Saving gas, Women and Biking forum and a new mural

I've been commuting using Doomer instead of the car whenever possible and had to take a look at how often I'd been filling the gas tank and it looks like it's about once every 2 months.
Once my weekly infusions are completed, I can use even less because that's about the only use the cars gets: driving to the infusions. I debated riding the bike to the hospital's infusion center, but they load me with a bag of liquid Benadryl and I'm rather loopy for the rest of the day if not comatose. Riding a bike under the influence of Benadryl is not a good idea.

A Bendryl moment.

I've been out on the bike to pick up tags in the Tag-O-Rama game both with and without Marko:

 

One morning, MaryG of Coffeeneuring and Errandonnee fame announced on Facebook that she and EdF would be doing a flèche on tandem and the start point would be Pittsburgh, THE Point,  They'd be leaving just as I'd normally be rolling through the Point on my way to work.
I waited, but I missed them: as is usually the case, 'cyclist time' and actual time didn't agree. They left about 20 minutes beyond their optimal and I had to get to work.
I can't say I blame them; it was a cold and wet morning. Yuck.

Waiting at the Point

Saturday was the Women and Biking Forum presented by Bike Pittsburgh. I chatted with Tricia and SarahP at my table. I attended the advocacy seminar where local neighborhood bike/ped committee organizers talked about the work they do and how to start one in your neighborhood or town. I've wanted to attend some of the meetings held in the neighborhoods I live and commute in and I hope this spurs me to finally get out to one.
I learned Negley Ave is slated to have a bike lane bestowed upon it. I was asked not to release images of the plans. Super top secret stuff n'at.

The second series of seminars was a difficult choice: 'Bike Maintenence II', 'Errands by Bike' or 'BikePacking'.
I chose BikePacking for two reasons: A: Marko's been pestering me to try bike camping and B: I wanted to meet Aryn the presenter whose blog I've been following while she traveled alone for the past year all over North America.
I'm not a camper. I'm not a fan of bugs and dirt and I understand there's a lot of that involved in camping when I harken back to my childhood memories of camping with my parents.
For Marko to get me to even consider camping is a triumph in the relationship accommodation department.

I love her water bladder kept in then left front pannier with a tube up to the handlebars. The dynamo set up she has also has me leaning towards a generator. She's also had great success with the P-Style and I'm considering one of those too.

I won door prize socks!

Sunday we found ourselves just riding around.
 We rode over to the check out the new Baron Batch mural.

 

We met up with Yale and they stopped so I could climb down to see The Temple of the Dog along the shores of the Mon. Neat.

We slogged through the crowds for Opening Day.
This was the first Opening Day in 9 years that I hadn't attended. No bother, it was the coldest it had been in over a decade for Opening Day. They had to scrape ice and shovel snow off the field.