Stan’s Obligatory Blog

This afternoon, Susan and I went to the California Science Center to see the third “Body Worlds” exhibit and also the IMAX movie “Sea Monsters 3-D“.

The body exhibit had a theme of the heart and circulatory system. It was interesting to see, although a lot of the plastinated bodies were really just basically pieces of art, showing how the body works inside. Still, it was interesting.

The IMAX movie was great fun, chock-full of gratuitous 3-D effects. There were prehistoric sea reptiles swimming out of the screen and right into our faces. We had a fun time.

Today’s ride was a variation on one of Gene’s routes. I modified it slightly to avoid a couple of hills and also to avoid riding on Peck Road. I called it “A Relatively Flat Ride“.

We started out from Victory Park in Pasadena and headed east. We took the low road through Arcadia to Monrovia, and then rode around the small hill on Lemon Ave. Then we took the bike path and then Royal Oaks out to Duarte, where we got on the San Gabriel River bike path. We rode up to the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon, where we turned around and headed back down. Then it was east again out to Glendora along the side of the 210 freeway. When we got to Glendora Ave, we turned south, which was nice, since it was slightly downhill all the way to Cypress St, where we turned west. From there, it was still slightly downhill all the way back to Irwindale. Then we went north into the Santa Fe Dam recreation area. There was a small uphill to get over the dam, and then we were back on the bike path. We took that back to Duarte.

We took Duarte Road back to Myrtle Ave in Monrovia, where we turned north. This took us up into Old Town Monrovia. That was where we saw the vanity license plate slightly altered to say “GOT GAS?”. They used some white something on the “P” at the end to make a question mark.

Our snack stop was at Planet Cookies in Monrovia. After that, we headed straight back to Arcadia, and then up into Sierra Madre and Grand View Ave, which was the only real hill on the ride. Then it was straight back across Sierra Madre to the park.

At the end, the sun was starting to peek through the clouds, so it was a nice finish to the ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today’s club ride was the “Montrose Madness” route. This is another pleasant ride that doesn’t go anywhere in particular, but manages to go up and down a lot of hills in the process. It was cool and overcast today, with a little bit of light mist near the mountains. In fact, it was cold enough that when I left my house, I only got two blocks away before I had to go back to get my jacket.

We met at Michillinda Park in Arcadia and set out. We rode back up into Pasadena, passing right by my house. Then it was up into Altadena and on into La Cañada. Then down Hospital Hill into Montrose, and around a loop there to end up down in Glendale.

We took Glenoaks up and over a short, steep hill to get to Chevy Chase, and then up the hill. About half-way up the hill, we stopped for the official snack stop at a little convenience store near the golf course. While we were sitting there, we saw Charley riding by. He had somehow gotten ahead of the rest of the group, and he didn’t stop. We figured that we’d catch up to him later. I also had Silvio take a picture of me with Susan while we were sitting there.

Continuing on up, we got to the top of the hill in La Cañada. We took a short rest there, and then headed down the other side. We took Highland back to the freeway, and then crossed over to get on Oak Grove, which brought us back into Pasadena. By the time we were going down Allen, Silvio and I turned off to go home. We both live close to there, and we didn’t feel like riding all the way back to the park in Arcadia just to ride back up the hill to Pasadena.

It was a pleasant, if slightly chilly ride.

40 miles.
cycling

Todays’ L.A. Times obituary page has the story of Ted Key. The headline says that he created the cartoon character Hazel, but I’ll remember him as the creator of Mr. Peabody and Sherman on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

As always, we have to acknowledge the contributions of those who made major contributions to our culture.

Today’s ride was down to Griffith Park and then up and over Mt Hollywood, with a short sightseeing stop at Griffith Observatory. It was cool and overcast in the morning, and it never really did warm up.

We rode down through South Pasadena and Highland Park, passing Chicken Boy along the way. Then up Riverside Dr towards Griffith Park, where we headed up the hill to the Observatory.

