Archive for April, 2010

April Wrap Up: Bonus Dogs

We’ve enjoyed out visit with our good friends at the secret lair, but its almost time for Holly and Daisy to say goodbye to Lola, Bruno, Mong, and Rita and make their way to their new adventure on the East Coast.

Here’s a bonus picture taken by Rita. I think she managed to get the dogs to stay like that for exactly 1/60 of a second.

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April 30: back to the River

I thought I was done riding along the river when I left Long Beach. However the Angeles Crest highway is being repaired indefinitely and I need hills and interesting scenery so I decided to ride in Griffith Park. Getting to Griffith means riding along the river so here I am back along the concrete waterway.

I’m not sure i even remember what a sand banked river looks like anymore, but this one will always feel a little like home to me.

The last time I rode this stretch of the river, the bike path was closed about halfway between downtown and the park, so I was stoked when I hopped on it and found that it had been extended all the way to Riverside drive. There’s not much I like more than smooth new asphalt and no traffic.

As this blog grows I’ve started to see some comment spam. In addition to the standard spam buster stuff, I’ve also started moderating comments so if you haven’t left a comment before it may take a litle while fo ryour first one to show up. Once you’ve had a comment approved al of your future comments will post automatically.

If you sign your name as “Cheap sneakers” or “Free music downloads” you won’t be approved.

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April 28: Sick Day Flowers

I’ve got some kind of a bug today so I’m just going to post these and go back to bed.

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April 28: Getting Away With It

Maybe it stems back to my youth when a bike meant unsupervised adventure, when the world was as big as I could ride in a day. It didn’t matter what the plan was. It didn’t matter where I wanted to go – I wanted to go everywhere.

I smile when I ride in the sun, I smile when I ride in the rain, I smile when I’m grinding up a big hill, and grin like a maniac when I’m flying down the other side. I smile when I think about the world getting bigger every day. I smile when I sit at the table and begin to plot a course up the Pacific Coast Highway for the first leg of the year.

The journey starts seven weeks from today, and I can’t stop smiling.

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April 27: Not in Service

You’ll have to wait for another one. This one won’t take you where you need to go.

April 26: Travel Town

Since the mountain has been closed for repairs, I’ve been riding back over in Griffith Park again. (This train is in the Travel Town Museum in the park) Only 7 more weeks until I get going. I still have to  get the dogs to South Carolina, finish the site, get the rest of my gear, save some money, and put a bunch of miles on my bike. I really need to step it up this week.

April 25: Cole’s vs Philippe

There are two big names in the French Dipped Sandwich world in downtown LA: Coles Pacific Electric Buffet, and Philippe the original. Located about a mile apart, both have been around for more than a hundred years, and both of them claim to have invented the French Dip. It’s a fun rivalry, and mutually beneficial. Anyone who eats at one of the two is practically obligated to try the other one, and it is virtually impossible for an article or documentary segment to mention one without mentioning their “rival” in the same piece.

In truth the two couldn’t be more different.

Cole’s was remodeled a few years ago and Cedd Moses 213 group kept it as close to the original as possible even installing “Varnish” a not-so-secret speakeasy in a backroom of the house. The place is super hip and in addition to their sandwiches, offers classic cocktails, a hip vibe, and the kind of service you can expect in places where the bartender is cooler than you.

At Philippe, customers stand in long lines to order, and then take their trays and go sit at even longer community tables. The crowd is more mixed here with families, blue collar workers, lawyers and tourists all crowding together eating their sandwiches and drinking ice cold soda, or beer.

If the two restaurants were actually rivals and really tried to compete, it would take something away from each of them, and neither would be as good as they are under the current arrangement. Each place has their own clientele, their own vibe – even the way the two kitchens make their sandwiches is completely different.

The rivalry is an invention that helps market both places while letting them remain true to themselves. The competition is fun and lighthearted, but each restaurant remembers that being first and being original are two different things. After a hundred years, no one much cares who made the first French Dip. Whether a person is a fan Cole’s or Philippe, what keeps the customers coming back is the same for both places – they are both originals.

What I’ve learned is that someone somewhere will always be faster, better, stronger, cleverer, better looking, or richer than you, but they can never be you. The only person you are really competing with is yourself. Oh, and that while you have to wait for Coles to open at 11:30, you can get an ice cold Heineken with your breakfast at Philippe starting at 6:00am.

April 24: Fortune Cookies

I don’t believe in ghosts and superstitions and I sure don’t think that a mass produced prophecy stuffed into a dessert can really foretell my future, but you’ve gotta like any meal that finishes with good news wrapped up in a cookie.

April 23: Brown Dog Yellow Dog

April 22: Freeway | Eagle Rock, CA

April 21: Goodbye Bike

I sold Cameron for six hundred dollars to a woman on the internet who didn’t even know how to change gears. She showed up after dark wearing a business suit and heels hurrying over from her downtown office hoping to make it before some other Craigslist stalker stole ‘her’ bike. She was tall and skinny and said she had been taking a spinning class for a while and really wanted a bike and is already signed up for two triathlons this year and just wants to find the right bike and this one is really nice and it’s an Ultegra drive train? Wow, it’s light too and I could put that right in the back of my car. So I adjusted the seat and she sat on the bike in the yellow glow of the light on the front porch and she listened while I told her to take it easy when she was starting out because the bike is a bit fast and she needs to learn to control it, but she wasn’t really listening. In her mind it was already next week and she was off on a ride over in Brentwood meeting the gang for coffee at Pete’s.

I asked her if she had friends who ride. “No.” She said. Most of my friends don’t really do anything. I told her she was about to have new friends and she smiled. I showed her how to use the presta valves and put air in the tires and since I just got a new high pressure portable pump for the touring rig, I gave her my old floor pump.

She carried the bike over her shoulder down to her car, proudly managing the steps and the dark in her heels. I carried the pump and opened the gate. She put down the seats in her white Mercedes SUV and set the bike inside.

“Promise me you’ll ride it. Promise you’ll ride it a lot.” I said as she counted off six hundred dollars in twenties.

She smiled and nodded while counting. Her phone rang as she got into her little truck. “Yeah! I got it!” she said to someone on the other end. “It’s gonna be perfect!”

And  I thought about my two thousand plus miles of perfect.

Two thousand miles of fast

Two thousand miles of quick

Two thousand miles of life’s grand adventure

Two thousand miles of slick

Two thousand miles of the beach and the city

Two thousand miles of clean roads and gritty

Two thousand miles of big spinning gears

Two thousand miles of breakfast and beer

Two thousand miles of no good reason why

Two thousand miles of “I think I can fly”.

Two thousand miles of laughing with friends

Two thousand miles of “F*ck! Will this hill ever end?”

Two thousand miles of nothing is wrong.

Six hundred dollars and gone.

Back at the secret lair, I stood on the back porch and looked at the new rig. “Big Jim the Savior of all Mankind” I call him. Though he’ll answer to “Jimmy” or “James” or “You big heavy piece of shit” Thousands upon thousands of miles of untraveled roads lie ahead of us. He’s not as fast as Cameron, or as flashy. He is strong and steady and like all new bikes has given me yet another new perspective on the world around me. “You don’t always need to be so fast”, says Big Jim, “You just have to keep going.”

If there is something out there that makes your heart sing, something that fills you with joy and the feeling that the world is a wide open adventure where anything is possible – you should do that thing.

April 20: Beyond the Bell

Jazz Guitarist and Tonight Show Band Leader Kevin Eubanks (seated at Piano) teaches students  Jazz improvisation techniques at Washington Prep High School in Los Angeles. LAUSD’s Beyond the bell program partners with the Thelonious Monk Institute of jazz to produce quality jazz instruction for students throughout Los Angeles.

8miles of hills to gt to Angeles crest hwy and I’m ready to start my climb up Mt Wilson.

First run up Mt Wilson, we’ll see how far I get.