Stan’s Obligatory Blog

I don’t always go on the Foothill Saturday rides, but I generally make a point of going when they’re doing one of my routes. And since today is in fact September 11, it seemed appropriate to do the ride that visits two 9/11 memorials in the Los Angeles area.

The first is in Rosemead, and it’s one I found through Roadside Americal. It’s thousands of little stainless steel doves, one for each person who died in the attacks, all welded together to form pair of hands, holding a bent steel girder from the World Trade Center towers. It’s simple and elegant.

From there, we rode west into the city, going through East L.A. and downtown, and then up through Echo Park to get to just outside Dodger Stadium, which is where the fire department training center is. The gates there are usually locked on weekends, but they had them open today, and there were some firefighters there to answer questions about the memorial there. It’s a part of the steel exterior structure of the lobby level of the South Tower.

After that, we rode through Chinatown and stopped for drinks and snacks at Chimney Coffee.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride is one we haven’t done since 2014. In the Palms section of west L.A., there is an apartment building called “Crapi Apartments”. It’s a real place. The first time I saw a photo of it, I thought it was a Photoshop gag, but it’s real. So we went to see it today. It was a relatively long ride for us, but it’s quite flat. The day started out cold-ish. It was cold enough that when I saw a shopping bag full of takeout container trash, I tore one side off the bag and stuffed under my jersey. And then I wasn’t cold any more. And by the time we were headed home, it was pretty warm, so it was a good day for riding.

52 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

It’s the Sunday before Christmas, which means it’s time for the Christmas-themed ride. The main theme is “It’s a Wonderful Life”, with a visit to James Stewart at Forest Lawn in Glendale, and then passing by the Martini family home in the movie, which was the only scene that was shot on location. And along the way, we also passed by the house used as Clark Griswold’s boss, Frank Shirley’s house in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”. We also saw that there are still a few of the signs from the “Word on the Street” art project up in parks in Glendale.

The day started out cold, but it warmed up fast, and it turned into a very nice day.

37 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike ride was a visit to Vincent Lugo Park in San Gabriel. This is the park with the sea monsters playground. And after that, we rode to Whittier Narrows, where there are some more sea monster sculptures made by the same artist. The ones at Whittier Narrows are mostly decorative, while the ones at Vincent Lugo have slides and other play elements built in.

41 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride is one we haven’t done in several years. It’s a visit to Orion Ave in Van Nuys, also known as the “Leave it to Beaver” street, and it’s reputed to be the most-filmed street in Los Angeles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3DLxGQVv_0

53 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was the Airplane ride. A quick trip to Burbank to see the F-104-on-a-stick in the park on Olive Ave, and then to the airplane topiary at the entrance to Burbank Airport. It was a perfect day for riding.

On the way out, we stopped briefly at South Hills Church to contribute some food items to their Little Free Pantry. When we got to Priscilla’s, all the tables were taken. As I said, it was a perfect day outside. So we went across the street and sat in the shade over there. That was the fist time I’d noticed the utility box there painted with the cute pictures of dogs with rockets strapped to their backs.

All in all, it was a good day for riding.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today is the Sunday before Halloween, so it’s time for the annual Halloween ride to Culver City to visit Bela Lugosi’s grave. We’ve been doing this since 2007. The route has evolved over the years, but it always comes in at about 55 miles. This time, we had a couple of flats on the way back, and the little cafe we usually stop at has apparently closed permanently. But it was a nice cool day, so we still had a nice time.

56 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

This week, I was watching “Young Frankenstein” for the first time in a long while, so this Sunday’s bike club ride was yet another celebrity grave tour, this time to see Marty Feldman at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. It was a perfect day for riding. Cool in the morning, and no smoke from the fires this week.

We rode out through South Pasadena and Highland Park. There is still a closed section of the L.A. River bike path, so we had to take a short detour. But we finally made it to Forest Lawn and rode up the hill to Marty Feldman’s grave. The Findagrave app on the iPhone made finding it pretty easy.

After Forest Lawn, we rode over to Priscilla’s for drinks and snacks. That was where I saw the Hello Kitty donut tattoo. That made my day.

So, overall, it was a fun day.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

This week’s bike club ride was a visit to two different 9/11 memorials in the L.A. area. We were supposed to do this ride last week, but the ride was canceled due to smoke from the Bobcat Fire.

The first memorial is in the city of Rosemead:

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/51182

From there, we headed to downtown L.A. and then out to near MacArthur Park before turning north to Echo Park. Along the way, we passed Angelino Heights, which is yet another place we’ve visited on the Sunday bike ride. The 9/11 memorial is at the L.A. Fire Department training center near Dodger Stadium:

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/35370

Our snack and drink stop was at Chimney Coffee House, just outside downtown L.A. It was a pretty nice place.

41 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

This week’s bike club ride was a visit to Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier to see Eric “Eazy-E” Wright. We’ve been there before, but the last time was pretty grim. It was a brutally hot day, and really uncomfortable for riding. Today looked to be much better.

When we got to the cemetery, it was again a pretty hard climb up the hill. I guess they called it Rose Hills for a reason. But we got up there, and we saw that Eazy-E has a new and much nicer marker now. Photos, a record, and notes that he was “The Godfather of Gangsta Rap”. He certainly made a mark on the world. And the empty beer cans showed that he still gets a fair number of visitors.

On the way home, we stopped for snacks at Merengue in Monrovia, which is always good.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile