Stan’s Obligatory Blog

5/31/2009

Out for bagels

Filed under: — stan @ 9:05 pm

Sunday’s bike ride was another classic with no hills to speak of. We rode out to San Dimas to get a bagel at the Bagelry.

Along the way, we saw this abandoned couch.

It was cool and overcast the whole way, and it never really warmed up. The jacaranda trees are in bloom now, and the purple flowers made a nice contrast with the gray day. Still, it was a nice ride.

46 miles.
cycling

5/24/2009

I bagged another mailbox today

Filed under: — stan @ 4:37 pm

Today’s ride was the “No Tuna For Me” route. The last time we’d done this route, I noticed another hot-rod mailbox along the way, but I wasn’t able to get a picture of it that day. So today’s mission was to find the mailbox and add it to my collection.

It was a small group today. Just Silvio and me. But this worked out all right, since we’re pretty evenly matched, and so we didn’t have to wait for any slower riders. We just cruised through the route at a nice, brisk pace.

We rode across Eagle Rock, where we saw a large oak tree that had apparently fallen over. Then it was on, across Glendale and into Burbank. We briefly met up with a large group of riders there, but then they turned off to go up La Tuna Canyon. We went straight, into Sun Valley and the auto-wrecking ghetto there, and then past the dump and on into horse country. That was where we saw the chicken mailbox, which was pretty funny.

Coming out on Sunland Blvd, I spotted my quarry. I bagged that mailbox, and now I have nine in my collection. So the day was a success.

We rode across Tujunga and then down into Montrose. Up Hospital Hill, where we stopped at Goldstein’s Bagels for a snack. Then it was (almost) all downhill back into Pasadena and home. It was a nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling

5/17/2009

Elliott…

Filed under: — stan @ 2:05 pm

Sunday’s bike ride was my route up to Tujunga to see the house where “E.T.” was filmed. It’s at the top of a very steep hill, which is the real point of the ride. The last time we did this route was last summer on a very hot weekend. This time it was hot, but not nearly like last year.

We started out from the park and rode up into Altadena. Then over to La Cañada. It was there that Don spaced out and ran into a jogger. The jogger was fine, but Don fell and hurt his knee. So after a quick cleanup, he headed back home. We continued on, up the hill.

In Montrose, we saw a deer trotting down the street, followed closely by a truck from L.A. County Animal Control. The deer turned off down a side street, and the truck followed it.

Heading up La Crescenta Blvd, we ground up the long hill. Then John’s chain started skipping. We had a look at it and saw that one of the pins was coming out, and the chain was about to break. So he turned back.

When we got to the top, we rode across into Tujunga, and finally up the hill to Elliott’s house. At the top, we looked at the view for a few minutes before going back down. Then it was all downhill back to Montrose and and our snack stop at Oven Fresh.

The most fun thing about Oven Fresh was always the orange juice machine. It was terribly entertaining to watch, and the juice was good. But this time, it was gone. They said that it had broken down, and that they were not going to fix or replace it. So I guess that about wraps it up for that place.

After the snack stop, we went down the long hill into Glendale, and then turned and rode Chevy Chase back up and over to La Cañada again. Then east into Pasadena, and back to the park. It was a nice ride, and we did something like 3,700 feet of climbing.

42 miles.
cycling

5/16/2009

A little sightseeing

Filed under: — stan @ 4:42 pm

Today’s bike ride was a little sightseeing trip around northeast Los Angeles. We met at Live Oak Park in Temple City and then set out to the west.

The group quickly broke up, and the ‘fast group’ consisted of me and Gene. We rode across San Marino and South Pasadena into Highland Park. We had a quick side trip to peek into Heritage Square. Then we crossed the freeway and headed up Mt. Washington to pass the Self-Realization Fellowship at the top. Then down the very steep and rough route back into Highland Park.

From there, we headed north, back into Pasadena. The actual ride route had us going back to Temple City, but Gene and I both bailed and went home. It was a nice ride.

34 miles.

Addendum: There was one bit of unpleasantness on this ride. On my way down to Live Oak Park, I was run off the road by a jerk in a minivan. I yelled at him, and he just moved over into my lane and pushed me off the road. Memo to motorists: If you’re going to drive like an asshole, don’t do it in a car with an easily-remembered vanity plate. Yes, “SQSH NUT”, I’m referring to you. And I’ll be looking for you.

cycling

5/11/2009

A Monday evening bike ride

Filed under: — stan @ 9:14 pm

This evening when I got home from work, I had an unusual situation. I had no kid, no date, and no pressing obligation to do anything in particular. So I got on my bike and went for a ride.

I rode over to the Rose Bowl. There are always a lot of people riding around there, so I figured I might find some company. And I did draft off one guy who was going about 100 miles an hour for a while, which was fun. Then, after about five times around the Bowl, I got bored and turned off. I headed up Lida St, past the Art Center College of Design, up into Glendale. Then down Chevy Chase into La Cañada. Then up Windsor Rd into Altadena, and back across on Mendocino. It was a very pleasant evening ride.

35 miles.
cycling

5/10/2009

Sunday morning’s flat ride

Filed under: — stan @ 5:25 pm

Today’s ride was a flat one. It’s a route I made up last year that tries to avoid most hills. We did this ride on this same weekend last year. I figured this would be a good choice, since I was up late last night, and didn’t get to ‘lights out’ until 2:00.

As it turned out, the lack of hills just made everyone go faster. So it was still a bit of a challenge. But it was fun. I added a few miles at the beginning as a warmup, and a few at the end to run a quick errand. And I was still home by 11:30. So it was a good ride.

46 miles.
cycling

5/3/2009

A golden oldie

Filed under: — stan @ 11:05 pm

Today was my first time officially at the helm of the Sunday Moderate Ride, so we did a Golden Oldie: Toluca Lake Inverse. This is a route out to Toluca Lake and Priscilla’s by way of Highland Park, and back by way of Hospital Hill and La Cañada. It’s one we’ve done a hundred times before, and it doesn’t have any real hills to speak of. For some reason, I have a reputation for picking rides with lots of ridiculous hills in them. So I promised that the Reign of Terror will begin next week. Or perhaps the week after that…

It was pleasantly cool and overcast when we started out. The ride out was pretty uneventful. We saw Chicken Boy in Highland Park. And we rode up the L.A. River bike path. Then we got to Priscilla’s, where we saw a sign for a ‘Girly Yard Sale’. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. We also ran into my friend Carol Elaine there. I was planning on going to the JPL Open House this afternoon to meet up with her and her friends, so that was fun.

By the time we left Priscilla’s, the sun was out, and it turned out to be a very nice day. We rode back across Glendale and up Hospital Hill. Then back into Pasadena and up to Mendocino Drive for the ride across Altadena. Then back down the hill to the park. It was a very nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling

4/26/2009

A ‘fun’ ride

Filed under: — stan @ 6:36 pm

Today I did something different. It was the City of Angels Fun Ride. We’d seen this ride go by last year. The idea of riding with a rolling road closure was appealing, since it meant that we wouldn’t have to stop at all. So I thought I’d try it. I guess I was expecting a well-disciplined group that could ride smoothly together, which can be a lot of fun. When I got there, I saw Ben from the Sunday Morning ride group, so we rode together.

As it turned out, this was a sort of different usage of the word ‘fun’ with which I was previously unfamiliar. Because of the rolling road closure, they required that we ride in one large group. This was a lot like riding in a large racing peleton, but with mostly riders who do not know how to ride in a peleton. So the end result could more accurately be described as ‘harrowing’. We toured around the city, but really couldn’t do any sightseeing, since I didn’t dare look away for even a second. During the first part of the ride, I only saw one rider crash. This was pretty remarkable, considering all the bumping and bonehead moves that I saw going on in the group.

They had a rest and snack stop at the Ford Theater in Hollywood. I grabbed an orange and a few cookies. Then, when it was time to go, several more riders fell while pulling out of the parking lot. They hadn’t realized that the street was uphill, and they were in the wrong gears. Turkeys.

For some inexplicable reason, the police escort we had forced us to go really slowly into Griffith Park. We rode through the park, and then made one lap around it. At the end of the lap, we were about to leave the park and ride back to the finish. But they made us all stop. They said we had to wait 10 minutes for some reason that they really didn’t make clear at all. At this point, I’d had enough. I wasn’t enjoying it. So I unpinned my number from my jersey, pulled out of the line, and rode home.

The ride home was very nice and relaxing. Even having to deal with cars and traffic signals was much mellower than my experience riding in that group. So overall, it was not an especially nice ride.

77 miles.
cycling

4/19/2009

A ride to nowhere with no hills

Filed under: — stan @ 7:55 pm

Today’s bike ride was one of Gene’s routes that basically goes nowhere in particular, and it does it without going over any substantial hills at all. After yesterday’s adventure, this was just the thing I needed. It was a perfect spring day. Cool in the morning, and warming up nicely.

We headed out east through Arcadia and Monrovia, and then up the San Gabriel River bike path. Then back down into Azusa and out into Glendora. Turning south, we went down into West Covina before turning back west and making a loop back to Monrovia, where we stopped for a snack at Merengue. Then straight back home through Arcadia. It was a nice little ride. And I was glad for the lack of hills, since my legs were a bit weary from the stairs yesterday.

41 miles.
cycling

4/12/2009

Sunday morning, riding uphill

Filed under: — stan @ 11:30 am

Sunday’s ride was another of Gene’s ‘rambling around’ rides. It was cool and clear in the morning, but it warmed up fast.

Riding down to the park to meet the group, I saw a special Easter service going on in the park. They had a big blue banner proclaiming, “He is Risen”, and for some reason, I thought that it was blue because that’s the color of a Viagra pill. I’m pretty sure that’s not what they had in mind.

The first part of the ride was pretty level. We practiced our double pace line on Huntington Drive and Monterey Road. Then we started going up hills. We rode up Fortune Way and made our way up to Colorado, and then up Patrician Way. At the top we kept going on down the other side to Linda Vista. Then we went up the Lida hill. We went over the top and part-way down the other side before taking a small street across to meet Chevy Chase, which we rode back up to the top. From there it was downhill (almost) all the way.

At the bottom we rode two laps around the Rose Bowl before heading over to the Corner Bakery on Lake Ave. I skipped the stop, since I needed to get back early. But when I got home, I had 38.2 miles, so I rode around a little bit more just to get to 40. Good fun.

40 miles.
cycling

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