Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Yesterday, I got a phone call from my old friend Sara. We’ve known each other on line for 10 years, but only met in Real Life (TM) for the first time last summer. Turns out she got some sort of special deal from Southwest and decided to come visit her friend in L.A. So while they were sightseeing, she called me.

We decided to all meet for dinner tonight. We chose Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n’ Waffles because it’s something peculiar to L.A.

So Sara got to meet Cathy and Lucinda, and we all got to meet Sara’s friend Greg. It was a fun evening.

Route map

Today’s bike ride was the classic “Toluca Lake” route. This takes us out to Toluca Lake, just past Burbank so we can go to Priscilla’s. And today, we also got to sightsee the burned edges of Griffith Park on the way back.

We headed west, straight across Eagle Rock and Glendale, and then south to the edge of Griffith Park. We passed the Bette Davis Picnic area and the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. Then we took our first sightseeing detour. We went up to Alameda and Buena Vista to see the Seven Dwarfs on one of the big Disney buildings.

Continuing west on Alameda, we got back on the route at Hollywood Way. Then we rode just a few more blocks to get to Priscilla’s. We stopped there for snacks and drinks.

After the stop, we headed back to the park along Forest Lawn Drive. This passed the area on the north side of Mt Lee that burned last month. Then, when we got to Griffith Park, the road leading into the park was blocked with police tape. We turned left and rode along the edge of the park to get to the L.A. River bike path.

Riding along the bike path, we got some good views of the east and south sides of the park where the fire was last week. In particular, in the second picture, you can see how close the fire came to the houses on the hillside in Los Feliz.

We got off the bike path at Fletcher and rode back up to Eagle Rock Blvd. That was where we saw the first abandoned couch. It was leather and had been tagged with gang graffiti.

Going north, we took a right at El Paso and headed over the small hill to Ave 50. That was where we found the second abandoned couch. This couch was so beat up that I didn’t even recognize it as a couch at first. But when realized what it was, I circled back to get a picture.

Continuing on Ave 50, we found the third abandoned couch. I stopped for a picture. Then we got stopped at the Gold Line crossing, so I got a picture of the train there.

We took Ave 60 across to Monterey Road, and then headed back into South Pasadena. That was where Gene got a flat. It was a very loud and emphatic flat. So I immediately got out my camera for the obligatory picture for the Flat Tire Gallery. The gash in his tire was quite impressive, so I got a closeup of that, too. He managed to put a boot on the cut and get the tire inflated, so we were soon under way again.

We rode across South Pasadena and San Marino, and then back north to Pasadena. Overall, it was a fun ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today was a day of projects. I built a new railing for our front porch. The old one was falling apart. So here it is.

And I’m tired now. Fortunately, painting is Cathy’s part of the job. All I have left to do is the little railing on the left side of the porch. But that’s next weekend.

Today’s ride was Gene’s “Corner Bakery” ride. This was the first time of the season that we moved to the 8:00 summer start time. It was a perfect day for riding.

We headed east on Paloma to Sierra Madre Villa, and then south to Madre St to Huntington Drive. Then we went right and rode into San Marino to Monterey Road.

Monterey took us across South Pasadena, and then we went north on Ave 66, which brought us to Easy St. This brought us to Fortune Way. Gene commented that Fortune Way really ought to be the way to get to Easy St. So maybe we’ll have to do the ride in the other direction some day.

We headed up into the San Rafael hills in Pasadena, coming out at Ave 64 and Colorado. Then we went left a short distance to get to Patrician Way, which we took up and over the hill to Glenoaks. At the top, I even got a picture of me riding, thanks to Scott, who had his camera along.

A left on Linda Vista took us to Lida St, where we went left and rode up the hill into Glendale. Then we went down the other side and took Buckingham to Chevy Chase, where we went right and headed back up the hill.

At the top, we took a right on Inverness and rode that down the north side of the hill, passing by the spot where the road washed out two winters ago. Now the road is rebuilt and very nice for riding. Then down the hill with the sweeping hairpin turns and back to Linda Vista.

