Friday started with a relatively early ride over to Waverly to meet R. for another brainstorming session and some quality time with her handsome gray cat. We had so many good ideas, and I felt so excited about what we’re going to do next, that I just had to ride my bike around after instead of heading home. I headed up through Waverly, past the elementary School construction, and took a left on Ellerslie and rode up it to see where it goes. Turns out it winds uphill past brick house after brick house, and then there’s a park to the leftex except it’s not a park but a neon vent that is also a school, but for my purposes was mostly just home to this magnificent red tree. I snapped my picture and pedaled around their quiet parking lot before heading back up Ellerslie. Once it crossed Old York Road and turned into 39th I knew right where I was, sort of, and then I just kept taking right turns through Guilford, marveling at the size of some people’s homes. Do you think they think it is normal, to have that much space? The streets were quiet except for me, a few dog walkers, and the gentle hum of leaf blowers. They don’t let the leaves carpet anything for long in this place. I wonder how that got to be normal too. And then I ran into Loyola, and it was time to zip downhill to home, a quick circle around the fence up a little on a hill right outside the college gates. Turns out it’s a reservoir, and so pretty. Fall is ridiculous around here, and the leaves were enough to make me hide my judgment of the ugly excesses of Guilford for a very short second, which is pretty amazing, if you know me. It is perfect weather for biking and getting lost. thanks, Baltimore.