At the observatory, we stopped to regroup. Susan and I were matching in our Foothill Cycle jerseys today, so we took a souvenir picture in front of the Hollywood sign. Then we all headed on up the road to the top of the hill. We stopped to look at the view for a minute, and then we headed down the other side. On the way down, there was a big tree that fell on the road, as well as lots of potholes, sand, and so forth. It’s a nice descent, but you have to pay attention. And when I got to the bottom, my back brake cable was feeling weird, like it was about to break. This was not a Good Sign.

Riding by Forest Lawn, we saw the City of Angels Fun Ride pass by going the other way. Then we stopped at Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake for the requisite bagels, orange juice, and so forth.

The route home was supposed to go up Linda Vista and down Lida to the Rose Bowl. But with my gimpy brake cable, I thought it might be better to not have any big downhills on the way. So we came back by way of Eagle Rock, where I saw a nice abandoned couch on Yosemite Dr. Then we headed up the Colorado St hill and back to Pasadena.

It was a nice ride, although I need to visit the bike shop to get a new brake cable.

44 miles.
cycling

After the bike ride this morning, Susan and I went to the JPL Open House. Bein’ nerds and all, this was great fun.

We saw models of the three generations of Mars rovers, from the tiny Sojourner to the current Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and the relatively huge Mars Science Laboratory rover. They also had photos of Mars in 3-D. They gave all of us anaglyph 3-D glasses to use for viewing these.

We got our picture taken with the Sergeant missile. We also had a laugh at the “Rover Xing” signs. One building had a small exhibit of art projected on blocks of aerogel. And outside they had a rover demonstration where the rover drove over kids lying on the ground.

Finally, we got our picture taken in 3-D on Mars. It was a fun afternoon.

Today’s ride was the Around Puddingstone Reservoir route.

It was a perfect day for riding. We had a big group today. Steve said something like, “we have a lot of people to drop today” or something like that. The Saturday rides go that way. We start out with a big group, and then it breaks up into smaller groups who go at different paces.

We headed out from Live Oak Park and got on the Rio Hondo bike path for a short time. Then we took Lower Azusa Road east some more before going south a bit. Then we took Badillo St all the way out to San Dimas. There, we turned south on San Dimas Ave. All of us except for Steve and Susan, who missed the turn and rode off into the distance. I went and looked for them, but they were out of sight, so I figured they’d take another street south and meet us by the L.A. County Fairgrounds. So I rode back and followed the route around the reservoir to the point where we would have met up again, and we waited there. A few minutes later, they came down the street. They had realized that they’d missed the turn, so they doubled back and followed the route to where we were waiting.

From there, we took a ’shortcut’ past Brackett Field and into the park. It’s shorter, but a bit steep in places. We had to go around a few fences, but we got to see some nice flowers blooming, which was nice. Then we got on Via Verde for the ride through the park and on into West Covina. That was where we caught up with Charley, who’d left about a half-hour before us.

Our snack stop was in Baldwin Park. Most people just had coffee or some other drink, but some of us had lunch. Susan and I both ordered food, since we were planning on going to the JPL Open House later in the afternoon. We figured that we had to have lunch somewhere, so it might as well be there.

After the stop, we headed back home. When we got back to Pasadena, Susan got a flat. This marks her first appearance in the Flat Tire Gallery, so it was an auspicious occasion.

It was a fun ride.

55 miles.
cycling

Some people have been asking for more detail on that heavily-redacted party report:

On Saturday night, Oh come and I went to a on party at you don’t in North Hollywood. really expect me to put the real these events, and she text in here so you can highlight it and read it. Do you?.

We socialized some, and I introduced La!La! to all my friends there. Later, we went I can’t hear you! It’s a secret. I’m not telling. and Nope. Still not a bit. When we telling. After all, what’s life without shoesa little mystery? Huh? looked Heh heh.

It was a very fun time.

