. a beautiful Clydesdale, and a groundhog

[I'll try to take a stab at day two tomorrow]

100 miles on the day
869 miles to date

Night before the ride

2008-05-16T20:48:00.002-04:00

We're settled into our hotel in Rehoboth - signed in for the ride, shared a meal with all the other riders as well as the volunteers who will support us over the next two days. I forget what a great bunch of people this brings together... always amazing the threads that link us all together - one of the riders who was behind me when I fell in Easton is married to a scientist that Joanne knows from Hopkins and he is here volunteering as well this weekend... a small world.

I'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me this year... including the donations you made to Team Centerstage - we've raised more than both of my previous rides. From what we heard downstairs it appears that this year is on track to be their biggest ever - with both more riders and more money raised. It means a great deal to me to have all of your support - especially when I'm facing 20 mph headwinds tomorrow.

I did manage to squeeze in one more commute this week...

15 miles on Thursday

769 miles to date

Back in the Saddle Again

2008-05-13T13:23:00.004-04:00

Today was my first day back on the bike - out on the road - since the accident. Just the regular commute with a slight detour down Maryland/Cathedral and across Monument - which added a bit of brick and cobbles for fun.

I'm feeling pretty good - no real pain or stiffness to complain of... did discover a couple things that weren't revealed by my rides in the trainer or for that matter by working on my bike in the workstand.

1- I seem to have torn the palm open on my left hand glove in the crash - which is fascinating as I only had cuts on the fingertips of that hand and my right hand is much worse off, but that glove looks fine.

2- I have some clicking noise to sort out in the rear dérailleur when on the big ring... can't seem to recreate it when I'm not riding, but need to sort it our before the ride on Saturday.

I was worried of course that I'd be a little tentative, but that doesn't seem to be the case - we'll see how I do back in a pack of other riders this weekend.

Today's soundtrack - Gene Autry's 'Back in the Saddle Again' of course and The Four Seasons 1962 hit 'Big Girls Don't Cry'
17.5 miles on the day
754 miles to date

Not really about the bike - Gala for CENTERSTAGE

2008-05-11T20:49:00.005-04:00

This week as I've been recuperating from my little crash I've also been helping to put together our gala fund raiser at work. The picture above is a shot of my major contribution to this years decor - a mobile of paper lanterns in our hoistway. More pics are posted on my flickr site - Gala 2008.

Went to the doctor on Wednesday - she seemed to feel that my minor bits of road rash were clean and heeling nicely. She also felt that since I've had no more headaches or other symptoms there is little to worry about in terms any lingering head injury issues... with that she cleared me to start riding again - at first on the trainer - which I've been doing.

Went to Steve's today to try and wring out my bike's injuries. We bent back the derailluer hanger pretty easily and trued up the wheels. Otherwise it seems to be running well - THANKS STEVE!. We had hoped to fit in a little shakedown ride - but the rain intervened.

Still hoping to get back on the road some this week in advance of the ride on Saturday.

A Weekend in Easton

2008-05-06T21:29:00.014-04:00

Sat/Sun 3 & 4 May 08

Saturday was supposed to be my third year doing a 75 mile training ride out of Easton, but I didn't quite finish it. Contrary to weather reports from earlier in the week it was a gorgeous day. We had a huge group of folks training for the Ride for the Feast, as well as a large contingent loosely affiliated to Team JA - who I spent most weekends last summer riding with...

We headed out of the parking lot and made our way towards Oxford. It is hard to believe how much this area has changed in just three years - new shopping centers and tons of houses dot the landscape...

our first major highlight is the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry; This tiny craft holds about three cars plus this day 20 bikes for a short trip across the Tred Avon River - and claims to be the oldest privately operated ferry service in the country. It always makes a fun break and distraction from the ride.

From there we headed into St. Michaels for a quick break at a coffee shop before riding out to the tip of Tilghman Island. We fought a strong head wind along this stretch by forming a nice paceline of 9 or so riders... we then circled back to town for lunch before starting the final leg of our trip back to Easton.

About 8 miles out of town we turned onto some tiny farm roads - giving us our first real break from the traffic... this was also our first chance to stop riding single file and be a bit more social - which may have proved to by my undoing.

