Expo Line

I got a really early start this morning because I wanted to ride the Black Pearl to the Metro station, and ended up riding around and didn't get on the Green Line until the first stop, Lakewood Blvd, instead of the terminus in Norwalk. Green Line to Blue Line to Light Blue Expo Line. I actually went ahead and took the Metro all the way to the 7th St station (northern terminus), then doubled back on the Expo Line. The two lines share a track from the 7th St Metro station downtown to the Pico (Staples Center) stop, then the Expo Line heads down Flower until it reaches Exposition Blvd, where it heads west to Culver City. I only rode as far as Exposition Park this time.

Got off the Metro and walked across the street to the Park, where I learned they don't like bicycles in the rose garden. :-Þ~~~ Walked the bike back out to the perimeter sidewalk and headed east to Figueroa and rode down to the parking lot entrance on the south side of the museums. I stopped to take a photo of the A-12 Blackbird on display, then continued westerly past the Science Center and the north wall of the Colisseum. Up the western perimeter sidewalk and east along the south face of the Natural History Museum to a construction site, then around to the east, and far prettier, face of the Natural History Museum. A little more riding around the perimeter of the rose garden, a brief conversation with a staff member, then back to the Metro. This time I just rode the train back to the Staples stop to pick up the southbound Blue Line to the Green Line, and then the Green Line all the way to the eastern terminus.

And back home again.

The Black Pearl at the north gate of Exposition Park:

An interesting building or two at some college or other across the street from Exposition Park:

 The fountain in the middle of the rose garden, from the north:

The LA Memorial Colisseum, from the Figueroa entry:

I hate lawns. They're a awful waste of land, water, and labor. I'm sure they could find something more practical to plant here.
The A-12 Blackbird:

The ugly south facade of the Natural History Museum and a bit of the construction site I mentioned:

The Black Pearl at the western edge of the Rose Garden:

Then turn around and walk the Black Pearl across the sidewalk to the far more beautiful eastern facade of the Natural History Museum:

Then turn again to face the south:

and Endeavour's "temporary" home. They'll house her here for about eight years while the old aviation museum building is torn down and a new one built. I don't envy them getting her into this spot, and can't imagine how many cranes it'll take to get her there without tearing out all the trees on the south lawn (the lawn you can see a part of in the pic of the south face of the NHM).

The only rose I photographed, because it was so close to the perimeter walks (in this case, the ramp you can see behind the Black Pearl in the photo of the rose garden from the east facade of NHM).

The north face of the Science Center building:

It's the building in the background behind the fountain.

From the Metro train, a view of the Watts Line of the Pacific Electric:

There really is a railroad right-of-way behind the two walkers on the platform. This right-of-way eventually ended up in downtown Santa Ana. Only one segment, in Bellflower, is currently a Multi-Use Path.

La Mirada historical marker:

A flower of a type I've never seen before:

This was in Norwalk on the Foster Greenway MUP, and actually on the outbound leg of the trip today, not on the homeward leg.

CicLAvia 120415

Today was CicLAvia, a closed-streets ride through parts of downtown Los Angeles. I actually drove to the Metro Green Line station in Norwalk, rather than riding, and I'm glad I did. The hills weren't that high, but they were long! I transferred to the Blue Line for the ride to the Washington Blvd station, and rode the three blocks or so to the Central Av hub.

 My first stop was the African American Firefighters Museum, one of two all-Black fire stations in LA. It's beautifully restored and obviously lovingly maintained.

 An old fire wagon.

 One of the two poles from the living quarters to the truck bay.

 Another shot of the fire wagon.

 The front.

A bad shot of Steamship Coca-Cola, a Streamline Moderne bottling plant that's been there since the first time Streamline Moderne was popular.

 Old sign.

 One of the oldest buildings downtown.

 This building was once home to the Pacific Electric.

 City Hall.

 The LA River, looking seaward from the 4th St bridge.

 I rode right past it the first time, and finally found someone who knew where to look. The little red thing on the street sign is the Rising Sun flag (I've actually seen a rosy-fingered dawn like that which the Japanese flag was based on!).

