I didn’t have to go in to campus today, so I made the most of it, doing some reading and writing at home before setting out on my bike on this shockingly warm spring–I mean fall–afternoon. I pedaled the short way down the hill for a lunch date with myself and my book, and afterward went for a ride around West Baltimore with the vague plan to go to the B&O Railroad Museum to do a little research. I took a right into Seton Hill, a neighborhood I didn’t know about until a couple weeks ago but now can’t stay out of, and then took a right instead of that left on Eutaw, and just like that I was somewhere completely new, at least for a few blocks as I passed through McCulloh Homes and took a left on Lafayette to keep myself from going north. I took another left on Argyle, vaguely sensing that would be a good idea to keep me on track for the museum, and then it was all boarded-up buildings, virtually empty except for some kids making their way home from school. I snapped this picture of one of these buildings on the corner with its frame of fall colors and red stripe of autumn ivy; I wonder who used to live here and where they are now. I kept riding, took a right on McCulloh Circle–yep, it’s a circle, so I went around it–and then I was following the one-ways out and was back where I started. Works for me! I took the route I know and finally ended up at the museum. Nope, nothing about the strike and riots in 1877, and yes, that’s some Whiggish exhibitionary practice, just like they said I might find. I took the lane on Pratt, did a whirl at the gym and grocery, and then I was up the hill, flying by all the folks waiting in their cars to get on the JFX, enjoying what could be the last really warm day of the year.