PittsburghLand and Serenity on a Bike

I set out early and was on my way for a day without any agenda. I was just riding aimlessly.

A domestic goose has taken up with the Canada geese.

Bathrooms still closed at the Millvale trailhead. Booo.

Stopped for air at BikePGH!

In Lawrenceville, I stopped at LaGourmandine. I love that place. I got a raspberry tart and an apricot croissant to snack on throughout the day.

Rode up through Allegheny Cemetery and admired the shark headstone again.

 I thought it would be a good idea to find out where the WheelMill is because I want to take the Fundamentals of City Cycling class with Karen Brooks sometime soon.

Dodged potholes and other interesting things in the road.

I stumbled on the Cheryls at Friendship and Negley!

I found Serenity on my bike.

In addition to Serenity, I also eventually found The WheelMill after getting lost in East Liberty a few times. Not really a big deal, this is how I learn routes, getting slightly off track and re-orienting myself.

Am I going the right way?

Had lunch at Amazing Cafe: miso soup and a clean-green juice

I headed out to the Waterfront, used the facilities and got some cold Mitchell's water. On the way back, I ran into Marko who was meeting Yale to ride around aimlessly too! Wow, 3 people aimlessly wandering meet up and wander aimlessly together!

Marko clued me into a Tag-O-Rama tag and we all claimed a group tag!

Yale threw out some ideas of places to ride to and when he mentioned RandyLand, I got excited, I'd heard about it, but hadn't yet trekked over there. Yale took us on a tour of the North Side Millionaire's Row and the place of the Immaculate Reception.

Then, we hit RandyLand. Wow.

I need to return and deposit one of my negative thoughts

He also took us by a new Little Free Library and the owner just happened to pull up as we were admiring it. Excellent guy.

I was promised to Hubby for dinner and they were kind enough to keep me company on my way there, I offered to treat them both to dinner, Marko had to depart (but not before trying to entice my spouse into a life of cycling), but Yale took me up on the offer and the three of us had an Indian buffet dinner in Oakland. Yale noted how many bikes were locked up outside the restaurant.  We had no room to lock up and were forced to hitch our steeds across the street. It's a cyclist hotspot.
Hubby departed in the car and then the skies opened up on the way back to base, which Yale escorted me back to. I had to don the raincape.

A great day, 55.3 miles.

Downhill both ways and BYOTP

I had the entire day to myself, I wrenched it from the clutches of Hubby. He wanted to do stuff that involved dragging me around and I fought hard and won. Victory!

I planned for a long (well, long for me) trip on the GAP. I packed snacks and sammiches: swiss, pickles and mustard on whole wheat and chocolate, peanut butter and banana on whole wheat. The latter would have been better on white bread, frankly.

Set out early, parked at the Pump House and was underway before 9AM.

 I was in McKeesport before too long.

Can't stop here. This is Dead Man country!

Birds: a saw either a bluebird or an indigo bunting. I couldn't tell and nearly crashed craning my neck to get a better view. Gorgeous creature.

I stopped in Dravo and lurked around the cemetery. This is my favorite headstone. Consort. I know that must have been controversial back then!

I tried my hand at getting the pump to work. It wasn't very cooperative.

Then a group of cyclists stopped and they seemed to be getting water out of it.

I went over to observe and see what the trick to getting water to come up was... and in the group was my favorite bike mechanic from Thick. We said our hellos and they liked my Black Flag tee shirt and loved the Errandonee and Coffeneuring patches and I think I convinced them to try this fall's challenges.


Things I saw along the way:

Waterfalls

Horses

Ideas for future trips.

West Newton MADE!

I love Pittsburghese n'at!

I figured West Newton was 25 miles from the Pump House. A round trip would have put me at 50 miles for the day. A new record! I turned around and my energy levels stayed great most of the day until I hit Duquesne on the way back. Ugh, suddenly...so tired. There was no where to sit... so I just drank, ate a pear and stood still in the shade for a bit. I was able to carry on normally after that.

BYOTP

I was thankful for all the restrooms and portable johns, even the one at a housing project in McKeesport with a fresh memorial to someone shot(?) there.
Many didn't have toilet paper. I'm known to have some in my bag, and I was grateful to have it.

Downhill both ways

The entire way out to West Newton, I kept saying to myself: "Geez, this looks entirely downhill, this will be harder and take longer to get back up to Homestead."
Yet, on the way back, I said to myself: "Whoa, this looks and feels downhill too! How can that be?"

Could the planets aligned perfectly to not only give me excellent weather, no wind, but shift the axis of the planet as well to grant me: Downhill, both ways?
Huh. That four-leafed clover I found yesterday had extra special powers.

Gypsy Moth Caterpillars

I rested in the grass near aptly named Buena Vista and had a lovely view

While I attempted to snooze in the grass, I noted that things from the trees above me kept falling on me. I assumed they were leaves. Um, no. Gypsy moth caterpillars!

These things are everywhere. I can't help but have the squished guts of hundreds of them mashed in the treads of my tires and the fenders are caked with carcasses. Gross. They make a horrible popping noise too. *shudder*

40 miles in and I decided to do some flower-picking for Ruby.

After 40 miles, neither of us was fresh as a daisy. She was coated in a layer of dust and I was sweaty, dusty, sun-burned and covered in bug guts too.

51.7 miles today. 




