Monday’s ride took me down the hill and up the hill to Federal Hill for another trip to a yoga class. Wow, it’s not easy, this yoga thing, and I felt burnt afterward. I tried to remind myself that yes, like any other new thing, it’s hard. Patience, patience! I was a bit frustrated, though, so I did what I do when I’m frustrated and kept riding my bike. I headed over to Locust Point to drown my sorrows in sandwich. The ride home brought its own frustrations, the ones that come with riding a bike in the city. I’ve had city riding on my mind lately after hearing of a terrible bike death in New Orleans last week. Continue reading
bikes
View From a Lookout at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
The website said there was a 12 mile auto tour route out at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Reserve, so I was guessing that meant a 12 mile bicycle route, too. The website didn’t say anything about bikes, though, and I actually thought about calling ahead to see if bikes were allowed, since it seemed the perfect stop on Friday’s drive home from my tour of the Harriet Tubman Byway. I’m glad I didn’t call (and I didn’t because I didn’t want them to say something silly like “no bikes”), though, because they probably would have said sure, bring your bike, but be warned the road is crushed stone–and sometimes just loose rock–so it might not be the most comfortable riding surface. And oh, it wasn’t. Continue reading
View of the Wetlands From Wildlife Drive in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Tuesday was hot. Humid and hot, and I woke up kind of dreading the thought of a bike ride, to be honest, so I left the hotel early so I could get some miles in before the heat really laid in. Oh, I’m so glad I did. I drove the bike out to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and followed the signs for the bike route. I took my right onto Wildlife Road, paid my one dollar entry fee, and then I was at the edges of the earth, which is how wetlands feel to me, both land and water, and the road set precariously and temporarily between the two. Dragonflies zipped all around me, and red-winged blackbirds were everywhere. I saw more herons and egrets than I could count, and the smell–the smell!–was so *clean*. I snapped this picture from an overlook, but if I’d taken the picture facing the other way, there would have been more water, and a stand of trees in the foreground. That’s the thing with wetlands–you have to be there to see it all, and what you see will be different in a heartbeat. I rode away from this lookout, took my left back out on the main road, and was joined by flapping herons and young eagles just barely above my head (or that’s how it felt anyway) and it was all so fantastic I heard myself actually say out loud, “this is magic,” because it was. I extended my ride as long as I could, relearning, again, that if you’re traveling fast and easy, you just might have a tailwind, and you’re going to have to pay it back going the other way. I spent the rest of my day in the car, following ghosts down back roads and getting myself good and lost trying to find the end of Hoopersville Road. So many lives lived and being lived on the same shifting ground.
Long Wharf Park at Water & Vue De Leau in Cambridge, MD
I got up early, hitched a ride to the train station to the airport to a bus and another bus and then finally I picked up a rental car for his week’s summer trip along the Harriet Tubman Byway along the Eastern Shore. And of course I brought my bike with me. Today’s ride started from the Dorchester County Visitor Center. I eschewed the one or so mile path that goes between the center and the one giant golf spa resort hotel in town and went for a ride through town instead. The woman gave me excellent directions and three different maps, but I got so caught up in her use of the highlighter to show me where I should go, and where I shouldn’t go, no matter what, that I failed to pay attention to the first direction. I took a left instead of a right and got myself lost–I take after my dad that way. Continue reading
The View From Bike Parking on Sisson & 28th
The week rounded out with some easy bike rides, Friday over and down to Canton for a late lunch and grading before settling in for some solid people watching before catching a ride home with N., and the a jaunt up to Hampden on Saturday for acupuncture and fries, a most excellent combination. I made a stop in Remington on my way home to pick up this week’s farm share at Mill Valley General Store. I don’t even remember forking over the cash for this–I signed up months ago–so it feels like Christmas every week, walking in there with my bike bag to pick four of whatever I like from the bins filled, this week, with chard, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, arugula, garlic scapes, snap peas, and the list goes on. I was limited by what I could fit in my bag, so I grabbed a couple of cauliflower, a bunch of arugula, and a cabbage. The bag was overflowing and I was happy and on my way. My only complaint? Get us a bike rack, please! I snapped this picture from my bike, locked to a sign on Sisson, and while I love the view of traffic and blue sky and warehouse, I’d love to be able to park off the main drag. But if that’s my only Saturday complaint, I’d say I’m getting off easy.
The YMCA at 33rd & Ellerslie Against Blue Skies
First, I have to say something about the weather. It is so hot and humid out. This is obvious to anyone in the are, but wow, it makes a difference in how riding feels. I’m sleeping like a rock, like I’ll need a crane to peel me off the bed in the morning, because riding in this humidity sucks the life force from me. I mean, I still love it, but it takes some acclimatizing is all. I got some of that out of the way with my long ride on Tuesday and commuting on Wednesday, but on Thursday the best I could do was the mile to and from the YMCA. N. and I just joined for pool access so N. can use it to heal this back spasm that’s gripped her for the past three weeks, and I’m using it to get back to weight training and maybe a group class or two. Thursday’s was Urban Line Dancing, which as far as I could tell meant Black folks, not white country folks. I rode to the gym, sweaty after just ten minutes, locked up to the rack, took a minute to judge the blue fixie rider for locking their impracticable bike horizontally on the U-rack, and headed in to join the twenty or so other dancers. I was close to the youngest, and the only white person, and it struck me how rarely that ever happens in my life. Our social spaces are so segregated by age and race, generally, that rarely do I find myself in the minority, other than sometimes in the classroom–a privilege, but also a cost of whiteness. It’s only Smalltimore because we live such segregated lives, you know. Everyone was friendly enough, and I gamed my way through the six or so dances (though Bmore Nights is going to take some out-of-class work if I’m going to get it), and had a really good time. The steps were complicated, so all I could do was focus on them, and that was a treat. I said my goodbyes on the way out, happy to have found another place to play, this one in ac. Thanks, this YMCA, for being welcoming to so many kinds of folks. I snapped this picture on my way out. All blue skies, no sign of the humidity.
