As the guy stopped next to me at the light on 25th & Guilford said, 15 degrees cooler makes it almost fun to ride our bikes again, and it did. I headed out to run an errand and then just kept riding, enjoying the feel of a regular summer day. I zipped down the hill and over through Little Italy and Fells Point, through Patterson Park and over through Canton to Brewer’s Hill for some iced tea with my writing. Continue reading
Canton
Crowd At Mt. Vernon Square for First Thursdays
Today’s ride took me to Hampden for an errand and some writing, to lunch at BMA with V. and her parents, down the hill to Patterson Park and the Can Company for another errand, and then to Mt. Vernon Square for First Thursdays. I locked up the bike before running into B. and G. in their car. I hopped in as we looked for parking–a much easier task on a bike–and then we walked over to meet the already-huge crowd. We got beers and sat on the curb and caught up. G. quite aptly declared the crowd “a Sutter Home crowd,” B. unhelpfully pointed out that come November, all these folks are going to vote on our civil rights–I mean, can youimagine?– and I thought to myself that we were all finding this event a lovely way to spend the evening, likely oblivious to the part where this whole thing was brought to us by Baltimore City Parks & Rec while we’re closing community centers all over the city, but this is just a lovely summer tradition, and then, after awhile, the sky looked like it was going to open up, so I raced it home. At every intersection, to the left and the right, you could look right under the storm and see the pink sky on the other side. So, so pretty. Why in the world would I take my car on a day like this?
Row of Houses at Potomac & Fait
It was another scorching and humid day in Baltimore, and I spent most of it working and reading in front of the window ac unit and wondering if this is an unseasonable heat wave or if it’s just going to be this hot for the next five months. To be honest, I didn’t exactly feel like going out on a bike in this weather, but I best get used to it, or it will be a long summer off the bike and whining. (And yes, I know I bicycled daily through multiple New Orleans summers, but that doesn’t make this less hot. And yes, I know I grew up in Idaho, but I haven’t lived there in almost 20 years, and I still get cold in cold weather.) I took the Surly down the hill and against Beryl’s fingertips blowing hard on our way to Patterson Park, where the drinking fountain was out of order. Not cool, man. Then I biked around, panting, until I hit the shops at Brewer’s Hill, I think it is~the sandwich shop has mad air conditioning and unsweetened iced tea! After my break I headed home. Cloud cover was rolling in, and that made the ride back exceedingly more pleasant. I stopped at the stop sign at Potomac & Fait and snapped this picture of the same house after house after house; this block needs some serious tree action to stay reasonable during the summer. That house in the middle has built a deck on top~now we’re talking. I hope they can install one of those misting fans up there. Pedal, pedal, pedal, and then I was home. Sometimes a ride is all about the weather.
Baltimore Recycling Center at E. Biddle & Edison Hwy.
Sunday’s a work day for me, but once I got some stuff done I had time to go on a ride without a destination–my favorite. Today’s ride took me down the hill until I decided to take a left on Biddle to see where it would end. Whenever I ride off the very main-est of the main drags in this town (i.e. a street that doesn’t lead to the freeway) I’m struck again by just how many vacant properties are in this city. Just a couple miles on Biddle, if that, and I passed dozens, many on blocks with one or two really nice and well-kept houses, and I thought about what it could look like, if only, if only what. Continue reading
Peale Museum Building at Holliday & Lexington
I have been in NYC for the past few days visiting my sister, so I haven’t been riding my bicycle. I have, however, been thinking about what it might be like to fold up a bicycle and take it with me on my next trip…but anyway. I am back home in Baltimore and on spring break, so when the rain stopped early this morning, I knew I’d get a decent ride in today. After doing some reading and extraordinarily minor gardening, I spent some time giving the bike a quick clean, degreasing, and re-lubing for springtime before taking the newly stealth and quiet ride out into the sunshine. Continue reading
Flowering Tree at S. Ellwood & Hudson
I woke up early this morning with an overwhelming desire to play hooky, and I grumped around for awhile until giving in to the senioritis. After a trip to school for some lazy research and a faculty meeting it was time to get on my bike and out in this 80 degree blue sky day–oh, it was perfect out there. Continue reading
Pile of White Stuff Near 2250 S. Clinton
Oh, I needed a day just like today following this weekend’s trip. I had a wonderful time in New Orleans, no doubt, but it’s hard to go to a place that feels like home and realize you don’t get to live there anymore, especially when the place is so full of love. And then it was back in Baltimore, a few hours of sleep, and back at work, nary a moment to breathe and remember that we–me and my bike–live here now. Continue reading
Pedestrian Underpass at Bank Street & Eastern Avenue
Today’s afternoon ride took me to Harbor East to catch a couple of closing exhibits at the Lewis Museum–Roberto Clemente was an awesome dude lost too soon, and there’s an important and often invisible history of African American/Native American relationships (though I think telling those histories is important for reasons beyond recognizing people’s identities, but that’s a different blog). The exhibits were of that new-fangled pop-up museum style, so hopefully they are travelling to a museum near you next. The day was unseasonably warm, so afterward I headed out for a ride with no plan; it had been far too long since I did that. I pedaled along, following the signs first to Patterson Park, where I watched a whole bunch of people feed a whole bunch of pigeons, and then toward Greektown by way of Highlandtown. I snapped this picture half way across the pedestrian underpass on Eastern Avenue. Now *this* is an underpass–spacious, covered in art, brightly-painted bridges above, carrying a train and framing yet another abandoned factory, but I’m guessing that just can’t be helped. I zipped through and around, did a quick turn on some Bayview side streets, and then headed back, hoping to be somewhere familiar by dusk. I passed through Brewer’s Hill, marvelled at the speed by which neighborhoods change and how a blighted warehouse district can become expensive lofts in virtually every city I have ever been in, stopped by Canton Waterfront Park for a photo of the sky on fire with sunset, and took myself to Fells Point for a cocktail and some fancy tapas to toast myself out of 2011, a day early. It has been a banner year for me, and I’m looking forward to my first bike ride of 2012, January 1. Oh, I do so like riding a bike around Baltimore.
Beer and TVs at a Sports Bar in the Can Company
It’s nearing the end of the calendar year, and I have money in my FSA that I just haven’t had time to spend. That means it’s time for another trip to the spectacles shop, and none too soon, seeing as how the right temple of my current pair of glasses is held together by first aid tape. S. and I picked out my frames last week, so today I bundled up and hopped on the bike to the Can Company for the one hour eyeglass shoppe to put lenses in for me. But then my prescription was out of date, so I waited fo an appointment. And then I waited some more and some more, and finally, four hours later, I am looking sharp, as are things in a distance, and a whole bunch of grading is in the bag, and now it’s time to visit this weird sports bar for a well-earned beer and a sandwich. All these kinds of sports bars are the same, and tonight this predictable sameness is just what I want before I hop back on the bike and shiver home. The day was lost in a single errand, but I mostly did the errand so I could take a bike ride, so I say, success! Rides of five miles or less? Take your bike. But note to self: it is time to cover those ears, for real.
Sun Over The Bay From Canton Waterfront Park
Today’s ride took me down and around the Inner Harbor with a quick stop at the Maryland Science Center to read about solar energy (the cells on its roof produce enough per hour to power three houses!) and then over to Canton Waterfront Park and the Korean War Memorial for a little learning. When they call the Korean War “the forgetten war,” they are not kidding. (I wonder if we’ll ever have a memorial to those lost to the War on Drugs–that would be one huge wall.) Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 