I had one of those Fridays full of meetings, so I didn’t get my usual bike ride in today. Instead I just got a quick zip down the hill to meet J. and friends for a couple of beers and a trip around MICA’s MFA Community Arts Thesis Exhibition. R.’s giant inflatables were inflated, N.’s phone app design was running on the computer, and D.’s woken carpet of old bicycle tubes was laid out for strutting. There were illustrations, videos, folded paper sculptures, (you have to see it–so much more than folded paper), and so many arts everywhere. My favorite part was the places made by the installation of the art–these were good places. And then we ate dinner and then it was time to pedal back up the hill for an early night. I’ve got a long way to ride tomorrow. Oh, bicycle, whatever would I do without you.
Pierce’s Park on Pier Five at the Inner Harbor
And some days you are pretty much just going through the motions, but fortunately, going through the motions for me means I get to ride my bike, which I did, down to Harbor East for a quick swim and then over to the Inner Harbor piers for lunch. I walked my bike to lunch so I could give my legs a different stretch, and I heard what sounded like a xylophone coming from over there. It’s Pierce’s Park, and it was all wavy lines and dulcet tones and children running around and climbing things like they do at every park. It was seriously a class act. Continue reading
View From a Bench Along Riverside Park Path in Riverside Park in Federal Hill
Baltimore’s getting the temperature right, but wow, this place had the wind machine on high today, so I had to keep pedaling down the hill to keep from being pushed off my line by the wind. It was good, though, just to be outside on a bicycle with naked legs, so many promises for the months to come. Continue reading
Pedestrian Bridge Welcome to the Eastern Deciduous Forest at Oregon Ridge State Park
Today I got to ride a brand new kind of ride for me. J. was leading a training ride up to Oregon Ridge State Park, and I have to admit, I was kinda a-skeered to join her because of all the hills. I ride up the hill and down the hill all the time in Baltimore, but this was going to be different, all rolling hills, and I didn’t know what they’d be like AND WHAT IF I HAD TO GET OFF MY BIKE AND PUSH IT UP THE HILL. Continue reading
Safety Signs at 26th & Charles
A short ride down the hill, a little dancing, a short ride up the hill–so much easier than walking or driving. On the way back I snapped this picture of safety signs reading “Road Closed 1000ft” and “Road Closed 1500ft” behind a fence at 16th & Charles. Charles is a main drag, but wow, its asphalt is like a backstreet. They’re repaving in chunks, and above 29th is a mess, but the mess will move down here, slowly but surely, and hopefully it will make it to at least Baltimore Street, but how will people get around once it meets downtown? No wonder we like to think our infrastructure has always been there and always will be, no matter if we ignore it–it’s such a hassle. But somebody up there knows we just have to suck it up and do it, and in the meantime these signs will let us know what to do and keep us safe, because for some reason when we see orange we just go around. I wonder how they made that happen. Tomorrow, a long ride, up hills. Better get to bed.
Tiny Blue Flowers on the Grass at President & E. Baltimore
Oh, spring, please just get here! It looked like I got my wish this morning, and when the weather report suggested in might reach 50 degrees today, I actually considered leaving my tights at home. Yeah, no. My ride took me speeding down the hill thanks to a significant tailwind I new would bite me on the way back, a left turn over to Canton for some reading and a coupon redemption–for a mani-pedi, my first and quite likely last; it kinda felt like a fairly massive waste of time and it looks like I’m wearing tiny Easter eggs on my fingertips. 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
Mural on a Building at Guilford & Lanvale
It was cold and rainy yesterday and dark and cloudy this morning, but by the time I got on the Surly the sun was out, the sky was blue, and it felt like springtime. I zoomed down the hill and around the side of downtown Baltimore for a quick swim in the pool before heading the other way and up to Locust Point for some treats. It had been almost a week since I did this typical ride and it felt like home, the same row houses and red lights and intersections where cars tend to just run right on through the crosswalks so you have to be extra careful, even when you’ve got the green. It’s nice to get to know a place, but it’s also nice to just know one, and Baltimore’s a good one. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 