Playground Equipment and a Closed School in East Baltimore
Oh, I needed to get a little lost on Tuesday, have one of those rides where I’m not just transporting myself but getting myself settled in to the city, a reminder that I live in a place bigger than my *place*. So that’s what I did, snaking south and east and south and east until west again. I had two stops in mind–ice cream at the place where I had a coupon for free ice cream (did you know the first commercial ice creameries that made the treat available for mass consumption opened right here in Baltimore?) And Federal Hill, where I was on tap to hold a still-new baby so her mom could take a shower and shake out her arms. I never got totally lost, but I can’t tell you exactly where this school is, the one with the exterior in scrubbed shades of blue that suggest it’s going to get torn down but with the new playground equipment that says it’s here to stay. It was near Harford Road or Aisquith or one of those diagonal cuts through the city, which I know because I waited at the light with a construction truck driver who had waited for me to pull out into the street. We did the ol’ smile-and-nod and then I was on my way, past a park with a tree halfway fallen over, past rows and rows of vacant homes and stoopsitters and road construction crews and food trucks outside Johns Hopkins. And then I was on Baltimore Street watching the guys fill the pool and admiring the head start these community gardeners had gotten. I rode my circles until I was back on my old route from Canton to Fed Hill and back north to Charles Village, and I only wished I could have stayed lost just a little bit longer, because that’s how I know where I am.
Morgan State’s Communications Building at 4100 Hillen Road
Thursday’s ride took me up to Morgan State for another stint on the Marc Steiner show, this time to talk about bikes. C. was going to, and he just lives a couple blocks from me, so when he suggested we ride together, I said sure, as long as he knew in advance that I am in absolutely no hurry to get up hills. I haven’t found a hill in the region that I can’t get up on the Surly, but I will pretty much always be the last on to the top. I have no problem with that fact, and neither did he, so away we went. C. got his Master’s from Morgan, so he took me on the rather circuitous route he takes from two years of experimenting. I loved being the follow, pedaling down streets I haven’t seen, taking the street where he took the sidewalk, and then we were there, two bikes to be on a show with two other bicyclists about how to improve bicycling in the city, and there were no racks to lock to in front of this shiny new building on a college campus, a block from the left turn onto the Collegetown Bike Route that’ll take you over to Notre Dame. Sometimes how to increase bicycling is pretty simple–get some racks, Steiner! I locked to a sign, he brought his bike inside, and then we all got to go on about the rapturous joy of riding in the city–the sense of freedom, of being part of where you live, the ease of exploring new places–the list goes on. Three minutes of that and I was ready to call the show so we could all go outside and take a ride. C. and I did just that after the show, and don’t tell anybody, but I actually kinda liked riding with a friend. If you have some extra cash, throw some his way at bikemore.net.
Patterson Sign at Eastern & East
Saturday’s ride took me up to Federal Hill to meet R. and O. for a day’s work on our art project. It was a bummer to be inside on such a perfect day, but hey, I got to ride my bike there and hang out with two of my very favorites. And then a bike ride down the hill to meet A. for what might be our last lunch before her baby joins us, and the down the hill and around to Highlandtown for the Charm City LGBT Film Fest at the Creative Alliance. I snapped this picture of the sign out front before heading in, because oh, look at that sky, and oh, look at that sign. That place has held down that corner for a long time, but times also change. Now nobody blinks an eye about a queer film festival, or if they do, the eyes blink back openly. The best part of the day on the bike was the ride home. I felt like the only girl on the streets, gliding through cooling air, the smells of barbecue and weed wafting from East Baltimore corners, because in the city you get to share this space, such as it is. And then I was home again, grateful for the bike which means I get to pedal about outside, no matter what else has to get done.
Freeman Hrabowski Speaking at UMBC’s Undergraduate Graduation at the Baltimore Arena
Thursday was UMBC’s graduation, and rather than wait in traffic to find a parking spot with increasingly grumpyproud parents, I stuffed my tam in my bag and rode my bike the 20 minutes down the hill, locked up precariously to a fence right outside the side door to the arena because that’s what the security guard told me to do, and headed inside to eat all the buffet lunches with my fellow faculty members. A. brought my sorcerer robes with her on the Circulator, and by the time she figured out how to get into the place, she was one angry pregnant lady with her eye on the food tables–she’s eating for two, so don’t fuck with her. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 