Stan’s Obligatory Blog

There is a small trailer park out in Covina where the streets are all named for astronauts from the original Mercury 7 group. Since I’ve been reading American Moonshot, I thought we should go and visit it again.

The ride is basically a straight shot to San Dimas, and then back by way of the Santa Fe Dam nature center. The bagel place we used to stop at out there apparently is no more, so we went to Merengue in Monrovia on the way back.

43 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was down to Vernon to see the Farmer John hog mural, and then on to Maywood to visit Cookies L.A. That’s the pot shop there. We’ve visited there before, and I was curious if the security guys there would remember us. And as it turned out, they did remember us. We also passed the Southland Box Company. I always think there should be thousands of cats meowing all around the box factory.

We tried a new coffee shop today. I got a flat right when we got there, so all I did there was sit on the patio and fix my tire. But after that, we saw that there is a new deli in the storefront that used to be Chango Coffee. We may try it the next time we’re over there.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s ride was another urban ride through Los Angeles. The two sightseeing points were related to Nat King Cole. The first was his former house in Hancock Park. Apparently, he was the first black homeowner in that neighborhood. The second sight was the post office nearby in Koreatown that was named for Nat King Cole.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Yesterday, I took Lucinda on the Dearly Departed Black Dahlia tour. When we were at their office before the tour, I saw a little display case with a small box in it. A sign said it was a portion of the remains of Ken Weatherwax, who played Pugsley Addams. It also said that the rest of his remains are at Pierce Brothers Valhalla in North Hollywood. And so that’s how I decided where we were going today.

It was kind of chilly this morning, but it was supposed to warm up, so I went with shorts, and just added one layer of bubble wrap as a blanket to stay warm. We rode out by the usual route to get to Burbank, where we stopped to see the F-104-on-a-stick in the park there. Then we continued on to NoHo and Valhalla. I’d used the Google Maps aerial photos to know where the small mausoleum was, so we were able to locate his space pretty quickly. Then we went and took a few minutes to see the Portal of the Folded Wings.

We stopped for snacks at Priscilla’s, and then headed home by way of Griffith Park and the L.A. River bike path. Along the way back, we lost track of one rider, so I rode back a couple miles to look for him. But he seemed to have disappeared. Maybe he took a different route home.

49 miles.

It finally didn’t rain today, so we went for a bike ride. The route was to Glendora and back. The plan was to bail out and take the train back if it did decide to rain. But as it turned out, it didn’t rain, and we were able to ride the whole route. And on the way back, we got to see the charred remains of a half-built house that we’ve been passing for several years, and that just burned a few days ago.

37 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was Laurel and Hardy theme. The plan was to ride to North Hollywood to visit Ollie’s grave, and then to Forest Lawn to see Stan.

Right at the start, we had a small problem. Turns out today was the Pasadena Half-Marathon, and the course was using the Colorado bridge that we were planning on crossing. So we had to take a detour around. Then we got back on track and rode to NoHo.

After visiting Ollie, we headed south to Priscilla’s for snacks and drinks. Then we continued on to Forest Lawn. Stan’s grave is in the Court of Liberty, which is all the way in the back, high up on the hill.

The route home went through Griffith Park, down the L.A. River a bit, and then home by way of Highland Park and South Pasadena.

47 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

The L.A. Times had a photo a few days ago of a float for the Rose Parade being built at Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale. I looked up where it was, and it turned out to be right near the Irwindale Metro Rail station. I also knew of another shop where they build floats in Irwindale, and I also looked up the location where the city of Sierra Madre builds their float. And then we had a theme for the ride. The plan was to ride out through Sierra Madre, and go to Classic Coffee in Glendora, and the come home by was of Irwindale.

At the Rose Float Barn in Sierra Madre, we got a chance to peek inside and see the float being decorated. The one float shop that I already knew about in Irwindale wasn’t much to see. There was an awning with nothing under it, and just a sign that the float they’d built was parked over in Pasadena to be decorated. But the scene at Fiesta Parade Floats was pretty good. They had 8 or 10 floats under construction inside, and the door was open so we could see them. There was a big crowd of people there to help, and there were pallets of flowers outside, ready to be put on the floats. There were even about five local news trucks there, which I thought was funny, since the only time I ever see that many news trucks in one place is at Caltech after an earthquake.

40 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was our annual “It’s a Wonderful Life”-themed ride. It’s a combination of celebrity grave and movie location tours. The first stop was at Forest Lawn in Glendale to see James Stewart, since he was the actor who brought George Bailey to life. Then we went for snacks at Paradise Bakery in Glendale. The final stop was to see the house that was used for the Martini family home in Bailey Park. The brief scene of them moving into their new house was the only scene in the movie that was filmed on location. Finally, on the way back, we rode over Devil’s Gate Dam to have a look at how L.A. County is trying to dig out the sediment that has collected behind the dam.

39 miles.

Route map and elevation profilue

This past week, I saw an article in the L.A. Times about how a neighborhood group in Koreatown wanted the L.A. Unified school district to paint over a mural on the wall of the RFK Community School. The mural depicted Ava Gardner and some palm trees, with a red and blue sunburst background. Apparently, they thought the sunburst pattern looked too much like the Japanese battle flag. Granted, Japan has a history of using Korea as their punching bag, and they have been behind a lot of bad things happening to Korea, but this seems like a bit of a stretch. But in any event, I thought we should go see it.

The route went through downtown and past USC. On the way into downtown, we stopped to see an AIDS memorial in the park just outside downtown. After passing USC, we headed north to Koreatown. We stopped to see the mural, and the for bagels at Noah’s in Larchmont. Then home by way of Chinatown and the Arroyo Seco bike trail. And just to top it all off, we saw the two-legged dogs again. It’s been several years since we first saw them, and if I didn’t have pictures from the first time, I’d think that they were just part of a weird fever dream. But we saw them again today.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Today’s bike ride was a trip to Downey to visit the oldest operating McDonald’s, and the to the Columbia Space Center museum to see the boilerplate model of the Apollo Command Module on display outside. We stopped for snacks at 3rd Street Coffee, and then came home by way of the Rio Hondo bike trail.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile