American River Sacramento

Another day to ride the American River in Sacramento. The day turned out to be windy and I was a bit run down from the previous day. I spent the day sight seeing via bike. Old town, Discovery Park. The Capital; what beautiful ground this is on!

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The Forbidden Drive in Wissahickon Valley

I landed in Philadelphia with an entire afternoon to explore. I found myself in Wissahickon Valley Park riding my bike on the "Forbidden Drive." The ride wanders through a valley once described by Edgar Allen Poe as such beauty that "every bard in England" would want to come to see if they knew about it. The ride from downtown covered 26 miles round trip.





An interesting side note was the Pennsylvania primary was in progress and man the town was full of activity!

27 miles on 13hours at LAX

LAX – Los Angeles

April 16th in LA was a nice sunny day for a ride! Temperatures in the 60’s with winds of about 10 mph out of west were the conditions. I rode from the hotel on the LAX strip around the north side of the airport (Westchester Blvd) to the beach. From there rode 11 miles further on the Marvin Braude bike trail taking me about 10 miles further, all the way to Torrance. Along the way I past El Segundo, which I think consists of nothing but power plants one after another. Then came the real beach communities; Hermosa, Manhattan, and Redondo Beaches. I think it was Manhattan Beach where the most spectacular houses were. One that stood out was all glass with a shiny chromed Harley in the living room! There several others that I swore I'd seen in movies! The bike trail actually goes through a parking garage on the south end of the Redondo Beach Marina! The beach activity didn’t really take off until I was returning. On the way back I observed a wave kayaker, kite surfer both preparing to enter the water, a number of surfers that were not out earlier. I also noted a hang glider port, I think in El Segundo but no hang gliders. My seat nearly fell off as I was approaching the hotel. I did not have an Allen wrench with me to secure the seat to the post. I’ll be doing some tool shopping this week. Total: 27 miles

22 Miles on 25 hours in SFO

SFO - San Francisco,
April 16th was a cold and windy day in SFO! Did a short bike ride to BART Millbrae then took BART to the Embarcadero. From there Rode up The Embarcadero drive to the Wharf, then continued through to the Marina district marina. I ran out of time and had to return to meet a friend downtown. The wind was in my face gusting up to 30 mph, air temp in the 50’s. The return ride would have been real fast if it had not been for all the stop lights! Total: 13 cold mixed up miles

SFO part 2
The next morning I had a few hours before pickup and with the wind down to a normal level I did an exploratory ride through Hillsbourgh in search of a trail that I was on about 15 years ago that follows Crystal lake – I think. This ride (Skyfarm Road) was also short but difficult as it was a steep uphill ride on my little 5 speed. Total: 9 miles

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A Day in San Diego on a Bike - 30 miles

Arriving in San Diego at 2pm with no time to waste! Set up the bike, on with the bike gear and off I was heading from downtown towards Pt Loma. Riding down Harbor Drive I stumbled, or more appropriately "rolled" across a Lamborghini car show. I mean this was literally taking place right on the bike trail! After gawking a for a few minutes I was off again to my first destination; Cabrillo National Monument. What a gorgeous day! A friendly passerby shot a quick picture of me, then I was off again.. Oops, they cut off the top of the lighthouse in the picture. Oh well, I can rarely see what is on that cheap phone camera screen either! Off to OB (Ocean Beach) for a check of the surf... It was blown out, but there were plenty of dogs at.. Dog Beach. Then on to PB (Pacific Beach) to visit a friend. Direct shot back to hotel through Old Town. Man that food at Cafe Coyote smelled good - but the wait was too long! Had to get back for an early flight out. 30 mile ride.

Biking in Tucson

The bike (Dahon Curve SL)

A 20 hour layover in Tucson gave ample opportunity on March 29th 2008 to get a glimpse of Tucson via bike. After talking with a very helpful man via telephone from Tucson Bicycles, who briefed me on riding in Tucson, I headed out for a 5 hours ride. The weather was great topping out at about 83 degrees! 33 miles of cycling on my folding bike allowed me to see the Aviation Way bike trail, the Sidewinder Bridge; crosses a major downtown artory and makes a funny sound when entering, hippy like historic 4th Avenue, a 7 miles stretch of the River trail; a dry river bed on this day, Trader Joes, then get re-hydrated at the Nimbus Brewery.

Yes, I made a quick stop at Trader Joes, where the river intersects North Campbell Avenue, for a snack. At the end of the ride I rested at the Nimbus Brewery which is hidden from customers in a warehouse within an industrial district 5 miles south and east of town. Great beer! Service was pretty good, the bar food was not bad either.

Nimbus Brewery

My only regret this day was leaving my bike shorts at the hotel! Oh well, they were getting old anyway!

Next Week: a day in San Diego!

Snakes, Cars, Alligators, or Golf Balls? (run)

The golfer screamed, "I could have killed you!" as I ran past on a golf cart road shortly after his tee off. All I could think about was the killer sidewalk, or the Snake and Alligator filled canal (take your pick) so my response could be nothing less than "It was your golf ball, a car hit, or tumble into a deadly canal!"

It all started out one cool Miami afternoon at a new hotel that I had not previously stayed in. I wanted to go for a run and when I looked out my 8th floor window immediately below me was a canal with a path along it. On the other side of the canal stretching out in front of me laid a not bad looking golf course nestled within a rectangular area that was al least 2 miles in diameter. And was it going to rain? These are things that a runner might think about when going out for an hour run. As I studied the sky I concluded that these were not rain clouds above eastern Miami. Now, where to run to? Do I go around the golf course, or through it? Or, maybe I could take that path along the canal, which looks tempting! The hotel receptionist discouraged me from running the canal, but then she also was concerned that I might get rained on. What does she know? I am a professional pilot, I know what rain clouds look like... She is probably wrong about the snakes too! So off I went along the canal for a hour long run. About 20 yards down the canal path I all but ran into a sign. The sign read, "Poisonous snakes AND alligators present, for your safety please stay away from the rocks!" I thought about this as I continued running down the path, a block pathway that was sloping teasingly towards the rocks - the ones with the alligators and snakes in them. I come upon another snake sign! I decided, "There might be some actual truth to this snake and alligator thing." At this point I made a command decision and headed for option #2; running around the golf course on the street.

No sooner did I get to the sidewalk did I come upon an automobile rear bumper. Up ahead lay several hubcaps, an abandoned shopping cart, broken glass and a sign post chopped off so that if I was to fall at the right time I might be permanently impaled amongst the auto paraphernalia. After safely passing these obsacles I came to the corner, when I arrived there in place of where the sidewalk should be was a lake! Yes, a small lake, and the only way around this lake was to go out into the intersection which was quite busy with vehicular traffic. The golf course is suddenly looking like a great place to run! I turned around and ran 1/2 mile back to the golf course entrance.

There were not many people golfing in the middle of the day so it looked like I had finally made a good choice in places to run. A great choice! No snake or alligator signs present here! After about 15 minutes of golf course running I approached a threesome of golfers teeing off. I considered that I should keep my eyes on the golfer at "bat", and it was a good thing I did, 'cause when he hit the ball he sliced it and it whistled as it whizzed over my head by about 15'. He was apparently embarrassed and needed someone to lay blame. The golfer looked at me running by watching and screamed... you know the rest~