My car is in the shop–yes, I own a car–getting itself fixed from the break-in it suffered in June. After months of driving around with tape for a back window and opening the driver’s side door through the passenger side, on Monday the door wouldn’t open at all, and it was finally time to face the price tag and get the thing fixed. All of that meant no car for the commute to work, so I got to give the multi-modal commute a try. Continue reading
bikes
Bikes on Bike Racks at Harbor East
Today’s ride took me downtown to Harbor East, where I locked up my bike to one of the few spaces available–never enough bike racks, for sure. I did a quick turn at the gym and the grocery, and then I got back on my bike to head up the hill. I snapped this picture of a couple of bikes crowding up the racks. That red one is always there. I mean always. Continue reading
Train Mural at the Intersection of Gay, Preston, & Rutland
I unexpectedly had the afternoon free, so I decided to spend it out on my bicycle, an excellent idea until after a delicious brunch that made me want to get straight back into bed with my cats and a book. S. said I could do that, after my bike ride, and she was right, so I pedaled east of Greenmount to see if I could get lost. It didn’t take long, because I don’t spend that much time in Northeast Baltimore. Continue reading
Bike Lane on Center Between Fleet & Eastern
I spent the last couple of days at the Delaware shore with S., and although I brought Brompty with us, I mostly just sat myself down on the beach and stayed put, once the rain cleared. Today I was back at home gearing up for the first day of school on Wednesday. I’m sad to see summer end, but I’m happy to be getting back to a routine, even if it does leave less time for bicycling aimlessly about. Continue reading
Lonely Bike Rack at Albemarle & E. Lafayette
And then sometimes you’re out for a ride, you want to stop at the fancy French pastry shop to get a little something special for your boo, you hit up the bike rack, and it looks like this, sacrificed to parking lots and street construction. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, right? I pedaled on and right and snaked up the hill, getting impatient for cooler fall weather.
Afro Newsie on a Bike on the Doors at the Lewis Museum at Pratt & President
Today’s ride took me down the hill to the Star-Spangled Flag House and Museum of Star-Spangledness for a little research for this thing I’m writing. It was an easy coast down the hill, but I have a request to make of cars: please don’t pull out into the crosswalk at such speeds? You’re close to pulling out into my lane, but you’re most definitely in the pedestrian’s lane, and that’s dangerous. You’re also blocking the curb cut I need to go up if I”m to stay on the officially marked trail; this is why my utopia is all vehicular cycling. But I digress. Continue reading
Asphalt Patches on the Fallsway Cycle Track, Prison Stretch
My phone was trapped under groceries so I didn’t take a picture, but zomg let me tell you what I saw riding my bike around today. I rode down to Harbor East to check out a gym on a free pass and pick up some frozen raspberries from the expensive grocery store where frozen raspberries are actually pretty cheap. After getting over the shock and dismay that the store was out of soy milk (apocalypse is here!) I piled everything on my bike and headed back up the hill to home. Every time I get to Orleans I have to decide whether to stay on the Jones Falls Trail via the fancy new separated bike lane that’s been installed there or to take the lane. No brainer, right? Except the path isn’t finished yet, and there are these giant holes in it that make an easy ride into a steeplechase–not my favorite. I took the path today to avoid traffic, and lo and behold, they’ve patched over two of the holes with asphalt. It’s a stop gap, sure, but I need those gaps stopped, so I was pretty happy, especially since I know the planned finish date isn’t until early next year. I really wish they hadn’t started it if they couldn’t finish it, and I’m not sure why it can’t just be finished, but hey, I love seeing bike infrastructure being built–not because I can’t just ride in the street, which I do all the time, but because the only thing that is proven to increase the number of cyclists on the road is building facilities for it. And you know what I want? More bikes on the road, because more cyclists make all of us safer. Oh, and I also want no prisons, because prisons don’t actually make us safer, not in the ways I want to be safe. This cycle track keeps that in the front of my mind every time I ride home past Baltimore’s own little Prison Industrial Complex.
Baltimore Bicycle Works on Falls Road, Just Off Lafayette
Today’s bike ride took me down the hill to meet C. for a long-overdue lunch. Part of St. Paul was closed for road construction, and before I even got to Mt. Royal cars were starting their pointless honks, because when you’re in a car you just have to wait, but on a bike you can just skirt around, which I did, ending up on the other side of the construction all by myself. Continue reading
People Standing in the Sprinkler in Front of the Lincoln Memorial
Oh, man, it was hot today, and I was travelling by bike in a city I don’t know well. By the time I righted all my wrong turns from Columbia Heights to Georgetown to meet H. for brunch, I was a sweaty, frazzled mess. I folded down the Brompton and went into the air conditioning to wait. The bike tucks so neatly under a table, and I think I’m finally over my nerves that folks won’t let me bring her inside. After we parted ways I headed down to the alleged bike/ped path along the old C&O Canal, but I just wasn’t up to dodging rocks on the unpaved trail or hopping upended bricks on the other side. The heat was already geting to me, so rather than try to follow the googleymap, I just gon on Pennsylvania Avenue and pedaled until I got a nice breeze going. Eventually I saw a sign directing traffic to the Lincoln Memorial, so I took the soft right until I was in the well-signed tourist area. The place was summer-crowded with school tours in matching t-shirts, so I got off and walked until I found myself on the right side of the memorial~the side with the sprinkler. Oh, thank you, National Park Service! I snapped this picture before getting myself sprinkled, and then I was back on my way, past the Korean War Memorial, around the Washington Monument, and past museum after museum after museum until I reached the Capitol Building. Union Station’s right behind there, so I took a right, pedaled up the hill, dodged cars and pedestrians in the roundabout, and was finally back in air conditioning. I sucked down a couple bottles of water befoere boarding a delayed MARC train back to Halethorpe for a quick pedal to my car that I left on campus yesterday. And now I’m home, rehydrating, and looking at maps of DC for my next trip, hopefully after the heat wave has waned a bit.
The Brompton Under a Table at the Wonderland Ballroom at 1101 Kenyon
Almost every bicycle ride I take is a pleasure, even if I’m just retracing the same old paths on my way to another boring errand. I even enjoy those sweltering rides in New Orleans, the ones at dusk along the Mississippi River, which sounds romantic until you know how many bugs you’ll eat just trying to breathe. But hey, I just really, really like riding a bicycle. Today’s ride in DC rush hour traffic with record heat, grinding up hills, not sure where I was headed…let’s just say I’ve had better times. Bu what felt good was just folding up the Brompton and tucking it under the table at a bar and sucking down glasses of ice water, a beer, and a surprisingly tasty lentil salad, knowing that I won’t always be this lost in this town if I keep riding this little bicycle that is going to help me figure out yet another city. Yeah, this’ll work.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 