A left on Lida again brought us down to the Rose Bowl, where we rode a couple of laps around to add some miles. Then we went up Rosemont to Orange Grove, and then left on Walnut back into Pasadena. When we got to the Corner Bakery on Lake, I noticed that I’d done the entire ride up to that point without ever having to put my foot down. Saves wear on the cleats, you know.

At the Corner Bakery, I had a bagel and orange juice. Then we rode across Caltech and then right on Hill to get to Lombardy, which took us back across San Marino. At California and Madre, the route went north to go back to the park, but I followed Newton on his way back to Covina to add some more miles. We rode on Huntington out to Arcadia. Then went north on 5th St to Santa Clara and out to Monrovia. Then I turned west again on Colorado for the ride home.

I saw a pair of abandoned couches on Colorado, so I got a picture for the Abandoned Couches Blog. Then I went up Highland Oaks to get to Sierra Madre Blvd and headed for home.

When I got back to my house, I had 49.7 miles, so I rode around the block just to get to my Magic 50.

50 miles.
cycling

Route map

Today I was in San Diego to visit with my father while he has knee-replacement surgery. The doctor said that the total time I’d have to wait would be around four hours, so I brought my bike along. I figured that I’d have my phone along, and riding would be more entertaining than sitting in the hospital waiting room, doing the a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. Besides, I lived in San Diego for a year in 1984-85, and I was curious to see how much it had changed since then.

I started out from Thornton Hospital and rode up La Jolla Village Drive to get to Torrey Pines Road. Then I rode down the hill into La Jolla. I used to just ride straight through downtown La Jolla, but today I took the scenic route by the cove. I saw a big sea cave, lots of seals lounging on a beach, and another ‘stick-man in peril’ warning sign. That was all amusing.

Heading straight down the coast on Mission Blvd, I went through Pacific Beach, which was where I used to live. Then down through Mission Beach to the roller coaster. Back in 1984, it was shut down and falling apart, and a campaign was just starting to renovate it. Apparently they succeeded. The coaster was fixed up and had a new coat of paint, and it’s running again.

Next, I rode across the mouth of Mission Bay on Sunset Cliffs to get to Ocean Beach, and then up a hill to Catalina Blvd for the ride out to Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument. On the way up the hill, I took a picture of a very striking house with the largest cantilevered balcony I’ve ever seen.

The road out to Point Loma is quite nice. About the only bad thing about it is that it goes through a Navy installation, and they insist on closing the gate at 5:00 every day. That was my pet peeve with living in San Diego. It seemed like everywhere I went, there were gates that said “Restricted Area” on Navy installations.

So I rode out to Point Loma. I used to just go to the lighthouse and get a drink, but I thought I’d sightsee a bit. So I rode down the hill on the ocean side to see the tide pools. At the bottom, I met another guy who was also out riding, so we rode out to the end of the road, which ends at the gate of the sewage treatment plant. It was kind of refreshing to see a “Restricted Area” that had nothing to do with the Navy.

Back up at the top of the hill, I got a souvenir picture in front of the lighthouse. I also got a picture of a submarine cruising out of San Diego Bay. I remembered walking along the downtown waterfront. They used to have coin-operated binoculars there, and I always thought that they should have had slots for ruble coins for the convenience of the KGB agents who were no doubt there.

Then we rode back down Catalina back into the city. We took a short ride on Nimitz Blvd, which sort of summed up my impression of riding in San Diego. A lot of the bigger streets are like riding on the freeway, and it’s not a Freeway of Love.

We split up again by Sea World, and I headed up the east side of Mission Bay. This part of the ride was quite pleasant. I rode up back to Pacific Beach and the got on Santa Fe St, which goes up the east side of the 5 freeway to the Rose Canyon bike path. The bike path was pretty nice, and it bought me up to La Jolla Colony. I stopped at a construction site for a picture of a machine called the “Putzmeister“. I thought this was funny name. Then I took a few other streets and came out on Regents Road, which bought me back to the hospital in time to change and have lunch. Then I went back in and got to my father’s room just before they brought him in from recovery.