Somewhere around mile 64 or so a moment of inattention on my part caused me to touch wheels with the rider in front of me. Before I new it I was lying in the road with a half a dozen riders trying desperately not to run me over. Thankfully they were paying attention and managed to avoid me. In the end I think perhaps three of us wound up in the road, but I seemed to be the worst for the wear.

The gang was quick to settle me down and keep me from trying to get back up. It was clear immediately that my ride for the day was over - and after a few minutes it also became clear that I might be well served by a visit to the ER.

The highlights (and low-lights) from here included;

- Aesha taking control and taking my hand when I hit the deck - I won't soon forget her calm voice telling me to keep still and making sure I was well enough to get up off the ground - then discovering she had suffered her own fair share of road rash.

- Discovering the long tear in Steve's wheel that resulted from his heroic braking effort that surely saved my ribcage...

- The ER doc (who used to ride)asking me when my last big fall was (at least 5000 miles ago) to which he responded - "so you were due"

- Kelly and Bart pushing their faces into the window while the ER doc was telling me he thought I needed a Cat scan - and then Bart promising to make me carrot cake muffins.

- the ER nurse asking us if we were all from the 'Western Shore' - a phrase I rarely hear, but that never fails to conjure up that New Yorker cartoon of the US - only in this case all of the US would be depicted at the 'Western Shore' except of course Delmarva

- Kelly and Steve breaking the news about my bike to me gently... there's still hope but it seems like it may have faired worse than I did.

- the first of my two CAT scans - they tell you to sit still then the little table jumps around like one of those quarter rides in front of the grocery store.

- defnite low-light- having the ER doc tell me there was something questionable on the CAT scan and they wanted me to admit me for observation.

- The third attempt at putting in my IV that resulted in my greatest blood loss of the whole experience as I bled out all over the towel, TV remote and who know what else...

- The ER nurse who eventually secured permission to give me water and brought me this 32 oz container (pictured below) and said "don't ask what we measure in this, but I figured giving you an 8 oz cup would be a bit of a joke. - the mixture of frustration and excitement when it was suggested that I might have to be medi-vac-d to another hospital for the lack of a doctor who was willing to admit me - I've always loved a helicopter ride.

- the excellent Strawberry shake that Steve brought me from the DQ

- having the admitting doc mistake Steve for my dad - subsequent experience with him leads me to believe that was a comment on the child that fell off his bike and not on how old Steve may have looked...

- The excellent Pad Thai that Joanne showed up with... from Easton - who knew

- Kelly txt-ing me to let me know how much fun my car is to drive - and to ask how I was doing.

- the nurse tech how woke me abruptly at 6 am by rolling me over and sticking a thermometer in my mouth in one motion all while screaming 'mr pearl' - she then scolded me not to roll out of bed while she stormed out of the door.

- the diabolical contraption posing as a chair that Joanne had to spend the night in

- watching Tour De Georgia coverage from my hospital bed

- having the Neurologist tell me how crazy he thought cyclists were for riding through St. Michaels.

- over-hearing the nurse receiving the results of my second CAT scan and repeating "It's negative" - and interpreting that to mean there was nothing in my head - less funny was waiting four more hours to have the doctor release me...

- my co-workers who were shocked to see me alive today, because I was so sparse in my description to my assistant that she told them I was hit by a car and therefore wouldn't be in on Monday.

- The Strawberry Rhubarb crumble that Joanne made me on Monday night which I'm having leftovers of while I type this...

60+ miles on the day
675 to date

47 Hours in Berkeley

2008-05-06T21:02:00.004-04:00

Headed out to California (briefly) for a meeting of LORT theater managers...
the meeting was at the Claremont Resort in the Berkley Hills
OK so the hotel doesn't quite sit so alone these days, but it still an amazing view - this shot below is a photo I took from the room our meeting was held in, but it was a but hazy - so I photoshop-ed it a bit to make it look more like the post card above. In reality there was a pretty great view of the bay, San Francisco, and even the Golden Gate... which made it pretty hard to pay attention to the proceedings...
On out first night we took in Figaro at Berkeley Rep - which was an interesting mix of theater and opera with quite a bit of projections thrown in for good measure. This was the first production by Theatre de Jeune Lune for me - I've been wanting to see them for about 15 years now - ever since my friend Mike told me about them. I was really intrigued by what I saw, but we were both too tired to stay for the second act and snuck out at intermission.