Just a couple of random things I saw and found amusing:

Yesterday, they were filming “Greek” again on campus at Caltech. It’s weird to be riding my bike across campus and suddenly see things in the middle of the sidewalk that I know are just props. And it’s always funny to see a familiar place dressed up as something different. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as the last time I saw them filming this on campus, but the bulletin board kiosks on the sidewalk were kind of jarring to see. Especially since if I wasn’t paying attention, I’d have run into one of them.

Later, when I was going out for the evening, I saw a GM fuel cell car on the road. I’d seen a couple of these parked behind the GM Training Center in Burbank back in February. So it was interesting to see one out on the road. It was very quiet.

I didn’t say anything about the time between Saturday’s bike ride and Sunday’s bike ride. It was a very fun time. But it wasn’t the sort of fun that I can talk about here. So here’s the officially sanitized version.

This morning, when I dropped Lucinda off at school, this is what I saw from the playground at the school.

The fire in Santa Anita Canyon was crossing a ridge about 2 miles away. It was a bit unnerving to see actual flames on the mountain that close to the school. But the word tonight is that they are gaining ground on the fire, and school will be open tomorrow. So I guess that’s a Good Thing.

Today’s ride was one I just made up that I called “Nowhere in Particular”. We did rides with some substantial hills the last two weeks, so it was time for a slightly flatter ride. Also, Gene said he was going to come and ride with us for the first time since his accident last November.

There is a fire burning up Santa Anita Canyon above Arcadia. It started yesterday, and it spread last night. The first picture shows a car hood with the deposit of ash that fell from the sky outside my house on Saturday night. When we met at the park, the air smelled of brushfire smoke, and we could see tanker airplanes flying overhead. So we decided to alter the route a bit just to avoid going through Sierra Madre, since part of the town was evacuated, and there were fire department staging areas set up there. Also, we could see the smoke from the fire, and we figured it was better if we could stay away from it as far as possible.

When we were in Arcadia, Gene noticed that I’d cleaned my bike. Normally, I never clean my bike. But I’d been talking to Susan about this yesterday, so I thought I’d surprise everyone by wiping off some of the dirt. This was shocking enough for everyone that I handed the camera to Susan to take a picture. Just to record the occasion for the ages.

When we got out to Duarte, we stopped at Encanto Park to top off our water bottles, since it was a very hot day already. Then we got on the San Gabriel River bike path and headed south. That’s the nice way to go, since the trend is downhill. We rode that all the way down to Whittier Narrows before we got off and got back on regular streets.

We turned down Lincoln Ave towards Montebello, where we say one of the many bells set up around California with historical markers for El Camino Real. The bell we passed was the “San Gabriel Archangel” bell.

In Montebello, we went over the only substantial hill on the ride. It was short, but a bit steep. But it was over quickly, and we headed down the other side. Then we went straight north through San Gabriel all the way back to Pasadena, where we stopped at Noah’s Bagels on Lake Ave.

After the stop, we headed straight back to the part. By this time, the wind had shifted, and Pasadena didn’t smell like a brushfire any more. It was hot, but it was still a fun ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today’s ride was the “Corner Bakery” route. We’re having another spring heat wave now, so it was already warm in the morning, and promising to get hot later.

We started out and headed east. Almost immediately, YK got a flat. For some reason, it took everyone a long time to fix it, but we were finally going again.

We rode out to Arcadia, passing the park where we sometimes meet to start rides. That’s where we saw the inflatable slide that looked like the sinking Titanic. Then we headed south into Temple City before turning west again to make a big loop.

We crossed South Pasadena and then headed back into Pasadena, passing above the Rose Bowl. Then we hit the hills in La Cañada. We rode all the way up the hill to the school at the top, and then came back down all the way to the Rose Bowl. There was some sort of charity walk going on there, so the road was closed and packed with people. We rode slowly through the crowd for a short distance before deciding it would be better just to go back up the hill and take Linda Vista around to get where we were going.

Back in Pasadena, we stopped at the Corner Bakery on Lake Ave. I found us a table with an umbrella, so we had a bit of shade. We sat and talked for a bit before headed back to the park.