42 miles.
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Route map

Today’s ride was Gene’s “Noodling: 3” ride. It was a cool and overcast day, but the sun was promised to come out later.

We set out from Victory Park and headed south in to San Gabriel. Then we turned and made a partial loop around to get to South San Gabriel. For some reason, everybody had had their Wheaties this morning, and they were going quite fast. So I found a “FUNERAL” sticker on the street and stuck it on my bike. Then I said something like, “Now will you guys slow down?”

We rode down to the 60 freeway, and then up and over the hill on the south side of it, coming out below Whittier Narrows Dam in Montebello. Then we rode up Lincoln Ave, which is always a big dumping ground. I expected to find an abandoned couch or two, but instead, we found a mermaid statue.

After getting a picture of the mermaid, Philippe and I were quite far behind the group. But Philippe had a solution. He said something like, “let’s catch them” and put his head down and started to motor. I just got on his wheel. In the old days, I would have taken turns pulling, but now I’m lucky just to be able to hang on. He did a fine job of riding very fast and towing me back up to the group.

Next, we rode around the hill in Commerce and headed into West Covina. Then straight north into Irwindale and west back to Myrtle Ave, which brought us into Monrovia. Our snack stop was at Planet Cookies there.

When we got to Planet Cookies, the sidewalk in front was blocked off with police tape. There were two crime-scene investigators there, and there was blood on the sidewalk. They said that there had been some sort of fight ending in murder there last night. This was kind of disturbing, but we went ahead and got our pastries anyway.

While we were sitting there, I saw my old tattoo friend Nikki walking by. I haven’t seen her in over a year, so I flagged her down and we got to visit a bit right there. I also got a souvenir picture, which she insisted should be in front of the crime-scene tape. Nikki’s an interesting character, and I like her a lot.

The way home was a somewhat roundabout route that involved going up and down several unnecessary hills. This was nice. We got back to the park at 44 miles. At that point, I rode down to Incycle with Ben so he could buy a new pair of cleats. So by the time I got home, I had 49.8 miles. I rode around the block one extra time, just to make it a nice round number:

50 miles.
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Route map

Today’s lunchtime bike ride was a special trip up Crown Ave in La Cañada. Vikki didn’t feel up to riding, so I just went with Eric from the Seismo Lab.

We rode straight up Wilson to Mountain, and then over to near the Rose Bowl. Then up Arroyo to Oak Grove and into La Cañada.

When we took a right off Foothill, the fun began. We headed up the hill, ending in the very steep pitch up Crown Ave to Starlight Crest. Eric said he had some choice words for me regarding the route at that point, but I couldn’t hear them because he was too far ahead of me. I even had to say ‘uncle’ and shift for the last bit up to the crest. Then we rode along the ridge to where the road came out on Angeles Crest, where we went left and headed back down the hill.

We came down off the hill and rode back into Pasadena, down Linda Vista and the west side of the Rose Bowl. Then up Holly to get to Green St and back to the office.

It was a perfect day for riding.

18 miles at lunch, 26 for the day.
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Today I went along with Gene and Sandy for their ride to Santa Monica. They do this ride when the regular Saturday club ride is a route they don’t like. This is a pretty substantial ride from Pasadena, and it’s been many years since I’ve ridden my bike by the ocean, so I thought it would be a treat.

I met Gene at Victory Park and we rode out to meet Sandy by the Colorado Bridge. Then we all headed west on Colorado, down the hill into Eagle Rock. That was where we saw the “LA TRAMP” license plate. We have no idea what it means, but it was amusing.

Heading down Eagle Rock Blvd, I picked up the day’s first abandoned couch. Then we headed down Fletcher and over the river and into Silver Lake.

