I had a long day at work today , but I planned in the morning that I’d ride my bike at some point today, so when I got home, I swapped out shoes and headed out for a short ride before turning to the last work tasks of the day. I headed back to Druid Hill Park again, this time to check on the house being demolished on the east stretch of the reservoir path. The demolition looks mostly stalled out, but plants are overgrowing the steps to nowhere growing up through brick and mortar. Continue reading
Month: September 2012
Memorial to Druid Hill Park’s Segregated Public Pools
I knew it was a beautiful day today just from the cool breezes coming through my bedroom window, but it still took me some time to pry myself out from under books and cats and onto my bicycle. I decided to head over to Druid Hill Park, where I hadn’t ridden in weeks and weeks and weeks, kinda weird since the park’s just right over there. I pedaled west and up the hill and around the circle. A turn around the reservoir shows you so much of Baltimore–the JFX just underfoot, abandoned factories, Hampden’s American flags, rows upon rows of rowhouses, cranes in the air in Mt. Vernon, the Inner Harbor’s all-business skyline, blighted blocks, abandoned mansions, and the park, which is its own little Baltimore. I biked around looking for the Memorial Pool memorial up past the holy place that is Safety City. Continue reading
Box For John Brown at the Baltimore Civil War Museum on President & Fleet
After a quick ride Wyman Park for lunch with C. I headed downtown for a little research trip to the Baltimore Civil War Museum in the old President Street Station down in Harbor East. Increasingly museums are going after tourist dollars, so they have tourist things, like touch screens and interactive displays and games and flashbang. That old object/placard thing just doesn’t do it for Kids Today, apparently. And then there’s this museum, tiny, telling three interrelated stories in one tiny little space and then sprinkling it with random stuff from the 1940s, and you don’t expect to see that stuff. Continue reading
Blue Skies and Blight at Fallsway & Chase
Tuesday was another busy day for me, so I didn’t have time for a long bike ride. In fact, I didn’t feel like I had time for a bike ride at all. But I wanted to sneak in a trip to the gym, and I’m certainly not going to drive a car three piddly miles, so I hopped on the bike and sped down the hill for a quick turn and a ride back up the hill. I know I’ve been on about the weather shift for awhile, but the skies are really incredible. Continue reading
Blue Skies From the Ramparts of Fort McHenry
Yesterday’s storms brought cooler weather, and when I stepped out of the house to take the bike downtown for a quick stop at the gym it was actually a little chilly. I mean, just a little bit, but still–I haven’t felt air that cool in months and months of the hottest summer in my memory, including all those New Orleans ones. The sky was a brilliant blue spotted with puffy white clouds, the kind of sky I wanted this summer when it was too busy sweating. Continue reading
Clouds Rolling in Over Federal Hill From Montgomery & William
I woke up to a warm morning, 96% humidity, and gray skies that wore off to blue. Sure, maybe not the best for a long bike ride in the city, but it’s Defenders Day, and E. and I were on tap to lead a tour of historic sites related to the War of 1812. Then I looked at the weather report, and E. called, and we decided to postpone the ride due to expected thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Continue reading
Do Not Sit On Steps at 41st & Edgehill
Friday’s ride took me an easy couple miles up the hill and over to Hampden for my monthly book club discussion and snackfest, this time hosted by S. ans A., who dressed in colonial garb in keeping with the historical novel’s time period and theme. I felt underdressed in my uniform of skirt and tank top, and overtired from a really long week at work, but once I got on my bike and headed out, I caught my third of fourth wind of the day. I rode my usual Hampden route, stopped for a bottle of wine, and then rode with some traffic on 41st before locking up to a bus stop sign on a residential streets. This sign was affixed there too, reminding riders not to sit down in a residential neighborhood, because that’s private property. I wonder how many Hampden neighborhood petitions, phone trees, transit meetings and emails had to be exchanged for this sign to be put up there, and I wonder how many daily huffs-n-puffs still happen when people sit down somewhere other than the one bench to wait the legendary wait times that are part of most bus systems. Or maybe nobody around here takes the bus, and it’s not “a problem” yet. Private property, public needs~seems to me that’s the real problem. And then I went inside, ate, talked, laughed, and drank, and then I rode home. Fall weather’s barely teasing, and I was a sweaty mess after just 20 minutes out there. Soon, soon, but for now it’s still hot as blazes.
A Back Seat on the Sidewalk at Fallsway & E. Fayette
Last night I walked down to North Avenue to meet S. for a night of ten minute plays. I left before 8:00pm, but it was already dark out–a sure sign that fall is in the air. You wouldn’t know it from the weather, though. Today it was hot and muggy, unpleasantly so, but it felt a little better to be on the bike and flying down the hill (thought the flying was slowed by the wind). Continue reading
Train Mural at the Intersection of Gay, Preston, & Rutland
I unexpectedly had the afternoon free, so I decided to spend it out on my bicycle, an excellent idea until after a delicious brunch that made me want to get straight back into bed with my cats and a book. S. said I could do that, after my bike ride, and she was right, so I pedaled east of Greenmount to see if I could get lost. It didn’t take long, because I don’t spend that much time in Northeast Baltimore. Continue reading
Blue Tarp on the Fence at the Grand Prix Route at South & Pratt
Today’s ride took me on the silent streets of downtown Baltimore, emptied because everyone’s avoiding downtown, or because nobody can get east of Light, but for whatever reason, perfect for this bicyclist. I wanted to grab a quick view of the cars racing in the streets, but alas, this blue tarp meant no peeksies for me. The bike/ped path was closed off to all but ticket holders, few and far between, this mid-morning anyway. The whole thing is a boondoggle, and thank goodness it’s almost over. We need our streets, sidewalks, and bike paths back from this particular tourist parasite. I pedaled back toward Harbor East, did a quick spin through the gym, and then back up the hill on still-empty streets, the one nice side effect of the Grand Prix on this side of the racetrack.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 