End of the Weekend

In the ever changing Baltimore weather, this afternoon Kathleen and I got out for another ride, and it was mid 60's and breezy. Bib shorts, jersey, thin socks, and summer gloves must be in the mid-atlantic with it's just wait 24 hours weather. We noodled around Baltimore, first heading up to Druid Lake, where I once again dropped the camera while riding along. I went back to retrieve it and it still works fine.
We rolled around the lake, and past this little castle, I have no idea what it does there.
We continued on through the park, passing the conservatory there.
Then we went out of the park via the mini Alpe D'Huez by Clipper Mill, I have never gone down the switchbacks before always up, so this was the first time I had seen this sign.
We went through Clipper Mill, and up to Hampden where Christmas is on, or at least under construction.
Passing through Charles Village I spotted this group of row houses with fancy spindle painting.
And a little further along this cute house.
Then it was snack time, these are the energy bars Kathleen whipped up from a recipe in Bicycling magazine. I nommed this one down, then had another.
Then we headed towards Lake Montebello the sun was just starting to head down over the lake.
A couple of laps around the lake then back to the house, this pavillion is on the way in Clifton Park, I would love to know what it was originally, unfortunately it is fenced off right now.

Strike 2

Today we drove up to the PA state line to a group ride with the Baltimore Bicycle Club, but as luck would have it, in getting our act together this morning, Kathleens shoes didn't make it into the car. A brief discussion was had about her doing 52 hilly miles in her Birkenstocks, but instead we bailed back to the house. Obviously the cycling gods don't want us to do a group ride this weekend. A quick regrouping then we were off on a traditional Robert kind of ride, where I head out, get myself vaguely lost, then figure out where I am and head back home. Once again the weather has changed, and it was in the upper 40's when we left, which meant heavy socks, leg warmers, bib shorts, insulated jersey, full finger gloves and a windbreaker. Our basic destination was the bike path loop at BWI, via a route that I wasn't sure of. We got out of the city okay and headed in a generally southerly direction. Some of the roads were bigger like this.
But we were able to cut through some smaller neighborhoods along the way, and spotted this in one of them.
Once we got down to Elkridge (and recognized where we were from a previous ride, we got onto some smaller roads that were much quieter.
Eventually we made it to the Bike Path, and passed under the landing pattern for the airport.
The path is about 10 miles around the airport, and really is very nice to ride, a lot of the time you would never know you were at the airport.
The path is actually pretty used, we saw lots of cyclists, joggers, and walkers, including this family out for a ride, kids to grandparents.
Eventually it was time to head back, and remarkably, the route back to Baltimore is fairly well marked, so off we went. Also the weather had warmed up some by then, and some layers started coming off as evidenced by Kathleen's removal of the sleeves on her windbreaker and leg warmers.
We came back in via Hannover Street, busy day in the harbor, one of the cruise ships is in across the way.
From there we caught another part of the Gwynns Falls Trail back towards the house, that's the Hanover street bridge behind Kathleen, I have ridden across it before, but it is not fun, no bike lane, no sidewalk, and lots of steel grating for the roadbed in the middle.
We were almost home, where the fickle hand of fate decided it was my turn to practice changing a tube, I flatted right by the stadium.
Once repaired we were off to the homestead for 5 guys burgers and some errands.

A Little Tardy

Today we set out towards Howard County with the intent to meet up with the Baltimore Bicycle Club's group ride. Unfortunately we were a little late, so we ended up doing our own thing once we got there. Funny how the weather is here, yesterday I wore insulated tights, insulated jersey, shoe covers, head sock, and full finger gloves for my short ride. Today I wore shorts and a regular jersey with minimalist gloves as it was nearly 70 degrees out. It was a gorgeous day in the countryside, so I will just let the pictures tell the story.
Then it was back to the house, get cleaned up, and replace the garbage disposal.