While I was hearing about the collective bargaining agreements - Joanne managed to get in some hiking in the hills and visit some friends. I played hookey from the meeting Thursday night and took in a visit to the Berkeley Sauna with her and dinner at the Great Wall with our friend Mark - which just about makes up my must do list for a visit to Berkeley.

New Shoes and where have all the flowers gone

2008-05-06T20:20:00.006-04:00

Tuesday 29 April 08

Commuted to work today on the Poprad with my new shoes and pedals; Not so good for commuting - very slippery on the crosswalks, but I think the show/pedal combo will be much better than what I have been using for the longer weekend rides.

Not much to say about todays ride other than the all the tulips are gone from Sherwood Gardens...squeezed in three laps around the lake at Druid Hill on the way in and went straight home to pack for the trip to Berkeley.

23 miles for the day
675 miles to date

...one way commute

2008-04-24T14:54:00.004-04:00

Just riding in to work today - have to take the director and designers to dinner tonight before our first preview of These Shining Lives. A very lovely new play about the women who painted radium watch dials in the 1920-30s and the landmark workers compensation suit they eventually won over illnesses resulting from being exposed to radium.

Squeezed in two laps around the lake in Druid Hill on the ride in...

Wildlife Highlights - Red Winged Black Birds in Druid Hill and a great Siberian Husky in Mt. Vernon
Soundtrack - Head Over Heels - The GoGo's from 1984
14+miles
652 total to date

Yet another commute & more tulips

2008-04-23T13:26:00.009-04:00

Took the above photo at Sherwood Gardens this morning - not too bad for my phone...

Added a lap around Druid Hill Park Reservoir to get in some miles and take in the view of the city.

This mornings soundtrack - Always Something There To Remind Me - which is apparently a Burt Bacharach song from the 60's, but of course is burned into my brain thanks to Naked Eyes' 1983 top 10 version.

Then it was a quick trip home on the dinner break - with two laps of lake montebello thrown in for good measure.

Weed on 33rd - 0
Wildlife Highlights - Pair of Scotty Dogs

23+ miles on the day
637+ to date

Another commute in tech

2008-04-22T23:21:00.005-04:00

Got to come in a little later this morning - so nice to avoid the rush hour traffic...

Then spun home on the dinner break for a little Chinese food before driving back to work...

Pot on 33rd count - 0

17.5 miles for the day
614 miles to date

Bagels & Daffodils

2008-04-19T18:41:00.010-04:00

Made a detour on this morning's commute to join Joanne for bagels at Greg's - home to the largest selection of smoked fish in the free world... this detour also allowed me to take a quick dash past 'the lakes' in Homeland to see the fading daffodils - (picture from Homeland's website) These daffodils are another spring tradition and I always try to catch them. The Homeland neighborhood is one of a few in town laid out by the Olmsted Brothers. The Homeland estate that once occupied the site is apparently responsible for the lakes that were created in 1843 and were fed by a spring until it dried up in the 1950s at which point the lakes were hooked up to city water. The houses are a great collection of architectural styles and are built at a more modest scale than nearby Guilford - leading the whole neighborhood to have a very storybook feel.

And a new feature of my commute reporting - # of times I smelled pot on E. 33rd St - 2

All told including yesterday's commute - 35.3 miles
597 miles to date

Commuting in Springtime

2008-04-16T14:29:00.008-04:00

Tuesday 15 April 08 Did my usual commute today - but with the added benefit that the tulips have started to bloom in Sherwood Gardens - which is one of my favorite things about Baltimore - this park which is actually called Stratford Green is located in the Guilford neighborhood. The park was laid out by the Olmstead Brothers - the tulips started as a hobby of John Sherwood in 1927 and over the years has become something of a rite of spring in Baltimore - a more complete history is available here...

When I began commuting in earnest two years ago to train for the Ride for the Feast - I made sure to create route that would take me past Sherwood Gardens each day thinking that it would be fun to watch the tulips grow - and it is indeed always a highlight of the ride. In winter the park is often blanketed in fog and the low angled morning light is stunning piercing through the trees. Now that spring has arrived the real show begins as the beds of tulips come to life - I'll try to post more pictures in coming weeks.

