Commute Day

Today was a commute day, I am getting soft :)   So I left this morning under leaden skies, and sure enough, about half way to work it started raining.  I toughed it out and rode in, I had taken the Gwynns Falls Trail so most of it has tree cover.   Did my work thing, then at 6:00PM blew on out of there for home.   I stopped on the side of the trail for a beauty shot, it really turned into a gorgeous day.

Continuing down, when I hit Wilkens, the road was closed.   So I did what I normally do, which is to assume that they can't possibly mean me, and continued past the barriers.   This is what is on the other side.   Looks like some pretty serious bridge work.

And from the other side without the solar flare :).

A little further and it was time to walk the bike.

But it's not all bad, it appears that they have built a brand new bike/people bridge that just opened.

Armed with this exciting news, I meandered on down the road, here is the blockage from the other side.

Then it was back down the trail towards home.   I liked this shadow going through Federal Hill, so I am sharing it with you.

On my way through the Inner Harbor, I stopped and ordered a sandwich from Fleet Street Market (Kathleen has class late tonight), and headed home for dinner.

Fall, maybe.

It was a very fall-like day today.  Temps in the mid 70's and low humidity and gorgeous sunshine.  Of course next week it's supposed to be back in the 80's.   At any rate, this morning Kathleen & I went to the Farmers Market on the city bikes, then back to the house, then down to Red Star for breakfast, then back to the house.  At that point, Kathleen headed out to her studio to do homework for school, and I took the city bike all the way around the Inner Harbor to Pet Valu in Federal Hill to get food for the cat.   So I racked up about 12 miles on the city bike before 1PM including schlepping some shopping stuff.
Then I went out on the road bike for the first time in a long time, too long in fact, I have been doing lots of running around on the city bike in the interim, but it's not the same.  I decided that I would pay for my laziness by doing something strenuous, not a wimpy round the Inner Harbor and out to Fort McHenry flat ride.   So I headed up to Lake Montebello, then did a lap there while I decided what to do next.   I decided it would be up Harford Road, I either have never done this, or it was long enough ago that I don't remember it.   So up I went, a little ways up Harford there was a little park, and in the middle this monument.

The inscription says Chris Columbus (no I am not making that up).   A little further up Harford was this groovy street art in the middle of an intersection.

And just up the block these awesome bike racks.

But then it was time to leave Harford Road, I turned onto Putty Mill Road and spotted this.   I have never seen anything like it, somebody cut about 5' or more out of that van.   By it's position on the driveway, I suspect it hasn't run for a while, but still not something you see every day.

After that I followed Putty Mill into Towson, then suffered through Ruxton and back down Falls Road into town for almost 31 miles.   Jumped through the shower then rode the city bike down to the Fleet Street Market and picked up sandwiches for dinner, so added another 1.5 or so to the day.

A quickie

For Labor Day I basically achieved nothing.   I got up late, and while Kathleen and her mother went out and did stuff, I sat around on my butt.  But finally I got my act together and went out for a ride.   Being a genius, I managed to go out at the scorching part of the afternoon, so in 11.5 miles I about sweated a whole me off.   But it was sunny and nice, the park looked especially nice in the afternoon sun.

After that it was mostly industrial areas until I got back.   Not so scenic but still felt good to get out.

Night ride around the racetrack

It's Grand Prix weekend here in Baltimore, and Kathleen is off in NY meeting her mom, so I took the opportunity to get out for a ride.   It was hot and muggy here today, and it didn't get much less hot and muggy at 10:30 when I left.  I headed down to the Inner Harbor and kind of noodled around the outside of the course, most of the bike path that leads over to Federal Hill has bleachers on it.  Here I had to cut around on the Promenade, busy even at night, there are lots of bars and restaurants in the two pavillions.

Eventually I crossed over Pratt (the front straight), a this point, they had the barriers open to let cars across from Federal Hill to Downtown.   I noticed that the security wasn't really paying attention, so I took off down Pratt towards the first turn at Light Street.

Here is the exit of the first turn, the Light Street Pavillion is on the left, and my pedestrian bridge is just ahead.  But it was all for naught, there was a Baltimore Police officer in the street just around the corner, and he gave me the toss :(.

So I rode over to Federal Hill and caught this view of the Inner Harbor, another use your imagination panorama going on here.

Then I rode over to the stadium complex, they are using the parking lots as paddocks for the race teams.  I crossed over the track at Eutaw, and since nobody seemed to care, I got back out on course, this is the lead up to turn 9, the camera wasn't to thrilled with my stability, hence the blur.

This is the entrance to turn 10.

Then I was busted again at the turn that leads back onto Pratt Street, they sent me a little ways down Pratt to here, and I exited again, so I managed to ride about 1/3 of the track.  Weird riding around on streets that are normally packed with cars and there was nobody there.

Then it was back to the house for a shower.