After a long morning in bed nursing an insomnia hangover, it was time to get on the bike and head out into the sunshine of another perfect fall day. I headed over to Hampden for lunch and then back downtown along the Jones Falls Trail. I stopped to check out the scene at Falls Road and ran into my downstairs neighbor, a fellow bike enthusiast. He was heading out on his bike with no destination in particular just like I was, and it was the perfect day for that. I trailed him along Falls to our right on Maryland, but lost him around Preston–he took a right and I stayed straight before taking a later right through Howard’s Park and down Eutaw, a right into Ridgely’s Delight–how cute is that neighborhood?–to Washington Avenue. I locked up the bike in Pigtown for their fall festival with bands, pie eating contests, pig races, cheap beer, and a raffle–all my favorite things (well, maybe not pig racing, but at least you could bet). I wandered up and down and up and down and them got back on the bike for a tour of the neighborhood. I stopped  to snap a picture of this building on Hamburg with a tree growing out of its balcony and its row of windows stretching down the block. This part of town used to be industrial, but industry’s mostly gone, aside from some office supply places and a place that makes wire rope for shipping. I wonder what’s going to take the place of those industries in Baltimore, and I know I’m not along in that. I mean, not every neighborhood can support itself with boutiques and bistros, right? I continued pedaling along, crossed over to the stadiums and over the parking lots to Federal Hill, a quick stop for a beer from the old town, and then back down and up the hill to home. It was a most lovely day to be out on a bicycle with nowhere to go and nowhere to be, lucky, lucky me.