It rained all day yesterday and was supposed to rain all day today too, but I checked the radar, and it looked like rain wouldn’t come in until the evening–plenty of time to get on the Surly and travel around town to see how folks are remembering the hurricane and the failure of the levees five years ago today. I headed to Mid-City and then out Canal to make a stop at the Katrina memorial at Charity Hospital Cemetery. Continue reading
French Quarter
Ferns Growing on a Building at S. Peters and St. Joseph
I finished up a project I’ve been working on for some months today, so as a reward, I gave myself the afternoon to ride my bike around, drop into a National Park Visitor’s Center–you know, the usual Friday afternoon of a National Park/bicycle obsessed academic. I put my passport in my pannier and thought to toss a poncho in there, just in case. Well, I made it to the Pontchartrain Expressway underpass when the sky just opened up. Sigh. I waited for awhile underneath the expressway, hoping it was one of those momentary summer thunderstorms. I impatiently put on my bright yellow poncho, thinking I could make it to the Quarter, but man, that kind of rain, when you wear glasses? Impossible. I hung out under an overhang for awhile longer until suddenly the rain was just gone. Weather in this place is nuts. I continued on my way and took a left at N. Peters to shoot down to Decatur. I stopped to take a picture of this white brick building on the corner of N. Peters and St. Joseph. You can’t tell in this picture, but there’s a veritable waterfall streaming from the top of the building where pipes are funneling water away from the rooftop. Continue reading
Southern Recycling Scrapyard at Toulouse and N. Dorgenois
As you’ve now heard, tropical storm Bonnie has broken apart and storm warnings have been canceled and this is all the very best news for us. I took my bike, left my raincoat at home to tempt the fates, and headed to Mid-City to meet D. and M. for lunch. It was delightful to ride with some cloud cover and a completely free afternoon. Continue reading
Lutherans Taking a Right at Decatur and Canal
I had a truly lovely day riding my bicycle around town. It’s funny–just a few days riding other places and I feel like I’m tracing New Orleans all over again. The weather was perfect for a ride too–surprisingly mild (i.e. heat index under 100 degrees) and slightly breezy. I rode around, running errands and and going to Jazzercise class. No, really. Jazzercise. Anyway. I zipped happily down to the Treme tonight, listening to a catchy song with a terrible message (or not–depends if I’m feeling generous). Out of town a few days, and nobody told me the Lutherans were back! Continue reading
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park at Decatur and St. Louis
I have been spending my free time slowly working my way through Ken Burns’s documentary project on our national parks, and I’ve been feeling a ridiculously strong urge to go enjoy our natural heritage. Mostly I’m missing mountains, though. I grew up in mountains and there’s just no substitute. But I’m 638 miles from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (yes, I’ve been doing a lot of googleymapping, wishing I were rich in time and money), and those don’t really count as mountains anyway–not when you know about the Owyhees, the Rockies, the Sierra Nevadas, the Tetons. Continue reading
Chainring on a Bike at Exchange Place and Conti
I’ve been struggling with some writing I’ve been doing lately–the professional kind–and it’s been frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels, and not in that happy-bicycling kind of way. When I get stuck in a rut like this it’s usually a good idea to get on my bike and pay attention to stuff that has nothing to do with me, so when S. invited me out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, I thought sure, I’ll ride down to the Quarter, savor some savories, empty the brain. Continue reading
Terrible Asphalt at Magazine and Julia
You know I love riding my bike around New Orleans. It’s flat as a pancake here and the weather is always perfect for a ride, assuming you don’t mind thunderstorms and 100+ heat indices, which I don’t. But our streets are, in many places, spectacularly awful. We have some repaving projects, some even including facilities for bikes–Chartres, St. Claude, Gentilly, upper St. Charles, La Salle/Simon Bolivar, Loyola–but most streets are a mess of exposed streetcar tracks, potholes, loose gravel, ridges, and all various and sundry temporary patches. Continue reading
Flotilla Emergency Protest at Conti and N. Peters
The sun was out and I had the day off and my old friend S. was in town for a visit and I’ve got extra bikes–perfection. I took the Surly and he took the Specialized, and we headed out on a tour of my favorite asphalt in New Orleans: Simon Bolivar, the new and improved Loyola, Canal, Chartres, those three blocks of Magazine by the WWII museum, and Constance. We do have some good streets in town–you just have to ride around until you find them (or check out the fantastic work by NOLACycle–thanks for the maps!). On our way we made some stops, the first for the Flotilla Emergency Protest in support of Palestine. Continue reading
People and Signs at the Oil Protest in Jackson Square
I broke one of my regular riding rules today–never start a ride in the rain. But I needed to get to the Quarter for today’s oil protest, and I most certainly wasn’t going to drive a car down there. I was soaked and muddy by the time I got there, but a quick towel-off at a friend’s house, and I was good to go. Continue reading
Post-Wedding Clean Up at the Van Benthuysen-Elms Mansion
What did I see riding my bike around today? Well, I saw a lot of bachelorettes. It’s wedding season, and it’s everywhere. Last weekend’s ride through City Park, for example, ran me through three different weddings. I rode my bike down to the Quarter for a few tweaks to the Surly at the bike shoppe, and then to R.’s for writing group with him and S. Then it was back on the Surly to La Petite Theatre to volunteer for tonight’s performance of Noche Flamenca. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 