Tonight’s parades were canceled due to rain that threatened to turn to sleet, so when J. emailed and suggested the gang gather at her and R.’s place, I gathered my flat repair kit and got a ride down to the Treme for a relaxing evening of food, drink, and bike repair. The Surly’s been living at D.’s since an untimely flat, and I decided it would be worth riding home in the rain to get her back in my living room. My ride home took me up Magazine. That’s right, folks–Magazine Street is open again, which means I can again zip up Decatur and straight to Uptown on Magazine without jogging around the WWII museum or detouring up Constance. And this stretch is smooth asphalt and, lo and behold, features a bike lane! It’s a bit odd to have a bike lane for only four blocks, but heck, I’ll take it and hope for an extension on the other side of the freeway. I took this picture of the end of the bike lane while waiting for the light to change to continue my ride home. Yeah, it was really wet tonight, and cold too. And not long after this I got a flat tire and had to walk the bike the rest of the way in the cold rain. But for some reason tonight I didn’t really care about the weather or the flat or anything. It was just nice to be outside and back on the Surly, and now back home, the family together again.