Well, today was the day of fluid plans. Our original plan was to get up early and go to the Farmers Market, then go out on the
Twenty20 Sunday Morning Coffee Shop Ride, then a day of doing something, then Kathleen was running the
5K at Boordy vineyard this evening with some friends. Well 6AM rolled around and I begged off the going to the market part, we were going to ride bikes there, but just as Kathleen split, the skies opened up and it poured, so she drove. I went back to sleep to be awakened at 8:30 or so by Kathleen who had just walked back to the house (only a couple of miles) to tell me that her car was dead, and behaving weirdly as it went out. Thankfully by this time it had stopped raining, and seemed like it was going to be a pretty nice day.
So I got up and threw on some clothes, and we headed down in my car to check it out. We attempted to jump start the Mini, but it wouldn't start, and was behaving electrically weirdly. We did however retrieve the market purchases from the back while it was being powered by my car, and I took Kathleen back to the house so she could deal with that, and she got the roadside assistance paperwork for the Mini for me. I headed back to the market to call Mini and get the car towed to the dealer (in Owings Mills don't ya know) since it's under warranty, and electrical problems are the suckiest kind of repair. About 10:30 the tow truck showed up (so much for the Coffee Shop Ride), loaded up the lifeless hulk, and off it went to the dealer with me following in my car. Dumped the car at the dealer, filled out the drop box envelope and then headed for home.
We puttered around this afternoon while it poured down rain off and on until about the time that Kathleen headed out to her race (and wine tasting :) ) it stopped, the sun came out, and it got humid. I went and got a
5 Guys burger for dinner, then decided to get out for a
spin around town. I rode down through the Inner Harbor to see how the concrete canyon scene was coming along. Here is the view down Conway Street from Light Street.
And then down West Lee Street where they pass between the stadiums.
This is the grandstands at Paca Street and Camden Street.
And the view up Pratt from Paca.
But that was enough of that, so I wandered across Martin Luther King Boulevard into the West Side to see what was going on. I spotted this church over there, I think this is a new one to me, but who knows.
I ended up over at Carroll Park, just as the sun was starting to go down behind the clouds.
As I was rolling through the park I spotted an impromptu car show. It seemed to be mostly
donks.
I turned around and headed for home, back by the stadiums I saw this train passing.
So I scooted over the overpass on Ostend Street, and because it was going through several switches, I saw it again from overhead.
Then it was back to the house for a shower and the Vuelta.
Then we rode out to Fort McHenry. They are redoing a bridge on Fort Ave, they have ripped up all the asphalt, and what was left were the original railroad tracks that were buried in the paving.
As we rode further out Fort Avenue, we realized that in fact those tracks run all the way out under the asphalt. Then it was back to the homestead to get ready for another busy work day. Fall is upon me, and it is getting super busy.
After that I looped around through the industrial areas and back to towards home. On my way back I saw a closed street, so since I was on my bike, I ignored the roadblocks and made my way down the block to see what was up. When I got closer, there was a police line tape around this building.
I stopped and talked to the police officer there, apparently it and these two buildings
were damaged by the quake and they were about to fall down. The destruction crews were on their way to dismantle them. Kind of a bummer, but that's the way the earthquake shakes 'em I guess. Then it was home for a shower, and breakfast before heading up to NYC for a meeting.
And then down West Lee Street where they pass between the stadiums.
This is the grandstands at Paca Street and Camden Street.
And the view up Pratt from Paca.
But that was enough of that, so I wandered across Martin Luther King Boulevard into the West Side to see what was going on. I spotted this church over there, I think this is a new one to me, but who knows.
I ended up over at Carroll Park, just as the sun was starting to go down behind the clouds.
As I was rolling through the park I spotted an impromptu car show. It seemed to be mostly donks.
I turned around and headed for home, back by the stadiums I saw this train passing.
So I scooted over the overpass on Ostend Street, and because it was going through several switches, I saw it again from overhead.
Then it was back to the house for a shower and the Vuelta.
And directly opposite, this graffiti.
We continued out to Essex, here is Kathleen at one of the many dead ends we discovered on the point there.
Nice view of the inlet beyond the houses, almost every house out this way seems to back on to the water.
And a nice mid-century modern house just down the way.
After that little side trip we headed out to the beach at Rocky Point, it was super busy there, people having picnics and generally enjoying the day. The beach was in full swing.
We stopped for a pit stop there, here are the bikes waiting for us to return.
It really is nice out there fairly quiet roads, here is Kathleen dropping me on the way back in.
A little further along we saw this fire hydrant which somehow is sinking into the ground that it is mounted in.
Then it was back towards the homestead, and on the way back we spotted this sign.
I am not sure what it is trying to tell us but it was humorous at the time. Once we got back we cleaned up then headed down to Johnny Rad's for dinner. It was our first time there (despite it being just down the street) and it was pretty good. Wound down this evening by watching the first stage of the Vuelta a Espana and got to see the pros make our efforts look trifling.
And concrete canyons on Light Street.
More bleachers on top of the bike path alongside Light Street, not thrilled about this.
And a lovely vista looking up the canyon back towards downtown.
So after enough of that, I went out to Fort McHenry, and on my way back ran into Giselle who had just moved here from Chicago a week ago. She was in search of the BWI trail, which I mentioned was about 40 miles round trip from downtown which made it kind of dodgy given the weather and the time. It turns out she works at the Social Security Administration right near my work, so I offered to show her the way there by bike. Suddenly my aimless ride had purpose, and we shot the breeze and pedaled up the Gwynns Falls Trail towards the work. The rain made it tough sledding, in some places huge mud flows had covered the trail, and there were a couple of downed trees to contend with. Stupidly, I didn't even think to get some pictures. At any rate we had a pleasant ride up and back, and split up back at the inner harbor, and I headed for home for some bike washing and drivetrain maintenance on both bikes. A nice Sunday ride all in all.