The Challenger Memorial in Little Tokyo, with the Black Pearl in front and City Hall behind.

 It's hard to see in this shot, but this is just one of the many old buildings in LA with interesting facades.

 MacArthur Park.

 Another interesting building in LA.

 A Korean Presbyterian synagogue. No, really! The Jewish congregation which built this outgrew it, built another sanctuary, and sold this one to a Korean Presbyterian congregation. I didn't get any good shots of the facade, but there are quite a few distinctly Jewish elements still there. One example is the 10 Commandments tablet, the light-colored element above the blue Korean sign.

End of the ride. This is the Black Pearl at Steamship Coca-Cola. This is the opposite end of the building from where I started my ride.

Happy Valentine's Day!

On Sunday, I rode The Black Pearl from Maxwell Park in Anaheim to the Norwalk Green Line Metro station. Took the Green Line to the Blue Line to the Red Line to the North Hollywood station (where the Red Line ends). Rode the Black Pearl on the Chandler Blvd bike trail to Buena Vista St (about a mile farther than I should have gone!) and then up to Empire St and back to Hollywood Way, to the Marriott across from Burbank airport. All to have David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser autograph two of my Starsky and Hutch DVD sets. And to see, up close, one of the two cars which played the role of Starsky's Torino. Took a picture of The Black Pearl and the car as soon as I arrived, and immediately posted to Facebook. Took some pictures with my camera. Paid the fee, went inside, found the table where DS and PMG (and also Antonio Fargas, who played Huggy Bear, but I didn't get to see him because he was on lunch break), had them sign the DVD boxes (DS on the Season Three box and PMG on the Season 4 box), bought PMG's book Chrystallia, went outside and took some more pictures of the car, with and without the bike. They even had the jacket Hutch wore and the sweater Starsky wore in the pilot (and other episodes).

Headed back down Hollywood Way to the Chandler Bike Trail to the Metro Station. Took the Red Line back downtown, and got on the Blue Line. We got as far as Florence Ave, where we had to stop because there was an accident farther down the line. So I took The Black Pearl for another ride, east on Florence to Alameda, then down Alameda to Imperial Hwy, and east to Long Beach Blvd, where I could get on the Green Line again.

Somewhere along Alameda (or maybe Long Beach Blvd), I hit a nasty bump, heard a metallic crash, but kept on riding, thinking I'd probably hit something metallic, since there are a lot of junkyards along both of those streets. Didn't stop.

It was my camera.

Lost the pictures I took in Santa Ana last weekend at a Queen Anne Victorian that was home (and office) to one of the first women doctors in Orange County. And all the pictures I took Sunday. I'm bummed.

Endings and Beginnings

My last bike ride of 2011 was last Monday. I'm headed out soon for the first ride of 2012.

1961/1981

January 2011

33.704 walking miles. 6.18 elliptical miles. 38.64 cycling miles. 78.524 total miles.

On the latest journey through Middle Earth: 88 miles past Rivendell on the road to Lothlorien.

100 Days Challenge, Weeks 3 & 4

Week 3: 170 minutes, 7.18 miles
Week 4: 200 minutes, 8.151 miles

The first 28 days: 860 minutes (20 minutes' surplus), 38.38 miles of walking/trotting and elliptical.

100 Days Challenge, Week 2

Second seven days: 4 days walking on the treadmill, 6.696 miles, 160 minutes; 2 days using the elliptical at the gym, 6.18 miles, 90 minutes; one rest day. 250 minutes of intentional movement.

100 Days Challenge, Week 1

First 7 days: 10.173 miles walking on the treadmill, 240 minutes.

It's Been A While

I've really been lackadaisical about posting to either of my blogs since becoming so involved in Facebook--and I'm not even playing any games there! I'm planning, this year, to be more consistent about posting to my blogs. I do know that some time during 2010 I managed to complete the mileage for The Hobbit. The source material for the distances does not include the estimated mileage for Bilbo's return to The Shire, so I just did it as an "out and back" with the same distance for the "back" as for the "out."

