bikes

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Clouds and Blue Skies In Waverly

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The sun came out for today’s ride up to Roland Park, and it brought the wind with it. I pedaled up and down the hills– it was the kind of wind that won’t let you coast– and felt the difference sunshine makes. I rode through Waverly’s hot spots of violence, through Oakenshaw and Roland Park’s different shirts of violences, and it felt like I was the only one alive out there. And then I was home in my neighborhood, where I snapped this picture if how pretty it looks when you look up. I went to my neighborhood association meeting a couple nights ago. Three was lots of talk about how to get kids of the street, how up break up the gambling rings on the alleys, how to move the loiterers from the stoops and storefronts. I wondered how everyone decided who belongs outside under this sky. It was a short ride, but I saw so many ways people are living under it. We best figure out how to make some peace with don’t of it.

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Rain and Rain and So Much Waiting

Today’s ride was a walk, the long way to the free bus where I waited for 20 minutes for a bus that’s supposed to come every 15 for a 35 minute ride that’s supposed to take 20. I don’t like to start a ride in the rain, though, so that was my choice. And oh my goodness, it doesn’t take much bus riding to become enraged at what passes for public transit in this city. The self righteous rage is a bit of compensation for it, I suppose. At least I don’t have to own a car. Here’s to the sun coming out tomorrow!

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Looking Down Eutaw at Mulberry Street

20151130_090732Monday found me back on my bike after a long, restful Thanksgiving break. For four days I didn’t get on my bike or in a car, relying on my feets to move me from my couch to the movies to lunch out and about. It is rare for me to take that many days off the bike, and getting back on was like getting back to myself. I sped down the hill and up the hill, a right and a left and a right and a left, and I was on my way to work again. Continue reading →

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Advertising on S. Fremont & Vine

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Thursday’s ride took me all over town, up to the Arcadia neighborhood in the other side of Lake Montebello to talk about what the city might look like of we prioritized the quality of the soil and worked out way up from there and then down to Southwest Baltimore for a ride around that neighborhood and a reminder of the power of MLK Avenue to slice a city in two, and then up to Charles Village for coffee with a filmmaker and a chat about what, if anything, has changed since theorist. My answer: I don’t know. It was the perfect day for a ride, all sunshine and blue skies, and I was grateful to have so many places to be and a bike to ride to get between them. West Baltimore was so unlike the other places I rode to and through on this day– so many vacant properties, so few throughways to the city on the other side of the street, so many different scars from urban renewal and subsequent attempts to renew again. I snapped this picture of advertising on the side of one of the many crumbling buildings over here. Steve Jobs changed everything, I think that movie argues. Lots of things changed everything, I thought, depending on who and where you are and what you’re looking at. What do people see when they see this place, and what change it’s visible to whom? I capped off the day with a drink before riding back home, best Thursday in awhile.

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Live Here Reduce Your Commute Sign at 20th & Guilford

Live Here Reduce Your Commute Sign at 20th & GuilfordWednesday’s ride was back to the ol’ commute, down the hill early, lock up at the racks by the med center, shuttle to campus, a full day of teaching, meetings, and writing and emailing and emailing and omigod so much emailing, and then back on the shuttle, pick up the bike, and ride up the hill to home. It was a long day and my legs felt heavy, so I found myself very much wishing it could be up the hill to work and downhill on the way home. I took the lane, grumped at fellow cyclists who didn’t ding a bell or say “on your left” as they passed or even return my how you doin’ (why are so many cyclists so unfriendly? isn’t part of the point of being on a bike is you aren’t trapped in a metal box and so can say hi to everybody?), and eventually got to that place where I’m glad I’m riding my bike because look at me, looking at all the things! Continue reading →

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View From A Coffee Shop At Franklin & Park

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And suddenly it’s cold and rainy and I’m in my rain coat and cheapo rain pants, still riding my bike, because it’s still the best way to get around. If you don’t ride a bike, or you don’t ride a bike in this stuff, it can look crazy. A co worker asked when I got in today, You drove, right? I’m never going to drive, but when this rain turns to ice, I’ll take the bus. There’s always an option that isn’t a car, and on rainy days like this I’m glad for the options, but I’d still rather be on my bike. What a relief to not have to look for parking when I just want to duck in out of the rain for a minute and watch the rainy day go by over an afternoon coffee. Cheers.

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Looking Down the Road Along the High Peaks Scenic Byway in the Adirondacks

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I’m back from my ten day bike tour of the Adirondacks, and here are a few things I saw, in no particular order: so many flat frogs under my wheels, the rats of the mountains; waterfalls; the old Olympic ski jump at Lake Placid; so many mountain lakes–where do they come from?; a thousand and one RVs; so many peanut butter sandwiches; many pints and bottles and cans of craft beer from upstate New York; ponds and swamps and puddles and pools; spiders and black flies and mosquitoes, oh my; pure joy; ice dancing; campfires; craggy rocks; fields of clover; picnics; convenience stores; ice cream cones; wildflowers; homesickness; uphills that look like walls until you get closer and realize they’re just hills; hard-earned magic vistas; exhaustion; a couple of osprey sharing a fish for second breakfast; a classic car show; Vermont; coin op showers; the Hudson River; train tracks; truck drivers; deep kindness;  so many shades of green; and oh so much more.

And I learned so much: what goes up must come down, and vice versa; it doesn’t really matter what you eat as long as there’s something to eat; the internet can survive without you and vice versa; meeting basic needs and basic needs alone is a total vacation; take the hills as they come–not before or after; a little luxury is worth the extra weight on the bike; it’s not a race; getting lost means getting to get yourself found; some days you don’t want an ice cream cone, and on other days you’ll want two; showering is optional–take the option if it feels good; a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s is all you really need; given the option, jump in the lake;  you can always make another pot of coffee; listen to your body and take breaks when it tells you it needs one; and a good general philosophy is this: Start off slow, then taper off.

What a wonderful trip. Good god, I love my bicycle.

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A River Along Route 30 Coming Out of Lake Eaton in the Adirondacks

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I’m four days into my bike tour of the Adirondacks, spending the night in Lake Clear at a private campground with 15 other folks doing the same thing. It feels epic, this trip, climbing up and down these mountains that make Lake Avenue back home feel like Canal Street–flat as a pancake. Up and down, views beyond measure–like this one this morning–the full range of human emotion: euphoria, dread, fear, pain, loneliness, pride, joy–all of it. It feels odd to share this intense experience with these virtual strangers, and I’m so glad they’re here. Four more days, each one a new one, surprisingly little to say about what it feels like to have your breath taken away, in so many ways.

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Lake at Gwynn Oak Park at Gwynn Oak and Gwyndale Avenues

Lake at Gwynn Oak Park at Gwynn Oak and Gwyndale Avenues I’ve been back in Baltimore for a week, and it has been a lovely week riding my bike around town again. Monday’s ride took me up to school and back and had me wishing, again, that there was a bike lane on Wilkens Avenue. Googlemaps shows this as a regularly traveled bike route, and that’s true–it is–but only because it’s the only way to travel from the city to that part of the county, not because the infrastructure or road speeds make that a pleasant way to cycle. Continue reading →

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Brompty at Lake Pontchartrain

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Thursday’s ride took me out Esplanade in the new-to-me bike lane that took the place of a second lane of car traffic. I’m sure there were some angry drivers, but for me it was magical. This used to be such a rocky ride, but on this day I just flew, and it was perfect.
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