Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike ride was a trip to Griffith Park to see the George Harrison Tree. Then we did the ride over Mt Hollywood and then the other way through Griffith Park before coming home by way of Highland Park.

47 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Many years ago, I read once that McDonald’s has location in City of Industry that is never open. It’s just a studio where they film McDonald’s commercials. So that’s been on my sightseeing list for some time, and I recently found out where it is, so that was the destination for this week’s bike ride. This route is slightly longer than ones we usually do, but it’s also comparatively flat.

When we got there, it was closed up, complete with a sign announcing that it was “Not Open To The Public”. It’s pretty big, which I guess may have to do with the logistics of lights and cameras and so forth involved in filming things. And I thought it was funny that they had a smaller golden arches sign on wheels, so they can move the outside sign around.

On the way back, we stopped off for snacks and drinks at Panera in West Covina.

48 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was a trip to Maywood to visit the big Cookies L.A. pot shop there. We’ve been there a few times before, and it’s also a chance to see how the construction of the new 6th St bridge is coming, and also to see the hog mural on the Farmer John packing plant in Vernon.

We rode our usual route into downtown L.A., and then south on Santa Fe St through the Arts District to get to Vernon. When we got to the pot shop, the security guys in the parking lot remembered us. I guess they don’t get many bike club groups who ride there from any distance away.

After leaving Maywood, we headed over to Hill Ave and then back into downtown. Then we went out 7th St to Bonnie Brae, and then took that up into Echo Park. We stopped for a moment to see the sort-of-famous old neon sign at the House of Spirits. We stopped for snacks and drinks at Valerie Confections in Echo Park. It’s a pretty nice place, although we still miss Chango Coffee.

Our route home went up through Highland Park and South Pasadena.

45 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

A bit over a year ago, we rode out to Studio City to see the “Brady Bunch” house. It was only seen as the exterior shot in the TV show, and none of the actual filming took place there. But HGTV bought it last year, with the intention of remodeling to make the inside of the house match the ‘inside the house’ sets that used to exist on a soundstage somewhere. So now the remodel is done, and the TV show is scheduled to show, starting tomorrow. So today’s ride was another visit to see the house.

We rode out to Burbank first, then made a loop and headed south to Studio City. Sadly, the house still had the construction fence around it. I guess maybe that’s because they want to keep it under wraps until the show airs. Still, we were able to see several obvious differences compared to the house as it looked last year.

We stopped for drinks and snacks at Sweet Salt in Toluca Lake. Then we rode home by way of Griffith Park and Highland Park.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Since this year is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, today’s ride was to see a bit of aerospace and space program history. The goal was Exposition Park to see the DC-8, F-104, F/A-18, and the space shuttle external fuel tank on display at the science museum.

The ride downtown is pleasant, with 14 miles of gentle downhill. We tried an experiment this time and tried taking Figueroa south through downtown, rather than Spring St. But it turned out that Figueroa turns into one-way northbound at 3rd St, so we ended up having to turn off and take Flower St.

We paused a few minutes at the park to look at the exhibits. Then we continued west on Exposition. That was where we saw the signs for Obama Boulevard. After that, we turned north to our snack stop at Noah’s Bagels in Larchmont Village. While we were sitting there, we saw a Jeep go by with a man, and with his dog wearing a big hat and sitting next to him. I guess with a big enough hat, nobody knows you’re a dog.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Today’s bike club ride was a visit to Downey to see the oldest McDonald’s, and also a bit of history from the Apollo Program. The Apollo Command and Service Modules were build by North American Aviation at their big plant in Downey. The land the plant was on is now a mix of shopping centers, some park space, a hospital, and various other things.

On the way there, we stopped to see the oldest operating McDonald’s, and the Apollo Center shopping center next door. When we go to the Columbia Space Center museum, we saw the boilerplate command module model on display outside. Then we headed over to our snack stop at 3rd St Coffee in Downey.

This was a pleasant and also very flat ride.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Today’s bike ride was a visit to Hollywood for the latest Ciclavia. We rode the whole route and then took a short side trip in West Hollywood to see Dicks Street. On the way back, we stopped to see the Porn Walk of Fame outside the former Pussycat Theater, as well as the Chandelier Tree. Then we went for drinks at La Colombe ty the Los Angeles River. While we were there, I got a message from Megan and Scotty asking me to ride back a bit to meet them and fix a tire. That added about four miles to my total for the day.

50 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Today was a day involving a lot of subways. First, we rode the subway to Brooklyn to go to the Transit Museum, which tells the history of the subway system in New York. I’ve been there before, but only in 1985. The exhibits include lots of old trains, and even some so old that they were in regular service the last time I went to the museum.

We stopped in at the Transit Museum gift shop. I got an antique metal strap from a retired subway car. And also a hat and shirt with the number “1″. I’ve long said that the IRT number1 train is my spirit animal.

Then we rode the Q train back to Manhattan. We rode it all the way to the end of the line. This was largely because the last three stations on the line are new, part of the Second Avenue Subway. This is the newest subway line, and I had to see it, since I can still remember everyone talking about how it was the Next Big Thing, and how it was Coming Real Soon. And that was when I was in high school in 1976. But they finally got some of it built and running. Riding it was like seeing a unicorn in the wild.

Today was a big walking tour around Manhattan to see the two big things we wanted to see. Kathleen wanted to go to the Met, and I wanted to go to the Natural History Museum. The Hall of Dinosaurs there was one of my most favorite things when I was a kid.

At the Met, we saw the “Camp” exhibit, which was very entertaining. Then we walked across Central Park, stopping for lunch at the boathouse for lunch. At the NHM, we saw the two big dinosaur halls, and also the special T-Rex exhibit, where we got to see the new vision of T-Rex with feathers.

All around, it was a fun day.

Today’s adventure was to play tourist in Lower Manhattan. We started with dim sum in Chinatown, which was good. After that, we walked a bit to get to the Tenement Museum. We took the “Hard Times” tour, which was recommended as a good overview of the sorts of experiences and problems that recent immigrants had to deal with. And seeing the tiny apartments inside the building – yikes.

After the tenement tour, we went to the Eldrige Street Synagogue. This dates back to around the same era as the Tenement Museum. And we never knew that there was a large Jewish settlement in northern China in the late 19th century, populated largely by Russian Jews.

After the museum tours, we walked back to the World Trade Center and took the ferry back across the Hudson to Hoboken.