Today’s ride took me down the hill–surprise, surprise–for a quick turn at the gym and some groceries before heading back up the hill to home. The whole ride is only 6 miles and only takes about 40 minutes. Driving might be marginally faster, but so, so much less pleasant! Anyway, I stopped to take this picture of the City of Baltimore Car Wash Facility on Fallsway near Gay Street, practically in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express or Sleep Inn or whatever hotel is there, surely regularly disappointing visitors that it’s sharing the block with Healthcare for the Homeless. Continue reading
Month: August 2012
Brentwood Village Kid’s Zone at Chase & Forrest
Today’s ride took me down the hill to meet V. for a swim at the gym. I’m terrible at swimming, but I’m guessing that like most things, if I keep doing it, I’ll figure it out and get better at it, because my dad said that’s what practice does–it makes better. I meant to go to the grocery store and head home after, but then my bike just kept rolling east, through Fells Point, over past the new condo developments along the harbor near Canto (because gosh, we need more of those), and up through Canton on Fait Avenue. Continue reading
Fencing at the Inner Harbor for the Baltimore Grand Prix
Today’s ride took me down to the Inner Harbor and then all I could see was the fencing already up and more to come for the Baltimore Grand Prix, a total boondoggle last go-around and back for more. Sigh. That ring around the harbor, what a mess.
Waiting for the Water Taxi at Canton Waterfront Park
Today’s ride took me down the hill to Harbor East for a stop at the gym. I went swimming wearing my new goggles that came with vision correction. They aren’t my prescription, but wow, they made a huge difference, and I could see underwater for the first time in my memory. It was fantastic and magical and I just loved it. Now I if I can just teach myself how to swim properly… Continue reading
Pocket Park on S. Duncan Between Pratt & Lombard
Today’s ride took me back downtown, over that rat at 25th & Guilford that is now flat as a back-to-school notebook (except for the tail poking up in high relief), through the parking lot that’s been made part of the bike path, down the hill, a left on Center, right on Fallsway, and through Little Italy to Harbor East for a stop at the gym before joining V. for lunch in Fells Point–yep, it’s the waning days of summer, and I’m enjoying them. Continue reading
Afro Newsie on a Bike on the Doors at the Lewis Museum at Pratt & President
Today’s ride took me down the hill to the Star-Spangled Flag House and Museum of Star-Spangledness for a little research for this thing I’m writing. It was an easy coast down the hill, but I have a request to make of cars: please don’t pull out into the crosswalk at such speeds? You’re close to pulling out into my lane, but you’re most definitely in the pedestrian’s lane, and that’s dangerous. You’re also blocking the curb cut I need to go up if I”m to stay on the officially marked trail; this is why my utopia is all vehicular cycling. But I digress. Continue reading
Asphalt Patches on the Fallsway Cycle Track, Prison Stretch
My phone was trapped under groceries so I didn’t take a picture, but zomg let me tell you what I saw riding my bike around today. I rode down to Harbor East to check out a gym on a free pass and pick up some frozen raspberries from the expensive grocery store where frozen raspberries are actually pretty cheap. After getting over the shock and dismay that the store was out of soy milk (apocalypse is here!) I piled everything on my bike and headed back up the hill to home. Every time I get to Orleans I have to decide whether to stay on the Jones Falls Trail via the fancy new separated bike lane that’s been installed there or to take the lane. No brainer, right? Except the path isn’t finished yet, and there are these giant holes in it that make an easy ride into a steeplechase–not my favorite. I took the path today to avoid traffic, and lo and behold, they’ve patched over two of the holes with asphalt. It’s a stop gap, sure, but I need those gaps stopped, so I was pretty happy, especially since I know the planned finish date isn’t until early next year. I really wish they hadn’t started it if they couldn’t finish it, and I’m not sure why it can’t just be finished, but hey, I love seeing bike infrastructure being built–not because I can’t just ride in the street, which I do all the time, but because the only thing that is proven to increase the number of cyclists on the road is building facilities for it. And you know what I want? More bikes on the road, because more cyclists make all of us safer. Oh, and I also want no prisons, because prisons don’t actually make us safer, not in the ways I want to be safe. This cycle track keeps that in the front of my mind every time I ride home past Baltimore’s own little Prison Industrial Complex.
Fluid Movement’s Water Ballet at Patterson Park Pool at Linwood & Pratt
Today’s ride took me down the hill and to the left to Patterson Park to meet friends for this year’s water ballet from Fluid Movement. I moved to Baltimore a week after the water ballet last year, and B. & G. were so sorry I was going to miss it, but now it’s this year, and I live in Baltimore now, so this time around I went to the water ballet. Nice. Continue reading
Overgrown Pier Next to Bond Street Wharf at Thames & Bond Street
If I’m being totally honest, I didn’t really feel like going out for a bike ride. I felt like lazing about in my pajamas watching the Olympics, courtesy of this $15 antennae I picked up yesterday. I sighed myself up, put on my shoes, and headed out the door, promising myself that after an hour I could go back inside and watch other people do athletic things to my heart’s content. Continue reading
View Over the Fence at Webster’s Dead End in Federal Hill
Today’s ride took me down the hill and back up another hill to my favorite new strip mall in Locust Point where I locked up to a rack before spending the day getting a massage, going out to lunch, talking to S. on the phone, and eating frozen yogurt as I tried to circle around an argument for this thing I’ve been writing all summer. It’s scary sometimes, the point where you have to stop making Interesting Observations and start making larger sense, and I have to take very good care of myself so I don’t scare myself away from that part of writing. I finally managed to figure some stuff out while waiting for the rain to stop, scribble, scribble, scribble, and then it was time for a celebratory beer, some grousing about the USA men’s basketball team~holding for the last shot of the half when you’re up by 33 is just tacky~and then I pedaled over to A. and J.’s for wine, good food, chatter, and more Olympics action. I stopped to take this picture before I got there, at the end of Webster. You call it Webster Court, but all you’ve got is this half fence to keep a distance between you and freeways and waste treatment plants. And then a groundhog scurried by and I was reminded that a lot of things are willing to make a life right at the edges. I rode home late at night, for me, and realized it has been awhile since a warm night ride alone, which meant the sense memory was all New Orleans. It didn’t make me miss that place, though; it made me happy that I can still access that feeling of being the only person on the streets, flying by with my skirt waving, my own breeze cooling me down. Oh yes, that is a nice way to spend a summer evening.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 