Stan’s Obligatory Blog

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