Today’s ride took me up to Hampden for another bikram yoga class where I’m trying to stretch out my tight bicycling hips. Yeah, I’ve got a ways to go with that. After a quick stop at home for a shower and lunch, I took my writing project with me and flew down the hill to meet V. for a coffee and work date. These are just the kind of small errands that are done much more quickly on bike than in a car; the last thing I want to do is spend time and money parking my car in Hampden or Station North. Continue reading
Station North
Looking West Down North Avenue From Guilford
Oh, it feels like springtime! I put on a dress and a sweater, some short white socks, and my bike shoes and headed out to the coffee shop, flying down the hill. I peeked down at my bare legs and clips going round and round, and I saw my near future. Oh, sunshine and warmth, I’m so looking forward to our time together. Continue reading
Bike Infrastructure at Guilford & 20th
I like to ride my bike like I’m driving a car–“vehicular cycling,” I think they call it. That means I stay off the sidewalk unless I fear imminent death (see yesterday’s post) and I take the lane when I need to. Oh, and I often use my outside voice to let folks know what the rules are, according to me. When I first started riding my bike around this town, I would take Guilford home from points south, and when I got to North Avenue, I’d get my best vehicular cycling on, taking a wide right into the turn lane and taking a left on the arrow, another left on 20th, and then a right to get back on Guilford. A driver once yelled about this to me, told me to take the sidewalk and parking lot like the other girl on the bike. Not me, no way, no how. I drive my bike. And then I started doing what that driver told me to do, and today there are signs instructing me to bike through the lot and take the sidewalk. Well alrighty then. Today’s ride was like pedaling through spring already, and I look forward to many rides following these new official directions in my near future. Yes.
Gates at 25th & Calvert
I had a long day of reading, writing, and teaching, but I had to have the energy to ride my bike just down the hill to Mt. Vernon–I mean what am I going to do, drive and park there? Please. It was a pleasure, though, because it mean meeting V. for dinner at that Indian place that smells like butter. We ate too much, swapped teaching strategies (what do you do when they start crying?), and then it was time to lug my exhausted self back up the hill to home. Continue reading
Baltimore City Police Department 24/7 Believe Blue Light Camera at 22nd & Calvert
Tonight’s ride took me down to the pizza place for dinner and wine with the new colleagues. We were set to meet at 7:00pm, the same time that Troy Davis was set to die at the hands of the state of Georgia. It was a strange feeling, riding my bike down the hill for pizza when the state was setting up to kill a man. Continue reading
Cinderblocked Vacants on Calvert & 21st
I really, really wanted to go on a long bike ride this afternoon, but just as I finished up my work for the morning the skies opened up it started raining sideways. Sigh. I spent the afternoon running errands by car until riding to Mt. Vernon to meet V. for dinner. Man, riding in the post-rain cool evening air, flying downhill, feels so, so good. It’s uphill on the way home, but I ak already used to that part. I took Calvert tonight, and stopped at 21st to snap a picture of these vacant row houses. The blight here is intense, and it changes block by block–just a couple blocks either way from this one are fully populated, but here, lots of empties. Usually they are closed up with plywood, but this cinderblocking seals them off so completely, they are like ghosts. I wonder when the blight will seem like a normal part of the background, or if it will always feel a little bit like a ghost town here.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 