It was a nice ride.

38 miles.
cycling

Today’s bike ride was the “No Tuna for Me” route that Gene made up last year. It’s got just as much climbing as La Tuna Canyon, but it’s broken up into little pieces, so it doesn’t feel like the 4-mile grind up La Tuna Canyon Road.

We headed out to Eagle Rock. At the bottom of the Colorado hill, we usually turn right up Figueroa to Eagle Vista. But today we tried something different. We went straight and then turned right on Monte Bonita. This got us to the same place, but without that sharp off-camber turn on Figueroa.

We rode across Glendale on Kenneth. When we got into Burbank, we took a quick detour to look at the backyard pirate ship again.

When we got on to Glenoaks, Steve got a flat tire. So I took a picture for the Flat Tire Gallery.

In Sun Valley, we turned right on Peoria St. This street runs along the edge of the big garbage dump there. And right along the fence, we saw two pieces of a formerly-nice black sectional couch. Then, just a short distance up the street, we saw two chairs that matched.

Leaving the dump, we headed up into Horse Country. It’s always a bit odd to be riding down a residential street and see horses within the city limits of Los Angeles. We rode up, winding our way back into Sunland, where we turned and headed up toward Tujunga. We stopped for a moment at a little park. Then we rode on, coming out on Tujunga Canyon Road for the fast descent into Montrose.

We usually stop at one of the bakeries in Montrose, but today we decided to try an experiment. The bakeries are all at the bottom of Hospital Hill, and we always have to ride up the hill after the stop. So today, we rode up the hill first, and we stopped at Goldstein’s Bagels instead.

Inside, Susan pointed out the specials board that listed a “Reese’s Peanut Butter ‘n’ Cream”, which is truly not a traditional bagel flavor. But Susan and I got a laugh out of it because — well, I guess you just had to be there… We also got a laugh about the ATM that was apparently on its break, and the stickers on the back of one of the signs out front. “Andre the Giant Has A Posse“.

We all liked the fact that after the stop, we were already at the top of the last hill. And it was all downhill back to the park. It was a nice ride.

45 miles.
cycling

Today’s ride was the “Molly’s Souper” route out to Upland. We started at Arcadia Park and headed east.

Right away, the group split up, and Steve, Susan, Silvio, Garett and I went ahead. We took a short detour through the Santa Fe Dam bike path to avoid the rough stretch of road on Foothill Blvd. We thought that would give the rest of the group a chance to catch up, but when we got to Gladstone St, they were still behind us. So we carried on. We rode all the way out to the border of Claremont. By that time, it was 10:30. Susan had to be back by noon, so she needed to head back. I’d offered to keep her company for the ride back, so the two of us turned around there. We stopped at the park in La Verne to refill our water bottles. Then, when we were leaving the park, we saw the rest of the group still on their way out. We waved and said hi. They asked if we’d done the whole route. Susan was about to tell them “yes” but I beat her to it and said “no”. I’m no fun that way.

The ride back was about 10 minutes faster than the ride out, largely due to that 1% grade on Gladstone. Heading west on the street is always a joy. Our average for the ride was just over 16mph, which is not bad. And the round trip from Arcadia Park was about 44 miles. Since I always ride to the start of the ride, I got a little extra. So it was a good distance and a nice ride.

56 miles.
cycling

I’ve been doing the Tuesday night hikes in Griffith Park lately. It’s fun, and interesting to see what’s in the park right here in the city. Tonight was a different hike, where we went and looked for an old trail that was burned out in last year’s fires. We went up a fire road for part of the way, and then struck out on a faint trail up a ridge, just overlooking the Golden State Freeway. Such is urban hiking. We can be walking up the side of a mountain, but listening to the roar of a freeway. But we got a nice view of downtown L.A. at dusk, which was nice.

Today was the infamous “Mountain Lion” ride. We did this ride back in November, so I thought it was time to go back and do it again. Of course, I hadn’t counted on it being an early-spring L.A. heat wave. So it was hot like summer, and we were dripping sweat on the climbs.

