Tonight’s ride took me down the hill, around the Inner Harbor, and up again to enjoy some wine and gossip with A. and K. For the first time in awhile I had my bike shoes on, and it was such a treat to sling my leg over the top tube and clip in and be really attached to the thing. We flew down the street, a song in my head and a hard gear so I could pedal on the downhill. I was going about as fast as I go, and I had a few of those flashes where I remember I’m teetering on two wheels, in the street, with cars. How do I stay balanced? I figured trying to actually figure it out would cause me to fall over, so I shook it out of my head and trusted the whole thing to be just like riding a bicycle. Continue reading
history
Jackson & Lee Monument Inscription at Art Museum Drive and Wyman Park Drive
R. and O. asked if we might all get on our bikes and ride around town a bit to look at different monuments and talk about what they do, and would I mind coming up with a route? It’s like these two climbed inside my head and found exactly what I wanted to do and then asked me to do it, I swear. Our ride was today, so I woke up early, made a list of a few different routes (Patterson Park or Federal Hill? Druid Hill Park or Fort McHenry? Pennsylvania Avenue or Mount Vernon?), and then rode over to the Jackson-Lee monument to meet up and discuss our options. Continue reading
Property For Sale on Bank Street Near Caroline
Today’s ride started at the bike shop for a new helmet, and oh my, what a pleasure it is to have a local bike shop. I tried on some lids and had a completely lovely chat about helmet philosophies and training diets (she prefers the ice cream program over my pizza plan) before setting off for a roll down the hill. I meant to go to the Kinetic Sculpture Race, a most wondrous festival of giant floats on bicycles, racing, but in spite of the obvious pleasure of that sort of event for a person like me, I just wasn’t in the mood for crowds. Instead, I biked down through Little Italy and up Bank Street toward Patterson Park. I snapped this picture of an empty and overgrown lot for sale just before Caroline. The part where this spot can exist mere blocks from the hyperdeveloped areas of Harbor East and Fells Point blows my mind, as a newcomer to the city, anyway. I didn’t live here when they decided to build so much public housing downtown, when all the rich people were taking the new highways to the booming suburbs. I live in Baltimore now, when there’s a reversal, and downtown is being developed as live-work-tourism space. I wonder what the city will do with areas like this, Perkins Homes, as the real estate becomes more valuable. For now, this spot is offered by Fells Point Realty, perhaps a sign that that neighborhood’s creeping north. The way things look now, I will be here to watch those developments. The rest of my ride was all a marvel at wispy clouds, ridiculous blue skies, brilliant greens, and a traffic jam of bikes on the Fallswat heading home. Yep, spring is here. Lucky, lucky us.
Roger Taney Statue in Front of the Statehouse in Annapolis
Ok, first thing’s first: I rode fifty miles today on my bicycle. That just seems so far, like, “nah, let’s not go there–it’s too far to drive” far, and I rode it on my bicycle. I started with a coast down the hill to the light rail station to meet A., R., and A. for a ride out to Linthicum–you can take your full-sized bikes on the train as long as you stay to the back of the car, an easy rule to follow. And then we just rode our bikes forever, and I saw all green hints of spring, unheralded as the pink flowers get all the press. Continue reading
The Field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Downtown Baltimore
Sunday’s bike ride took me and the Surly downtown for a historical tour of Oriole Park and Camden Yards, another hit brought to us by the folks at Baltimore Heritage. To be honest, I was a tired out bicyclist after Saturday’s ride, and if I hadn’t booked this tour weeks earlier, I might have chosen to stay home and rest up with all the homework I saved for the very last day of spring break (yep, teachers do that too), but I’m glad I went. Continue reading
Waiting for the Unveiling of a Historical Marker at Camden Station, Howard Street Side
Today’s bike ride started early with a run downtown to join folks for the unveiling of a historical marker to commemorate the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It is just the third historical marker honoring labor in Maryland (there’s one for Mother Jones and another for the Lattimer Massacre, though that happened in Pennsylvania, mostly), because we don’t often tell the stories of labor or the ephemeral history left by people who were illiterate and lacked the outlets and power to put their thoughts down for posterity. Continue reading
Homage to Harriet Exhibit at the Lewis Museum at Pratt & President
Today’s ride took me down the hill for waffles and bacon with my grading and then down and over to Little Italy for a trip to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (can y’all put in a bike rack, please?) to check out their new exhibit on art inspired by Harriet Tubman. Tubman was from Maryland, and it was in Maryland that she was held in slavery, beaten, abused, but like it does with Frederick Douglass, Maryland claims her proudly, as if the state had the right to brag about her 150 years on after what they’ve done, as if honor is the same as reparations. But this exhibit wasn’t about that. Continue reading
Tracks at Jones Station Along the B&A Trail in Severa Park
It’s Sunday, which meant it was time for another longer ride since, you know, I’m an athlete-in-training and all. I did that thing I always said I’d never do–I drove my bicycle somewhere in order to ride it. That seems so silly since the point is to not drive, right? Well, I need some time just sitting in the saddle and pedaling along, and I can’t into the proper groove with the stop-and-go of city biking. I strapped the Surly on the back of my car and drove to the train station by the airport and then just followed the signs. It only took about a mile to get into a rhythm, rolling past chain link fences and parking lots and gas stations and VFW posts and over the wooden bridges that add an out-of-place class to the loop trail. Continue reading
The Stonewall Jackson National Shrine in Guinea Station, Virginia
Ok, I didn’t see it from my bike today. I saw it from N.’s car. She drove me back to Virginia to pick up my car after it broke down there last week. How nice is that? People are awesome. Anyway, I didn’t see it from my bike, but it’s why I have a car, and it’s something I’ll come back and see by bike someday, because the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park has a bike map! Sometimes cars are really helpful. Anyway, this is the house where Stonewall Jackson died after one of the battles at Fredericksburg over the course of 18 months during the Civil War, halfway between the two capitals. Continue reading
Her Fantastic Cats Performing at Bearings Bicycle Project at Greenmount & 26th
I woke up early on Saturday and decided right away to do absolutely no work-related tasks that day. No emails, no grading, no reading or writing, nothing. I needed a good day off, and I took it. I lazed about for a bit and then layered up for a ride down the hill and around the harbor to meet J. and her parents at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Oh, it felt so good to be flying down the hill on empty streets, the morning fog still hanging on everything taller than a row house. It was quiet and still, and I wondered to myself, how do people who don’t ride bikes or walk around know where they are, like really know? Outside of a car you have no choice but to pay attention. But anyway. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 