Coming down the hill in Silver Lake, I went slowly, since I wanted to find the Materials and Applications office/gallery. We’d missed it a few months ago when we were trying to see the “Bubbles” exhibit in their courtyard. The current courtyard exhibit is an igloo made of bamboo and industrial felt.

We took 1st St across Koreatown. That was where I saw the second abandoned couch. Then we rode through Hancock Park and Larchmont Village, which was very pleasant.

After Larchmont, we had to get past the big L.A. Country Club, which meant riding on 3rd St, which is generally No Fun. But it’s the one of the only streets that goes through there. So we took it all the way to Beverly Hills. Then we rode across Beverly Hills to Century City and got on Santa Monica Blvd. This used to be an absolutely wretched street to ride on, but they’ve fixed it up with new pavement and a bike lane. So it was all right. We rode that all the way past the 405 freeway.

Just before turning off Santa Monica Blvd, we saw a giant shoe in the road. It was the Quality Shoes car. Then we headed north to get to San Vicente, which we rode all the way to the ocean.

After looking briefly at the ocean, we headed back up Montana Ave to get to the City Bakery, where we stopped for a snack. When we were getting ready to leave, I asked Gene to take my picture, since I’m never in the pictures from my bike rides. I was pointing up to the sky to show how the light was perfect, and he took the picture.

The way back was up and over the Sepulveda Pass and down into the Valley. There is a tunnel at the top where we had to push a button to turn on the flashing ‘Bikes in the Tunnel’ light. This is presumably so the cars will be at least aware of our presence. I don’t know if it actually works, but we made it through the tunnel in one piece, so it can’t be all bad.

After a nice bracing downhill run, we turned off on Valley Vista. That was where we saw the house with the little reindeer sculptures in front. If you want to see them, the sign with the address is in the photo.

Most of the ride across the Valley was on Moorpark, where we saw two more abandoned couches: 1 2

We rode past Forest Lawn and the burned hillside from the big brushfire a few weeks ago. Then we rode through part of Griffith Park and got on the L.A. River bike path to go down to Fletcher for the ride back up into Eagle Rock.

In Eagle Rock, we were amused by the manhole cover at Eagle Rock and York. It said: “CITY OF L.A.” and “MADE IN MEXICO”, which in many ways sums up the Los Angeles experience. This is not a bad thing. It’s just part of the culture here.

Finally, we made it back to Pasadena. It was a very pleasant ride.

73 miles.
cycling

Route map

Today was a Very Blustery Day. The wind was blowing hard from the northeast all day. It made for an interesting lunchtime ride. It was blowing hard enough that it knocked me off balance several times while I was trackstanding at red lights, so it was actually quite remarkable that I was able to do the entire ride without ever putting my foot down.

Vikki wasn’t in the office today and Piglet was nowhere to be found, so I went riding alone this time. I headed out east on San Pasqual, and then took California into Temple City Blvd. The wind was at my back most of the way, so I was able to cruise at 20-22mph the whole way with very little effort. This was nice, but I knew that it meant that coming back was going to be somewhat harder.

On Camino Real on Arcadia, I saw an abandoned couch, which I collected for the Abandoned Couches Blog.

I came back by way of Highland Oaks up to Grand View. Then Grand View and Sierra Madre Blvd back to Pasadena. This time I managed to not run over any nails on the way back, so I made it back to the office with both tires still fully inflated.

It was a nice ride for such a blusterous day.

In other trivia, I rode my old bike today, since this week marks 30 years that I’ve had it. The first race I rode it in was the National Capitol Open on The Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1977. That race was extremely fast, since there were no corners. The only thing I remember about it was on one lap where I was on the inside trying to move up. Suddenly, a big pothole appeared in front of me. There was nowhere to go, so I bunny-hopped it. And then I heard a loud BAM as the guy behind me rode into it. Bummer for him.

18 miles at lunch, 27 for the day.
cycling

It was Free Ice Cream Cone day at Ben and Jerry’s. The line was pretty long, but it went fast. And the ice cream was good.