Stan’s Obligatory Blog

I just added it up, and I rode my bike 5,199 miles this year. This is pretty good compared to the 6,013 miles I did last year. Under the new scheduling regime, I rarely get a chance to ride on Saturdays any more, so I’m pretty happy that I still got in a lot of miles.

Sadly, this year, this total was less than the distance I drove my car. I don’t even have an accurate count of that. I estimate that I drove between 8,000 and 10,000 miles this year. And the curse of my life this past year has been that each girlfriend lives farther away than the one before. But on the other hand, my new car is quite comfy. So I’m not complaining.

From just after World War II until the mid-sixties, Arts and Architecture magazine did a series of articles on the “Case Study Houses“. These were houses that they had designed and built by the top architects of the day. Most of them are in the Los Angeles area, and today we rode to see three of them.

The basic route was our “Toluca Lake” ride. We rode down through Eagle Rock and then up the Los Angeles River bike path. Then past Griffith Park and Forest Lawn to get to Toluca Lake and Case Study House #1. Fortunately, David had read the articles about the houses we were visiting, so he acted as docent, telling us the story of the house and why it was designed the way it was.

Leaving Toluca Lake, we headed up into La Cañada to Case Study House #15. This one was built at a slightly odd angle on the lot in order to take advantage of views of both the mountains behind it, and, on clear days, a view of the ocean off in the distance.

Coming down off the hill, we rode over to Altadena for the final stop on the tour at Case Study House #20B. This one is on the somewhat-famous “Christmas Tree Lane” in Altadena.

Finally, we rode across Altadena and back down the hill to the park. It was a very nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling

Today was Rose Parade day in Pasadena. In practical terms, that means we’re under virtual house arrest here. It’s difficult to get anywhere, so we just plan on staying home. We got to see a lot of the horse teams from the parade, since they park their trailers in our neighborhood to pack the horses up at the end of the parade. It’s always strange to see horses walking down our little suburban street.

Wells Fargo had a pair of old-style stagecoaches in the parade, and we went to see them. They gave Lucinda a little plush stuffed Wells Fargo Rose Parade horse.

The group with the fairy wings made my day. The girls were cute in their costumes, and the horses were wearing glitter. What’s not to like there?

Their were also groups of high school kids walking around with trash cans, shovels, and brooms to clean up. I hope they’re getting extra credit for doing that.