Tagged: Boscos

Thursday’s ride

My people.  Yesterday was a really great day to ride a bike in Memphis; if you were out and about, you know what I mean.  I had a nice little ride on my bike, partially out of necessity.

A few nights ago someone backed into/sideswiped my car.  It was parked on the street in front of my house and sometime between when we went to bed and when my wife left for work in the morning, I got got.  The damage was enough to file an insurance claim, which necessitated me driving my wounded Honda to a body shop on Monroe near Sun Studios.

I arrived at the shop just before 5:00 PM and after dealing with the paperwork, headed off to my next stop: FedEXForum (h/t David).  I had a meeting with the good people from the Grizzlies foundation about their mentoring program.  Around 25 mentors from all walks of life in Memphis are assigned to groups of kids – three mentors for every nine kids – and talk to them weekly about important issues like health, fitness, and so on.  My colleague Julie – the current Director of the Center for Economic Education – and I met with the mentors to teach them a few fun, easy lessons on financial literacy which they will then teach to the kids.  Julie did most of the talking, but it was really good meeting and working with the mentors.  I even saw a few familiar faces.

After that ended, I biked to Boscos for my weekly beer and veggie burger facecram.  As usual, I ran into some friends and had a swell evening hanging out with them.  Then I biked home the long way, down Madison to McLean, then Young Avenue, then home.

One funny thing: look at the map of my day’s ride below.

Screen Shot 2012 01 06 at 10 43 49 AM

Notice anything strange?  Take a closer look at the last leg of my ride.

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Thanks, MotionX GPS for that vast overstatement of my cycling skills.  Really.  Here’s a picture from that segment of my ride.

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Hey, it was a clear night, right?

This week’s commutes

Hi everyone.  I had a good week on my bike, despite the arrival of cold weather and a bit of rain.  Actually, I should say that I had a good week on my bike because of the arrival of cold weather and a bit of rain, as this is my favorite time of the year to bike.  Most of this is due to the fact that autumn and winter, followed by spring, are my favorite seasons.  (Summer, not so much.)  I picked a really odd town to live in, for someone who loves fall so much, but the job take you where it takes you.  At least I don’t live in Phoenix.

Anyway, my week began with me driving.  (GASP!)  I know, I know … but I had to go to Target to buy Christmas presents for my two Salvation Army Angels, and considering that one of them, an eleven-year-old girl, wanted a bike for Christmas, there was no way I could haul a bike with my bike.  My panniers are roomy, but not that roomy.  Plus my other angel, a man in his 70s, wanted a George Foreman grill for Christmas.  While I am a vegetarian and have little use for such a device, by God, if a George Foreman grill he wants, a George Foreman grill he gets.  (Also, please ignore the fact that I bought a Target bike for someone.)  I also had a meeting that afternoon in North Memphis, and there was no place for me to change clothes at the meeting place.  Plus it was raining, so arriving in any decent condition would have been nearly impossible.  So I drove.

And since I’m feeling confessional here, I also drove on Friday.  I had to deliver the aforementioned presents to the Salvation Army’s warehouse on E. Raines Road, plus run about half a dozen other errands.  And I drove today, since it’s hard to carry 15 bags of composted manure for my garden in my panniers.

But Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I rode.  And loved it.  Tuesday was still rainy, but not as bad as Monday, and I acquired a lovely layer of road grime on my bike and legs as a result. Wednesday and Thursday were really nice: sunny and chilly, but not yet brutally cold.  I didn’t bother logging my route on Tuesday since I just biked to work and back, but Wednesday and Thursday I did.  Here’s what they looked like.

This is Wednesday’s ride.

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I started my day by biking to Otherlands for some coffee and a bagel.  After getting my caffeine on, I biked to campus via the Chickasaw Gardens route and got my work on.  At some point during the day I checked my RSS feeds (using the lovely NetNewsWire) and found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, the only cooking blog I read.  I texted my wife, who had planned to pick up Lenny’s for dinner, and told her I was cooking that night.  This necessitated a trip to Kroger, which explains the odd little spur into Poplar Plaza.  After leaving Kroger, I biked home, via Chickasaw Gardens, the Beltline community, and Tiger Lanes.  It was a great day.  Here’s a clickable map of my ride.

On Thursday I had even more biking adventures.  I needed to deliver some papers to the Memphis City School’s Teaching/Learning Academy at the corner of Union and Hollywood before I headed to campus, which meant biking on Union for a block or two during rush hour.  It wasn’t so bad; traffic was kind of light, and I made it in and out of the TLA with no problem. I then biked east, planning to again take the Chickasaw Gardens route to campus, but a train was crossing at Garden Lane, so I headed south on Flicker Street to Central, then south on Buntyn to Midland, then south on Goodwyn to Southern.  After teaching my three classes, I biked home, changed clothes, and headed to Boscos for a round (or two) of beers and dinner. My belly full and my week coming to an end, I biked home.

Here’s a map of Thursday’s ride.

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And here’s that clickable link.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my rides.  I plan to share some links with you all tomorrow.  In the meantime, stay warm and keep biking in Memphis.