When I was looking over my 2010 mileage, before I realized how far I'd gone, I decided to repeat the LOTR mileage, but this time selecting a path from Rauros and following that one through to the end, and returning to The Shire without regard for which group I was with when I left Rauros. Then I'll start over again from The Shire and join a different group at Rauros, and on and on until I've done the whole trip with all the groups. This differs from my original journey in that the first time, I accompanied a group from Rauros as far as Minas Tirith, where I teleported myself back to Rauros to join another group, until I'd traveled to Minas Tirith with all of them, and then returned to The Shire. I'm starting 2011 somewhere between Rivendell and Lothlorien, on the first of the new LOTR journeys.

I've also joined the 100-Day Challenge, wherein you commit to 30 minutes daily of intentional movement. My very dear friend Melissa turned me on to this one, and she and I talked about the nature of the challenge and how to deal with rest days in a challenge like this. She's decided, and I agree, that committing to 210 minutes per week is the best way to go. That averages to 30 minutes per day and leaves room for rest days.

My mileages for 2010 are pretty pathetic:
Walking (mostly treadmill, but also what turned out to be the last Surf City 5K): 121.32
Ellipticals at the gym: 29.3
Cycling (all outdoors in 2010): 1720.13
Total: 1870.562
Trips to the gym generally included the strength-training circuit.

I'm Still Here

Just not being very conscientious about blogging.

Hate to Do This...

…but I've been getting spam comments to this blog, so I've reset the comments options to include word verification.

There And Back Again

It's been a month since my last post here, and even longer since my last Rivendell update. Well, I've not only returned to Bag End, I've gone to the Grey Havens to see Gandalf, Bilbo, and Frodo off with the elves and gone back to Bag End with Sam! And am now on my way to the Lonely Mountain with Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves. And have gone over 7,000 miles!! Total miles so far: 7042.573. A combination of walking, riding both stationary and outdoor bicycles, and ellipticals. A YMCA membership that I used in 3 different Y facilities (my home Y was Lakewood, but I also used Van Nuys and Fullerton), a hotel fitness room, a cruise-ship fitness room, and my home 24-hour Fitness. Plus a couple of home treadmills and some charity events both walking and riding.

Quite the Difference

The Y is a quiet place, with no music being broadcast into all the rooms, whereas 24-Hour Fitness blasts the staff and customers with an obnoxiously loud sound system.

There are also 3 different kinds of ellipticals there, one of which is lower-body only, while one of the combined upper and lower machines could best be described as the bastard offspring of an elliptical and a stair-stepper. On the more traditional machine, the rise is higher and the stroke shorter than the LifeFitness machines at the Y, so these are going to take some adjustment. I'm also seriously missing the fans that help keep the cardio rooms cooled down at the Y.

Ever since I got the bike(s), I don't spend much time on stationary bikes, but they do have both the upright and recumbant styles

Four TVs in the section of the cardio area where the ellipticals and bikes are located, one on some morning talk show, one on ESPN, one on Faux News, and one on some game show; I didn't pay any attention to what the TVs in the other section (treadmills and traditional stair-steppers) were showing. The TVs gave me something to look at besides the panel on the machines while I was listening to my music.

I did it.

I discontinued my membership at the Y and joined 24-Hour Fitness. I needed a gym with more hours available, and the Y couldn't provide that. I have an appointment with a trainer on the 24th to learn how to set up their strength-training machines.

Whittier Greenway Ride

Last Sunday, instead of putting my Caps-hockeyfied bike helmet on and riding over to Anaheim Ice to watch the Ducks open training camp, I rode up to Whittier to their nearly new (opened last year) Whittier Greenway multi-use trail. This is an out-of-service rail right-of-way (IIRC, it was purchased from the Union Pacific) which has been paved and planted for use as a pedestrian-cycling-equestrian trail, and runs from just shy of the San Gabriel River Trail on the northwest end to just shy of La Mirada Blvd on the southeast end. There are hopes and plans to try to complete the connection to SGRT (that stretch of land is currently privately owned) and south-eastward into Orange County (that would just rock!).

