Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike club ride was a sightseeing ride to go see Marvin Gaye and Hattie McDaniel’s houses. The route was pretty straightforward, aside from one misstep when we came to a dead end at Pico Blvd. The map did not indicate that the street was fenced off, and even when streets are closed off like that, we usually can get through on the sidewalk.
But Wilton Pl at Pico was totally closed off. But we managed to go around, and we were able to find Marvin Gaye’s house. From there, just a short distance south we found Hattie McDaniel’s house. Then we rode back toward downtown on Adams. This was the first time we’ve ever taken that part of Adams in that direction, and it got mixed reviews.

We took Figueroa back up into downtown, and then through the 2nd St tunnel. The city put in a protected bike lane in the tunnel, so it wasn’t bad to ride. This is only the second time we’ve gone through the tunnel, and the first was during a CicLAvia when the street was closed to traffic.

We stopped for drinks and snacks at Chimney Coffee outside of downtown, and then headed home. It was a pleasant ride.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

We finally made it out to the Skirball Center to see their exhibit about “Star Trek” and its legacy in our culture. It was a good collection of stuff, some of it even dating back to the original series. Since back then it was just considered to be a stupid little TV show that would never amount to anything, it’s surprising how much stuff survived. And of course all the artifacts from the later series and movies were kept for their historical value. All told, it was a pretty amazing thing to see the legacy of this particular stupid little TV show.

It’s Black History Month, so that led us to the theme for today’s bike club ride. Some years ago, I’d read an article about Biddy Mason, who had a really remarkable life story. Today’s bike ride was a visit to her grave at Evergreen Cemetery in East L.A., and then into downtown to see the memorial to her in the alley behind the buildings on Spring Street that stand on the property she owned back in the 1800s.

After that, we rode around and into Echo Park to see if the new Canyon Coffee location was open yet. It wasn’t, so we went a few blocks up the street to Valerie Confections. It had turned into a very nice day by then.

All told, it was a nice day and a nice ride.

42 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Last week, I saw an item on the news about a guy in La Mirada who decorated his house as the Griswold house in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation“. And of course, I immediately thought, “I know where we’re going this Sunday…”

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/12/07/la-mirada-says-it-wont-fine-national-lampoon-house/

As it turns out, La Mirada is pretty far away from Pasadena, but I figured out a route to get there, as directly as I could make it. So we set out to do the ride.

The first part was very familiar, until we got to the part where we went south from Whittier. Some of the streets were pretty big ones, but they turned out not to be bad for riding. And after a few miles, we made it to La Mirada. When we got there, we saw the house immediately. It was impressive. The guy was there, so he talked to us a bit about how he did it. The whole display was very elaborate, complete with two cars and the beat-up RV. We have no idea where he keeps all that stuff the rest of the year.

The route back was almost identical to the route there. I made it slightly different just to have some different scenery on the way back When we got to Whittier, we stopped at Mimo’s in Uptown Whittier. Then from there, it was just a straight and familiar ride home.

49 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

A few days ago I saw an article in the Los Angeles Times about how Henry Rollins is selling his house in the Hollywood Hills. So of course, I said something like, “I know where we’re going this Sunday!”

The house is in Nicholls Canyon, which is my old favorite canyon from the days when I was living and bike riding in Hollywood in the late ’80s. This is the first time we’ve gone there in a long time. We took our standard route out of Pasadena and down through Atwater Village to get to the east end of Hollywood. We rode down Hollywood Blvd, which is always a bit of a surreal ride. The block from Highland to La Brea was closed in anticipation of the Hollywood Christmas Parade this evening, but we were able to sneak around on the sidewalk there. We passed Donald Trump’s Walk of Fame star there. Surprisingly, it was intact and undefiled today.

When we got to Nicholls Canyon, we turned and started up the hill. By then, it was pretty warm, so we had to stop and take off jackets and such. Then we rode up the hill. The house was right there, and it was a pretty impressively-large place. Then we rode the rest of the way up the hill to Mulholland, where we turned to head down to Cahuenga Pass. We stopped along the way to help a family of tourists get a group picture with the Hollywood sign. Then we continued down the hill, past Universal and Warner Bros to get to our snack stop at Priscilla’s.

After the snack stop, we took the direct route home, back across Glendale and Eagle Rock.

42 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

This Sunday’s bike ride is the yearly “Down for the Count” ride for Halloween. This is a ride to Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City to visit Bela Lugosi’s grave. This year is the 15th time we’ve done this ride for Halloween. Last year, we found out that our favorite cafe in the Helms Bakery complex had closed, so this time we were going to try an new bakery in Culver City.

The route out has evolved over the years, and the current route going out on the Metro Expo Line bike lands is pretty good. For some reason, the Ballona Creek bike path was closed, but that wasn’t really a problem. We made it out to Culver City easily, and then into Holy Cross to see Bela Lugosi. His grave is always decorated for Halloween, but this time was the most decoration we’ve ever seen.

Leaving Holy Cross, we rode into Culver City and stopped at Grand Casino Bakery. We got drinks and empanadas, which turned out to be just the thing. Then we rode home by way of downtown L.A.

55 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Todays’s bike ride was a visit to the American Military Museum in Rosemead. We’ve been by there many times, but never went in before. The group met up at Lacey Park in San Marino. In keeping with the military theme, the first two sights along the route were General George Patton’s childhood home, and the statue and memorial to him at the small cemetery in San Gabriel. Then we rode on south and made a big loop before coming back up through Whittier Narrows to get to the museum. It’s quite a collection of stuff they have there. We wandered around in there for a while before continuing on home. At the end, I didn’t go back to San Marino, but I took a more direct route home.

About 42 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today was the first CicLAvia in a very long time, so today’s bike ride was a trip into the city to ride it. The route went from Boyle Heights out to MacArthur Park, so we padded it out a bit on the ride over. We took the route through Rosemead and East L.A. to get to the start. Then we followed the route through downtown out to Westlake before turning around and following it back up to the end in Chinatown. Then we turned off and went for drinks at Chimney Coffee outside of downtown. From there, we ride home by way of Highland Park, passing by the two giant dragonflies on Ave 52.

43 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Today’s ride was out to Sun Valley to see the Pink Motel. This is an odd little thing that’s listed by the L.A. Conservancy as a historical oddity.

The ride out was complicated by the fact that today turned out to be the Pasadena Marathon, and so some of the streets were blocked off, and we had to take a detour that involved going up and down some fairly big hills. But in the end, we made it out there all right. And yes, it’s pink. After that, we rode through the equestrian neighborhood in Shadow Hills to get to Tujunga and the Back Door Bakery. We had some snacks and drinks and then headed home.

Along the way, my bike went gimpy, first by refusing to shift the the big chainring. That was odd. And a bit later, it started to feel like one of my cleats was coming loose. I checked them, but they were all right. But then, just about 1/4 mile later, I noticed that the left crank arm on my bike was coming loose. That explained everything, aside from why such a thing would be happening. Fortunately, Michael had a tool with an 8mm allen wrench, so I was able to tighten it back up, and made it the rest of the way home.

48 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was a trip to West Covina to the playground with the F-86 model for the kids to play on. We’ve been to see this before, but not recently. It’s a nice flat route.

41 miles

Route map and elevation profile