Thanksgiving

Obviously, today is Thanksgiving, and for the Hayes/Jones household, that means a couple of things, the first being it is time for the Cobble Gobble. Kathleen was running the race again this year, and I did my usual thing and went out on my bike and spectated. It was a gorgeous morning, much nicer than last year, about 40 degrees when I rolled out down to Harbor East for the start. All quiet on the Inner Harbor.
Here are the runners waiting for the start.
and the lead bicycle and the police discussing strategy.
Then they were off, cleverly I managed to somehow miss Kathleen at this point so I scooted ahead to catch her going through Fells Point (the cobble portion of the run).
It really was a nice morning, here is the sun rising over the Broadway Pier.
Then it was off to in front of the National Aquarium in the Inner Harbor proper, to catch her again.
At this point the race used the bike path to get around to the other side of the Inner Harbor before coming back along the promenade, so I scooted over and got another shot of the waterfront, the hill across the water is the park in Federal Hill that I have taken pictures from before.
After that it was back over to Harbor East to catch Kathleen as she finished.
After the finish we headed towards the MAC so Kathleen could pick up her stuff before I headed back to the house with the explicit task of warming the bed back up. It was freaky quiet on the streets as well, normally on a Thursday morning Aliceanna would be wall to wall commuters, but not on Thanksgiving.
We took it easy after sleeping in, then Kathleen whipped up a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner for us.
Everything was delicous, and then it was my turn to get to work, cleaning the kitchen is my gig.
A nice quiet evening followed for the start of a four day weekend, I hope to get in a ride all four days, we shall see how it goes.

Suprising Sunday Ride

After a week of cool fall weather, today ended up being a nice mid 60's kind of day, so Kathleen & I went out for a ride. Nothing two strenuous today as Kathleen did 1/2 Marathons yesterday and the previous Saturday. The weather was nice enough that I got to wear my new Mapei jersey Kathleen got me for our anniversary, no driver can say they didn't see me.
I even wore the matching socks that came with it.
We started out going down through the Inner Harbor, then out the Gwynns Falls Trail to Frederick Road, then headed out towards the burbs. Here is Kathleen following me down the road somewhere in Catonsville.
We looped back around to Edmonson Ave to head back, seems it's about the end of fall colors season, lots of people out raking leaves today.
A little further down Edmonson we spotted this cool art on the side of a community center.
Then it was back to the house, including a trip through the teeming drunken throngs, and an asshole who wanted us to get out of his way in his car and ended up driving over the sidewalk to get past us, all right in front of a Baltimore Police officer. This is the second time I have had to ride through the crowds coming out of the Ravens game, all I can think of is this.

On the other side of the stadium we stopped by a table the Girl Scouts had set up selling Girl Scout Cookies and scored these.
Once we had dinner we proceeded to eat the entire box of cookies. Hey, the Garmin says I burned 1500 calories on my ride today, I can have a treat.

Catch up

Been a busy couple of weeks, but I did get out for a couple of rides. Last week Tuesday I went for a spin around the Inner Harbor. Gorgeous crisp morning, so I stopped in front of the Maryland Science Center and snapped a little panorama of the Inner Harbor in the morning sun.
Then some more noodling around before passing by the Occupy Baltimore encampment at Light & Pratt Streets as the morning sun rose over it.
Next stop was the Fire House at Eastern & Collington (down the street from us) to exercise my civic duty and vote in the Baltimore City elections. After that it was back to the house and off to work. Busy week, we did sound for Fight Night in Washington DC. It's a great event, an old school Guys Night out smoker, and the only event in DC that has cigar smoking indoors as part of the event (some sort of grandfathering in an exemption with the city, and the fact that the charity that benefits from the event puts lots of money and resources into the the DC schools). Here is a shot of the room just before doors open, the gals in evening gowns are the table hostesses (sourced from a local modeling agency) there are 2 to a table and they take care of drinks service and cigar cutting lighting, etc.
It's a great event, we had the Commodores this year, as well as a boys choir from a local school that Fight for Children has helped, and they auctioned off a custom chopper, as well as several high end vacations from the ring. After the hoopla there are 3 bouts to end the evening. It's an interesting event, and Maryland Sound has been doing it since pretty much the beginning, this was my 6th time handling it personally. After that I had several more events over the weekend before going right back into the grind this week.

Today however, I did get out for a ride and commuted to work for the first time since the daylight savings ended. It was a nice ride in, about 60 degrees but overcast. Fall is winding down here, more leaves on the Gwynns Falls Trail by the shop than there are on trees.
Busy day at work, lots of shows coming up this week as well, including my first Christmas show of the season. Then 6PM rolled around and it was time to test out my new headlight which looks just like this.

I've had the blinkie rear light since I started riding again, but with the darkness the headlight was absolutely necessary. On the way home I started on the closed part of Wetheredsville Road by the shop, where I discovered that I could absolutely go faster on the trail than I could see ahead, very creepy. So I opted to take surface streets for the most part home, even so, it was dark out, here is the Stieff Silver sign where I cut down to Falls Road.
But I made it home without too much excitement, and had a great dinner with Kathleen.