The ride goes up into La Cañada, La Crescenta, and Tujunga, going up and down the front face of the San Gabriel Mountains. There’s a fair bit of climbing, and some terrifying descents as well. The high point, both symbolic and literal, is the hill on Pineglen Road that we refer to as “Mountain Lion Hill”. There is a sign part-way up that warns us that mountain lions have been seen in the area. So we try to maintain a brisk pace through there, which can be difficult when you’re riding a bike up an 18% grade. I was expending maximum effort just to go 3mph. That’s why the picture of the sign is blurry. It’s hard to have a steady hand with the camera while riding up a hill like that. I even had to shift. I ended up in my next-to-lowest gear for the final steep pitch to the top.

Coming down into Tujunga, we were on somewhat more level ground. We passed the Viking House, and then continued on down to cross Foothill Blvd. That’s where I saw the Roe Zee Market, which I found amusing for some reason. Maybe it was just the heat.

We stopped for water at a little park in Tujunga, and then rode down Tujunga Canyon Road into Montrose. Our snack stop was at Oven Fresh bakery. I always get orange juice there, since it’s fresh-squeezed and very tasty. And it also means I get to watch the Zummo orange juice machine doing its little mechanical dance, cutting each orange in half and simultaneously squeezing both halves, while more oranges roll down the feeder track. It’s entertaining to watch. Especially when you’re dazed from riding up Mountain Lion Hill.

After the snack stop, I got some couches for the Abandoned Couches Blog. Then we headed straight for home across Pasadena. Don’s fancy bike computer said we’d done a total of 3,600 feet of climbing. It was a nice ride, even with the heat.

42 miles.
cycling

I got my renewed membership card for the Museum of Neon Art last week. They just reopened the museum in a new space on 4th St in downtown Los Angeles. And tonight, they had a reception for the new exhibits. I went down there with Susan from the morning bike ride, since we’d talked about it while riding up the canyon. With a membership, we got in free, and we got to enjoy some wine and snacks while looking at all the neon.

The new space is a very funky one. It looks like it used to be the lobby of a hotel in years gone by. There were big holes in the ceiling, and lots of new electrical wiring on the walls to power all the neon lights. It’s a bit smaller than the old space at Olympic and Hope, but it’s all right. They are still looking for a larger and more permanent space for the museum in the future.

The exhibits included one of soda neon signs, some regular neon artwork, and also a collection of photos of old soda advertising signs. It was pretty entertaining, and we had a nice time looking at it. And maybe in the summer, we will go on one of their neon cruises around the city.

Today’s club ride was “Up La Tuna Canyon“. To my mind, this is the right way to do this road. I like the four or five miles of steady uphill. I enjoy that more than riding down that hill.

We met at the Pasadena Elks Lodge for the 9:00 start. On Green St outside the lodge, I noticed that there were two parking spaces marked in blue paint for the Rose Parade. They were marked, “BLIMP”. But I’ve never seen a blimp parked there. That would be some impressive parallel parking skills. Leaving the Elks lodge, we headed out across Eagle Rock and Glendale. It was a nice day, and promising to be hot like summer by mid-day.

In Sun Valley, we took a right and took some small residential streets to get to La Tuna Canyon Road. And then the fun began. Look at how Susan is smiling in the picture. She and I set the pace, and by the time we were near the top, we’d dropped everyone in our group. We were passed by one guy from another group, but we figured that that didn’t count. She was fading a bit near the top, so I did a few practice Madison throws to give her a little push to the summit. When we got there, we stopped to regroup.

When most of the group was there, we headed down the other side into Montrose. We stopped for a snack at Berolina Bakery. I had an eclair there. It was good, but not quite as good as the ones at Paradise Bakery in Glendale.

After the stop, we headed back up Hospital Hill and then back down into Pasadena and home. It was a fun ride.

40 miles.
cycling