Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike club ride was to visit the two playgrounds with the sea monsters. We’ve done this one before, but that was about six months ago. There wasn’t really anything significant different this time, aside from the big blue sea serpent at Vincent Lugo Park being fenced off, apparently for some sort of repair. Still, it was a nice ride.

42 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike ride was for another Ciclavia-type event, this time in Vernon and Huntington Park. Our biggest complaint about the Ciclavia events is that they tend to be overcrowded, but I guessed that this might not be a problem this time, since only about two dozen people live in Vernon. People live in Huntington Park, but it’s a pretty small town, so I thought it might not be too crowded. And that’s how it worked out. We had giant streets almost completely to ourselves.

After taking the full tour of Vernon and Huntington Park, we headed back up into downtown. We passed my favorite building at Wilshire and Figueroa (“101 Times!”), then continued on up into Chinatown. We passed the theater that always has something funny on the marquee. Last spring it said something about “We lost our winter fat, and now we just have spring rolls.” Then we rode up and over the hill by Dodger Stadium, and then down to the river for snacks at Spoke.

52 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Last week, there was great excitement around here because one of the Corpse Flower plants at the Huntington looked like it was about to bloom. Kathleen and I went there to see it, and we were ready to go back as soon as the flower opened. But it never happened, and in the end they dissected the flower to try and see why it didn’t bloom. But then on Thursday, we heard that one of their other plants had bloomed unexpectedly, so at lunchtime on Friday, I rode my bike over there to go see it.

It’s reputed to be the biggest flower in the world, and yes, it’s big. It was roped off, which made it hard to lean in close enough to smell it. I was able to just pick up a little bit of the famous smell of the flower. But still, ever since I first heard about this plant on an episode of “Nature” on PBS back in 1986, I’ve always wanted to see one. And now I’ve finally had the chance.

This past week, I saw an item about an art gallery in Sherman Oaks that is holding an exhibit and auction of artifacts from Disneyland. So I figured this might make for a good destination for this week’s bike ride. The gallery wouldn’t be open when we got there, but I figured we could peek in the windows and see at least a few of the items.

The ride out there was pretty flat-ish. We rode down to the L.A. River and then up the bike path to Griffith Park. Then through the park and out Moorpark St into the Valley. We had to take one short detour because they were repaving Lankershim, and so the road was closed there. But we made it out to Sherman Oaks just fine. When we got to the gallery, we peeked in, and we were able to see just a few items. Most of them were farther back in the gallery, and so we couldn’t see much. But we saw enough that I want to take a trip out there to see the show for real before it goes away.

Coming back, we stopped at the gelato place in Studio City. And then back home across Glendale, with the gradual climb up and over Chevy Chase and Linda Vista. It was hot-ish, but not terrible.

49 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s ride was our old Whittier Greenway Trail route. Not a lot special to see along the way, but a pleasant ride. And we stopped for the obligatory photo-op at Dork Street in Pico Rivera.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile