Tuesday’s ride took me down the hill to meet R. for lunch and tips on grieving–it looks like rollercoasting is ahead, and time is my friend. R. left, I joined N. and B. for a bit, and then I was itching to go on a ride without a destination. Blue skies emerged, it was 60 degrees out, and I needed to let my legs spin. I headed west and south, through Camden Yards–my dad would have loved that place–and past Ravens Stadium, which is getting the lock down after a pretty terrible season of football. I rolled across the railroad tracks and took a left to head onto the Gwynns Falls Trail. My dad and I took this once, when he came to visit the time before last. We rented him a bicycle from Baltimore Bicycle Works, and he went with one of those big snow tire bikes, because why not? He wasn’t much of a city rider, but he followed me carefully and he marveled at our shitty streets and terrible tracks and bike route sign out by the trash incinerator as we made our way around to Middle Branch Park.

I didn’t make it quite that far on this ride. I was too tired. Everyone said grief would be exhausting, but I had no idea it would be *this* exhausting. So I stopped, snapped this picture of the empty parking lot across the street from the power substation down here, and thought about how one day the earth will force us to turn our car worshipping streets into just these sorts of graveyards. We can’t keep driving like this. It’s killing us, some faster than others, but cars really are the end of things for all of us. And then I got back on my bike, made a quick stop at the casino to pee and drop ten bucks, and headed back up the hill to home. The big smiles broke out as I hit Fallsway. That’s home to me, and I was  happy to be on it on my way to a veggie burger and a drink at the neighborhood bar before an early night at home with bad TV. Lots of feelings running around these parts, for sure.