Here's Orion at the beginning of the trail, on Pioneer Blvd just a little south of Beverly Blvd.

Commemorating the Salt Lake Route, near the old citrus warehouses.
Orion at the far end, at Mills just off of Lambert.

More Ride Pictures

Posted in a Picasa album.

Fun Day Today

Well, kinda. And kinda not fun at all. Parked the van at Maxwell Park in Anaheim and rode Orion down Magnolia to Warner, then Warner to PCH, and then up PCH into Seal Beach. Stopped to refuel a bit (I'd ridden that bowl of cereal away completely), then went out Marina Av over to Alamitos Bay to the farmers' market there. Very pleasant so far, and even saved a wallet from who knows what when I picked it up off a bus bench and turned it over to the first LEOs I saw (actually the second ones; the first two were on the other side of the road, headed in the opposite direction from me). Stocked up on some stuff at the farmers' market, then headed over to the San Gabriel River Trail.

And hit my heel on the grocery pannier so hard that I knocked one of the pannier's hooks off the rear rack, and it crashed into the wheel, breaking a spoke in the process.

So I limped it back to Maxwell Park, and headed over to a bike shop in Fullerton. Where it'll be ready by Wednesday close-of-business, but I won't be able to get back over there until Sunday. So Radagast the Beige-and-Black will be getting some attention this week.

And I'm now about 20 miles from Bag End.

Puzzling

After I posted the update on my Walk to Rivendell mileage I went over to the Eowyn Challenge page to update my shields and to get the distances for The Hobbit. I decided to go ahead and do the Grey Havens leg of LOTR after I get back to Bag End. But when I went to the section for The Hobbit, I learned that they have the Bag End to Rivendell and the Rivendell to the Lonely Mountain distances posted, but nothing for the return to Bag End! Somehow I don't think Bilbo retraced his exact steps. Wonder what my chances are of hunting down a copy of the Fonstad book.

Rivendell!

Wow! Some time during the month of July I made it back to Rivendell! Next stop: home at Bag End, just 198.307 miles away. Last week I also registered for the Surf City 5K, which will be February 7, 2010.

San Diego Rides

I have an album showing most of the few pictures I took while visiting San Diego last weekend.

Last Week's Rides

Just the usual jaunt down the SGRT from Rynerson Park in Lakewood to Seal Beach. The Falls of the San Gabriel River, this time at or very near high tide. The concrete river bed is about 10 miles long, and this point is about 3 miles or so from the beach.
A white pelican near the Falls.
A sign in Seal Beach at Marina and Pacific Coast Hwy:
Later on, probably tomorrow, I'll post some pictures from last weekend's trip to San Diego.

Alameda

By the time I got to Alameda, there wasn't much time left for a ride before the stitching get-together, but I did get to see a few things of interest. Like this tattered but interesting looking house about a block away from where the GTG (Get ToGether) was held:
Then I started to ride past it and saw the doors:
They don't seem to be using it for anything right now, but like Anaheim (which is at least using theirs for a museum), Alameda has a Carnegie Library building:
And a dyslexic lane marker:
And apparently just one park:
But a charming little cottage complex with an irrestible-to-me name:
The view through the gates:
And a 13th Commandment at the Episcopal Church:
Finally, here's Orion at the beach in Alameda:
I want to go back. I want to see more. And not just of Alameda, but of Santa Clara and San Jose, too. It's so very, very bike-friendly up there!! What's the weather like in December? The Caps have a West Coast road trip which has them at the Shark Tank on December 30.

More Pictures!

They have directional signs up telling you how to get to the Columbia Memorial Space Center, but the facility still wasn't open a week ago when I last rode by there. I'm beginning to think they're never going to open it.
Many many years ago I worked for what was then known as Union Oil Company of California. I saw this plane over near the West Imperial terminal on my ride last weekend:
Next rest stop: Tokyo. The end of Imperial Highway:
And this bridge crosses Torrance Blvd not far from where I work: