This ride was the result of a need to find some peace during a chaotic time for me. I decided that NYE in NYC would be a bit overstimulating for me. Luckily I had an alternative venue with much to offer, including a marriage proposal by a good friend to a great woman, so I hatched a plan to make it happen.

The Plan:

1.Take the SARS Express from Chinatown to Baltimore.

2.Ride my bike through the city into the countryside.

It’s not a complex plan, but it took some doing. Most of all it took getting out of bed at 7am on a Saturday to make the trek to the bus. I love the Chinatown bus companies. Where Greyhound insists that the bike be put in a box and only loaded and unloaded at stations with “baggage” service, Chinatown companies don’t give a damn if you’re loading livestock into the baggage compartment, so long as you have the $20 for the ticket.

The second biggest obstacle was getting from the Baltimore Travel Plaza, which is on the Southeast side of the city to the Northwest side of the city where I could head into the countryside for some better riding. Needless to say, I saw some of the best industrial sections of urban riding that Baltimore has to offer. The ride was somewhat unremarkable, but there were a few highlights ie. poaching the Clifton Park Golf Course and rocking The Alameda north toward Towson.

I finally got a disposable camera as I got to the Northwest corner of the city at a 7-11 across the street from this joint.

From there it was up Falls Road to Greenspring Valley Rd. to McDonogh Rd., which was just gorgeous and where I actually saw another rider on this final day of 2006.

Next was Painters Mill Rd. where I turned around to go back down a hill to take this shot in front of the 1813 house.

From here on in, it was sweet riding and goofy picture taking.

The party was, of course, a raucous affair, complete with:

and

Miles – 40ish

Beers – 40ish

Happy New Year.

If you’re into that sort of thing.

The photographer calls this ‘Dutch Wheelchair’.

This is either great social commentary on the healthy benefits of a biking populace, or a picture of Floyd Landis from the future.

Courtesy of streetsblog