Pratt Library

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Pratt Branch Library at 20th & N. Wolfe

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I woke up early this morning, packed my bags, and hopped on the Surly for the short ride to the Moveable Feast headquarters over on North Milton in East Baltimore to load up for our ride to Ocean City for our ride back home. I followed my googleymap directions for the fastest route, left on 25th, continue onto N. Wolfe, a left on Ashland, another left Milton. My ride took me through neighborhoods that today all looked the same–boarded up rowhouses between others with open doors and filled stoops, few trees, plenty of cars, folks selling snacks and water and car washes, and this Clifton branch of the Pratt Library that looked closed without the side decorations of trees and flowers, and then Johns Hopkins and their East Baltimore developments. I dropped my bike and walked the mile and a half to the bus pick up stop–those who know me will be unsurprised to hear I was over an hour early. It will be a different ride tomorrow, but this is the home I’ll come home to, and I like it.

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Nat Philbrick in the Poe Room at the Pratt Library on Cathedral & Mulberry

Today’s bike ride took me down to Fells Point to meet V. for coffee and work–she wrote about women’s human rights, I graded papers about gender and social construction–before heading up to the library for a talk. I haven’t figured out a good way to get from Fells Point and points east to the west side without getting trapped between cars on Charles Avenue, so I took the long way around via the friendly bike route via Fallsway. Continue reading →

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Resurfacing the Street and Calvert & Preston

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I have had an incredibly long and busy week that has left me exhausted, so all I could muster on my Friday was a ride down to the library to picke up a couple of movies and a book before settling in at the coffee shoppe for some browsing and reading. I rode home up Calvert Street and stopped at Preston to snap a picture of the street signs for a friend whose brother’s name is Preston Calvert–awesome. I took this photo of the street there, because it reminded me of home, those New Orleans streets that are pocked up and showing their brick undergarments, loose gravel everywhere, this time from repaving. I can’t wait for this street to be all shiny new asphalt, like Guilford. I have been here for two months, and I’m already thinking a lot about street surfaces. Oh, and keep your eyes open for that surprisingly deep sinkhole on Maryland just, across North Avenue. Get to know your street surfaces! I pedaled slowly home, hoping to get some rest for an actual ride tomorrow.

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Military Ships Docked Across From Fort McHenry

Oh, it was a beautiful day–warm enough for a tank top and skirt, not a single cloud in the sky, blue everywhere. I worked from home for too long, but it was finally time to take the bike out for a ride. I headed down to the library to return one video and pick up another (yay socialism!) and then just pedaled along until I found myself headed to Fort McHenry. Why not cram in a little history while I’m at it, right? Continue reading →