...and now for a bit of all-in-good-fun snarky competitiveness:

Yesterday's National Bike Challenge standings. Welcome to the top 30!

Today's top 30. HA!

"Be safe out there." and the final Soupaneuring

Thursday, 1/9/13 I learned that my personal trainer/massage therapist is moving out of state. This disturbs me greatly. I think I've employed her for 4 years now. We've been through a lot: once, my knee dislocated during one of our sessions. She knows exactly how my piriformis and IT band needs to be massaged on my angry leg. I've tried other massage therapists, but they didn't have her expertise or willingness to bring me to tears and wince in agony with that 'hurt so good' sort of pain.



On Friday I had enough time before work to ride into the Strip for produce and such. The trails were still crap and I took streets the entire route. I stopped at PennMac and a baby Swiss caught my eye. I never seem to be there at the right time to be called "Dearheart" by Carol. It's frustrating. I've lived here for a quarter century, and have not yet had this honor.

Someday, Carol. Someday

I had a young woman with a funky hairstyle wait on me instead. As she handed me the cheese, she told me "Be safe out there." This was the best sendoff I could have asked for. I still had my blinking helmet on and I was hi-vized out the wazoo. It was rather evident that safety was a concern of mine. Was she a cyclist too?


On my lunch hour, the ride was much more pleasant. The trails had almost no ice on them and cyclists, joggers and walkers were out in droves as if it were Spring! The rapidly increasing temperatures were melting everything.

I'm messing with Photoshop's Panorama Merge and compiled this shot from several taken on the Fort Pitt Bridge.

I should try this again then the skies aren't so gloomy.

While I was up in the bridge taking those shots, I noticed Yale C riding down at the Point and waved a hello at him when I passed by.

The wild swing in weather also meant that my joints were going to become angry. Sure enough, by dinnertime I was tempted to dig out some ibuprofen but chose to use more natural methods of dealing with the pain: soaking them in alcohol. I chose a cabernet.

Saturday January 11th

I was able to work from home with a borrowed laptop this morning. Working in my jammies with the distractions of a dog on my lap and the other two dogs continually giving me a toy to throw/fetch is a much better work environment.

Afterwards, a ride in the rain was in order. I had several stops to make, I wanted to check out some bags at the Downtown Army/Navy store, but they didn't have what I was looking for. On to lunch at Smallman Street Deli for the final trip in the Soupaneuring Challenge. I was glad to learn the matzo ball broth was MSG-free!

While I ate, the rain started letting up. I traveled down to Lotus and picked up some much-needed soy sauce and then over to another market where I found organic kale and some parsley. The kale wouldn't fit in my basket without poking out like a giant green floral arrangement. Several other shoppers commented on my cape and helmet. It's apparent that I'm quite the freakshow. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On my way back through downtown, they were dis-assembling the Horne's Christmas tree. Yes, I'm always going to call it the Horne's tree even though Horne's hasn't occupied that building in well over a decade.

When I got home, a delivery of ski-goggles was waiting for me. I saw so many other cyclists wearing them at Icycle Bicycle and had S's glowing endorsement of them. I was tired of my glasses fogging up in the cold when I wore a gaiter. I managed to score an insanely cheap eBay find and figured what the heck. I think I'm going to like these.

2014 YTD Miles: 81.5
BMI: 25.3

"Metal? ICK! Ahhh" and CLINT HURDLE!

I had some maintenance I needed to do, there was a horrid cringe-inducing metal-on-metal scraping noise whenever I tried to use my rear brakes. Off to the interwebs to learn how to fix this issue. I find YouTube invaluable for this stuff: things I've never done before. I was able to learn from such videos the finesse required to remove and reattach a chain link with a breaker tool and changing the flapper valves in our toilets.

I spent a good week or so using only my front brakes but decided this was the day I needed to carve out a few minutes of my lunch hour to take the brakepads off and clean them. My hands got all icky and black from working in there.

Both rear breakpads had metal shards embedded in them.

 Ruby sounds soooo much better. I let out an audible "ahhhhh." when I re-installed the brakepads and tested them. I still have an annoying rubbing noise though.

My Dad would be proud.

A Brush with Greatness

Friday was frigid an snowy, schools and our office closed shop, but not before myself and another employee were already there and working. The two of us decided to stay and tough it out.

On my lunch hour, I went out into 11 degree temps, the trails were treacherous again so I used the salted and plowed roads. I got to PNC Park and my fingers were in a lot of pain, I was frustrated that I hadn't gotten very far before deciding to turn back.

Then I noticed Clint Hurdle walking up to the Pirates Office doors.  
Oh. Mah. Gawd.
I called out a "Good Morning, Sir!" to him and waved as I rode by. (DOH, it was early afternoon!!)
He called back, "How ya doin'? Love the helmet! Atta girl!"
Clearly, the "Atta girl!" was because he was in complete awe of my bad-assery.
I'm actually surprised he could tell I was a female under all those layers, gloves, gaiter, eye-protection, etc...


Oh, and I had the camera rolling too!





Go ahead and berate me for riding on the sidewalk. I'm naughty, I know.

Soupaneuring 6

 

When I got back to my desk, I enjoyed some homemade beet soup with yogurt. Not bad.

 I almost forgot to document it being so excited by the Clint Hurdle exchange!

2014 YTD Miles: 31.5
BMI: 25.3