I woke up early, checked the weather, saw it was going to be in the mid-1970s, and looked at my relatively empty Saturday afternoon, and got excited for a bike ride to nowhere in particular. First I hopped on the Surly and headed down to meet L. for brunch followed by some test-riding of bikes at the bike shop. She did her rounds of various commuter and hybrid bikes while I looked longingly at the clown bike and tried not to look impatient about its delivery. L. found a favorite, and I was sated with a loaner copy of the documentary film about the clown bike–yeah, this is a good shop. We parted ways and I flew down the hill to the Inner Harbor. The place is already jammed with folks, and due to construction in the bike lane, I had to give up and walk the bike. When’s that going to be done again, and how long do we get our bike lanes before they close them off for the Grand Prix? Sigh. Anyway, I eventually got back on the bike and road up through Federal Hill and over to Fort McHenry along Fort Avenue. I got off again to walk my bike across the train tracks by way of a temporary suspension bridge. They’ve been replacing the thing for awhile, and I snapped this picture of the state of things. There are about a gajillion things I don’t understand, and one of them is how you build a bridge to carry the weight of multiple cars and things, and I quickly realized me standing there and staring wasn’t going to help me get it. The bridge I was on started bouncing up and down as a jogger passed, and I felt a sudden need to get off. I continued my ride did a quick turn around the Fort, sat and watched a duck who I swear was quacking just like my cat meows, and then I turned around and retraced my steps with a few turns to explore the neighborhood (it turns out every turn in Locust Point runs you into water, pretty quickly). It was a lovely day for a lovely ride, and I hope I find time to sneak in another one tomorrow.