On the ride home I was also treated to this lovely sunset at Lake Montebello 17.5 miles on the day
562 miles to date

Kent Island Loop

2008-04-16T14:09:00.005-04:00

Sunday 13 April 08

Met up for another Ride for the Feast training ride - this time around with a much bigger group - maybe 10 or 12 of us. We started off on the eastern shore side of the old Kent Narrows draw bridge - actually under the new route 50 bridge. The first few miles were on a trail that took us across the old bridge and then paralleled Route 50 for a while before dropping back into the marsh for a couple of miles - here is a pic from the Queen Anne's county website
It started off as a lovely day - albeit a little breezy as always for the eastern shore. As the day progressed clouds rolled in and it got a bit colder, but at least we never got wet. At the end of the trail we missed a turn or two and wound up south of 50 a little earlier than intended which was just as well. The rest of the route basically followed route 8 south along the center of the Island. Every few miles or so we dipped into one of the many housing developments that do the island and looped in and out of the rodes that follow the coves and creeks along the bay - as Steve described - much like the petals of a flower. Below is a nice map of the trail and a bit of the island from the bikewashington website (it is a more clear on their site) Shortly after leaving the trail Steve and I split off from the group and alternated between a decent 20+mph paceline mostly on rt. 8 and then more leisurely pace in the neighborhoods. This was my first real effort of the year and I'm happy to report that I mostly was able to stay on Steve's wheel - though I did let him take longer turns in the front out in the wind. At one point we got to hammering along and missed a turn - adding a few bonus miles. This worked nicely as we were able to rejoin the group a little later after we went back and looped through the neighborhood we had skipped.
45 miles for the day
544 miles to date

Steve's to BWI loop and back

2008-04-16T13:46:00.005-04:00

Saturday 12 April 08

Met up at Steve's house in Crownsville for nice loop out to BWI then around the loop trail and back. Wound up being a pretty wet ride with alternating drizzle, some fairly heavy rain, and a little bit of sun now and then. This was a group training ride for the Ride for the Feast - though it just wound up being three of us.

Got my first flat of the season - luckily while the sun was out.

Here is a nice map of the BWI loop from the airport website

35 miles total for the day
499 miles to date

Recent Ride Roundup

2008-04-16T09:00:00.008-04:00

A quick roundup of recent rides to get me caught back up...
27 March 08 - Commute - 17.5 miles
29 March 08 - Boordy Jericho - 50
30 March 08 - Walther/Lake - 8.5
02 April 08 - Commute - 17.5
03 April 08 - Commute to work - 10.5
07 April 08 - Commute from work - 7
08 April 08 - Commute - 17.5
09 April 08 - Commute to work - 10.5
10 April 08 - Commute from work - 7
464 miles to date...

Easter in Houston

2008-04-14T21:42:00.017-04:00

SUNDAY 23 MARCH 2008

Spent 4 days in Houston attending the USITT conference and meeting of Production Managers from around the country hosted by the Alley Theatre.
The highlight of the conference for me was a session led by set designer George Tsypin surveying his career primarily focusing on a few different approaches he has taken to Wagner's Ring Cycle - but the most interesting part to me was his design for West Side Story at the Bregenz Festival. One aspect of this summer festival is an outdoor stage that sits on a lake - the stage is actually a barge in the lake with a huge amphitheater on the shore. The sets are so massive that they only do a new show every two years with the set left on the lake for the winter and them perform the same show again the second summer.

Also managed to catch up with a lot of old friends/colleagues over tex mex and beers.... (and pie - thanks kelly)

After 3 days of meetings and tex mex I was ready for a ride... luckily one of my colleagues at the Alley was willing to lend me her bicycle - saving me not only money, but also the adventure of trying to find a bike shop in Houston on an Easter Sunday morning...

I set out from the Alley which is located in the shadow of downtown Houston...
I followed a bike path along the Buffalo Bayou... Which for some time meandered along under the freeways, much like the JFX/Jones Falls trail here in bmore, but perhaps a little more scenically...
that quickly took me out of downtown and afforded me this view of the Houston skyline....
On the west side of downtown is a huge park with lots of singletrack - this was my first bit of mountain biking in years - made all the more adventurous by the borrowed hybrid that only sort of fit me.

All told I managed to squeeze in almost 20 miles.

318 miles total to date

The Blog is Back

2008-04-11T22:53:00.001-04:00

Just when I finally started training - the blogspot folks decided this was a spam blog - it appears they have put it back online - so more soon.... including updates on what i've been up to...

