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View of the Harbor From the Waterfront Kitchen

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Friday was one of those workdays when my heart wasn’t really in it, and then there were meetings and then I couldn’t find my wallet and blah~it was time for the week to be over and for me to be on my bicycle, so that’s where I was, down the hill and to the left to join V. and A. for drinks and this delicious mushroom cheese toast thing at the restaurant on the waterfront. We toasted and laughed and complained and took note, over and over again, of just how pretty it is here. And then it was back on the bike to dodge the Inner Harbor promenade traffic for dinner with S. and friends and then BASEBALL. Oh, baseball, I love you. I had to leave before the game ended-gasp-but I could tell we were still winning because shouts were coming from open doors and stoops and bars all along the route home because last night we were all O’s fans, an easy thing to be right now and highly recommended. In a car I would have listened to the game on the radio, but this worked too, and I got that sense of racing as I sped home to see who won. Up the hill and back home with more baseball starting Sunday. Things could be worse, yes indeed.

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Tree Growing Out of a Building on Williams & Clement

Today’s ride took me down the hill, around the Inner Harbor, and up into Federal Hill to  my favorite overdeveloped mini mall, McHenry Row, for a massage, because I am a decadent little thing. I thought today would be the obligatory “it’s fall, look at the colors!” post, but it’s still in the 80s here, warm and muggy, so instead of looking at leaves I thought about how the air felt warm and heavy around me as I flew down the hill, taking extra special care not to put on the brakes–it’s like flying; nobody told me about the downhills when they were complaining about the uphills. Continue reading →

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Blue Skies and Blight at Fallsway & Chase

Tuesday was another busy day for me, so I didn’t have time for a long bike ride. In fact, I didn’t feel like I had time for a bike ride at all. But I wanted to sneak in a trip to the gym, and I’m certainly not going to drive a car three piddly miles, so I hopped on the bike and sped down the hill for a quick turn and a ride back up the hill. I know I’ve been on about the weather shift for awhile, but the skies are really incredible. Continue reading →

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Beach Volleyballers at the Inner Harbor Along Key Highway

School starts tomorrow, which meant today was all meetings and convocating and welcoming back, and that usually means no time to ride my bicycle. But I want to ride my bicycle. I asked A. if I could ride Brompty to her place in Federal Hill and she could give us all a ride to campus–problem solved! Continue reading →

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People’s Community Dental Center at 30th & Greenmount

Today was one of those days with a bunch of little errands that is made so much easier with a bike. Instead of driving to multiple places and hassling with parking, I just rode the bike, and I’m pretty sure it was faster. My last stop was the People’s Community Dental Center on 30th & Greenmount. Continue reading →

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View Over the Fence at Webster’s Dead End in Federal Hill

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Today’s ride took me down the hill and back up another hill to my favorite new strip mall in Locust Point where I locked up to a rack before spending the day getting a massage, going out to lunch, talking to S. on the phone, and eating frozen yogurt as I tried to circle around an argument for this thing I’ve been writing all summer. It’s scary sometimes, the point where you have to stop making Interesting Observations and start making larger sense, and I have to take very good care of myself so I don’t scare myself away from that part of writing. I finally managed to figure some stuff out while waiting for the rain to stop, scribble, scribble, scribble, and then it was time for a celebratory beer, some grousing about the USA men’s basketball team~holding for the last shot of the half when you’re up by 33 is just tacky~and then I pedaled over to A. and J.’s for wine, good food, chatter, and more Olympics action. I stopped to take this picture before I got there, at the end of Webster. You call it Webster Court, but all you’ve got is this half fence to keep a distance between you and freeways and waste treatment plants. And then a groundhog scurried by and I was reminded that a lot of things are willing to make a life right at the edges. I rode home late at night, for me, and realized it has been awhile since a warm night ride alone, which meant the sense memory was all New Orleans. It didn’t make me miss that place, though; it made me happy that I can still access that feeling of being the only person on the streets, flying by with my skirt waving, my own breeze cooling me down. Oh yes, that is a nice way to spend a summer evening.

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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 →

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Waiting for Intimate Bureaucracies at Red Emma’s at St. Paul & Madison

Tonight’s ride took me racing down St. Paul to meet J. at the bookstore to hear C. talk about his newest work. I’d had a long day helping incoming students learn to navigate some of the many levels of bureaucracy at their new institution, so a talk on “Intimate Bureaucracies” was a perfect cap to the day. I snapped this picture as I waited, not sure what to expect. Continue reading →

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People Standing in the Sprinkler in Front of the Lincoln Memorial

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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.

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The Brompton Under a Table at the Wonderland Ballroom at 1101 Kenyon

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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.