On the Road Again

2008-03-17T21:09:00.006-04:00

Managed to pop out for two rides this weekend;
17.5 Miles of commuting on the Fixed Gear on Saturday
33 Miles on the Providence Loop with Kelly on Sunday
299 miles so far this year...

March Meander

2008-03-07T23:02:00.003-05:00

1 March 08 hard to believe I somehow managed to let weather, illness, work, and laziness keep me off the road for nearly a month - finally got back out there today with Kelly for a spin around the city on the old Peugeot fixed gear that I bought from her. March 1st Meander
Find more Bike Rides in Baltimore, Maryland

A February Meander around the City

2008-02-09T19:09:00.002-05:00

A lovely clear day in the 50's Took a quick spin across the Northern part of the city - across Lake - out Falls to Old Pimlico - down Greenspring to Druid Hill - then once around the reservoir - across 33rd and once around Montebello before heading home. &amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/baltimore/736308410"&amp;gt;Feb City Meander&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/md/baltimore"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Baltimore, Maryland&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; 223 Miles to date

First Providence

2008-02-05T22:37:00.001-05:00

Sunday 3 February 2008 Providence Road 33 Steve and I met up on a lovely February Sunday afternoon for my first ride out of the Providence Road Park and Ride for 2008. This is where Bart, Kelly, and I usually meet up to drive to other rides an hour or more away - so it's always a treat actually start a ride from here... A nice little 33 mile loop out past the reservoir, Dulaney to Manor, Carrol Manor to Sweet Air - out and back on Green Road one of my favorites - then back through Long Green Valley where it always seems to be windy. A fun little ride that I did a couple times last year with Bart and Kelly. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/long-green/645270012"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Providence Road - 33&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/md/long-green"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Long Green, Maryland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt 33 Miles - 195 miles total to date

Winter in the desert

2008-02-04T16:55:00.001-05:00

SUNDAY 22 JANUARY 2008 [link to map - http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/az/tucson/665145153 ] I was invited to the University of Arizona at Tucson for the weekend to review their students portfolios - I was quite impressed by not only the work of the students, but also by the poise with which most of them where able to present their portfolios. With any luck this will prove to be a valuable new connection for recruiting staff and interns for the theater. Thanks to a generous donation from owners Jeff and Chuck the University was able to put us up at the Royal Elizabeth Inn - a fantastic bed and breakfast that occupies one of the oldest houses in Arizona. A beautiful well appointed inn located right downtown within easy walking distance of shops, restaurants, theaters, and other attractions. Best of all - Jeff and Chuck make a different fabulous breakfast each day. So long as I was out there it seemed obvious to rent a bike and take advantage of the milder winter weather and explore the desert. The folks at Cycle Tucson brought me a great Cannondale... ...it was well tuned and a lot of fun to ride. This was my first long road ride on an aluminum frame - it had the slightly jittery feel I would expect, but I was surprised how much more power a rigid aluminum frame would deliver compared to my usual steel ride. Tucson is a very bike friendly city with lots of well marked paths and lanes - which made it easy to get from downtown to the desert. It wasn't long before I was treated to long views of the surrounding mountains and desert... ...as I left downtown the road began to rise slowly towards my first major goal of the day - Gates Pass. It wasn't long before I noticed that I'd already climbed a bit when I looked back towards downtown... ...just a little further and the houses fell away to be replaced by the saguaro cactus I would be surrounded by most of the day... ...once on I linked up with Speedway, the road that would take me over the pass, things continued to steepen... Once I got to the top I was treated to a great view of valley where I would spend the rest of the day meandering in and out of Saguaro National Park... the backside of Gates Pass was much steeper and I was able to get a lot of momentum to carry me through the first few miles in the park my original plan had been to ride to 20 miles or so and then double back, but the scenery and the beautiful day distracted me - I was at mile 25 before I looked a the odometer and turned around. Then not far down the road I saw a street sign I could resist - Picture Rocks Road - and swung left to see where it would take me. After a few miles of climbing I came to another pass back into Tucson From here I looped back into the park - this time around I to the McCain Loop which had less traffic and rolled in and out of several washes... Once back on the main road I made a pit stop at Old Tucson Studios before beginning the long way back into town. All told my '40 mile ride' wound up being more like 65 miles - it eventually got to 70 degrees - a great break from the short winter rides at home. Once back at the Royal Elizabeth I had a nice long soak in the hot tub... 65 miles - 2200 feet of climbing - 163 miles to date for 2008

Lunch in Annapolis

2008-01-12T21:11:00.001-05:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/glen-burnie/357600665"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;B&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;A - Marley to Annapolis&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/md/glen-burnie"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Glen Burnie, Maryland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Rode the B&A trail into Annapolis with Bart and Kelly today. We met up at Marley Station - Steve showed up to see us off and then joined us for lunch in Annapolis - he's been dogging a bad cold so he didn't join us for the ride... It was a fairly nice day - cold, but little wind. Got to try out my new wheels and tires - so far I'm very happy with them -- can't wait to get them out on the open road - they feel like they'll be quite fast... (thanks for the tip steve) The B&A is a nice ride for the winter - relatively flat and little stopping and starting - which I find is nice to keep from overheating/getting damp and from getting cold waiting at lights... We kept a pretty relaxed pace on the way into town, but as usual Kelly and I picked it up a bit on the way home - sorry Bart. All in all it was good ride - really nice to be back out with the gang for some miles.

Playing Hooky

2008-01-11T23:30:00.002-05:00

TUESDAY 8 JANUARY 2008 &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/baltimore/710574110"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Morning Commute&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/md/baltimore"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Baltimore, Maryland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Started off the day with my usual morning commute - mostly uneventful save for the fog that made me wish I had windshield wipers and made Sherwood Gardens look particualry striking with the sun casting great shadows through the trees.... &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/baltimore/553815423"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Falls Warren Sweet Manor&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/md/baltimore"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Baltimore, Maryland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Then it was off for what I thought was a replay of another especially long way home that I took last summer - Falls Paper Manor - but I got a little lost, tired, cold, and wet.... First I decided to mix it up by following Roland to Lake before rejoining Falls Road - which was worked out well, but from here on the climbing proved to be a bit more than I remembered... I hung in there pretty well and only stopped once on a fairly long section - what really got me into trouble was that it was a little warmer than I thought and with all the climbing I was drenched in sweat by the time I got to Oregon Ridge. Then I made a wrong turn onto Beaver Dam Road - I eventually got back on track in Jacksonville where I took at pit at the 7-11. Got some much needed calories... Once back on the road I never really warmed back up - the combo of being drenched, a fair bit of wind, and the sun going down proved to be too much. I called Joanne from the road and had her rescue me at Sanders' Corners - as I new I didn't have another big climb in me... still a pretty decent day of riding for January. 46 Miles - 2900 feet of climbing

New Year's Day Meander

2008-01-10T21:08:00.001-05:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/baltimore/1115971817"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;New Year&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;s Day meander&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/md/baltimore"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Baltimore, Maryland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Haven't quite figured out how or even why I'm doing this, but here goes. Above is a map and profile of my first ride of the new year. I decided to stay close to home and ride a 22 mile loop around the city. First I headed down to Lake Montebello for a quick lap - where I saw my friends Gayle and Danielle enjoying the pretty day with their son. I waved and rang my bell, but a mile later I realized I had on a helmet, sunglasses, and a balaclava - so they probably had no idea who I was... Then I headed across 33rd and around Hopkins up to Druid Hill via Wyman Park Drive. I also did a lap around Druid Hill Reservoir for one of my favorite views of the city;

[I'll try to post a more recent view at some point]

Then a quick ramble through the park - past all those great gazebos - including Parkie's Lakeside where Joanne and I were married. Once I got past the zoo I discovered that the next section of the Jones Falls Trail is well under way and followed it down the back side of the park into Clipper Mill - this includes a crazy series of switchbacks that should make for a fun climb once it is complete. After this surprise detour the wind and cold started to catch up with me so I decided to head for home - across the 41st bridge to 40th then 39th Street where I picked up my usual commute home through Guilford and across Woodbourne. 22 miles and 1500 feet of climbing - a good start to having that 3000 mile year that I didn't quite reach last year. Learned a few things about my new fenders - first of all when leaves get stuck in them it sounds just like a flat tire - second is that my first attempt to jerry rig them with some wire ties wasn't entirely successful.