Forever 21

30 Days of Biking Mileage Counter: 440.2

Day 21 of #30daysofbiking started out kinda awful but ended much better.

On what should be my last day covering the North Philly/Suburbs route full-time, the ride to work today was absolutely brutal. Driving rain and wind made my 3-mile trek to Center City quite arduous. Thankfully, the first portion of the route is the suburb portion, so I was able to dry off in a ZipCar for an hour or so.

By the time I got back to West Philly, the rain and wind had subsided enough to make riding somewhat pleasant, actually. It was just the right temperature that the average ride between laundry plants didn't cause me to break a sweat. Soon after, that would change, as I hiked all the way up to Wissahickon Ave. for one drop-off, then back down to Temple for another:

Apparently Temple is up, not down, according to this sign. Whatever.

The ride didn't end there, as I finished off with a leg eastward to Northern Liberties. While there, I noticed a familiar, beautiful smell emanating from somewhere in the Schmidt Commons. I used to live a few blocks from here and generally abhor the kind of crowd that frequents this area, but following the scent and seeing this made me excited:

Too bad this blog doesn't have smell-o-vision

The scent was hops and/or malt, in case you didn't guess by the picture. That's the site of the future Urban Village Brewing Company, one of more than 12 breweries or distilleries opening in Philly in 2017. I should invest in craft beer. I think it might take off or something.

One final spur up in Francisville and the route was complete, leaving only a ride home with a brief stop at the office for my planned biking adventures today. Ordinarily, getting off the bike permanently for the day by 12:30 would be blasphemous to me, but I had other things to do, namely a return to my bi-monthly gig at Blue Lizard Vineyard:

The music is actually real. The guitarist is fake

Believe me, I tried to figure out a way that I could ride a bike to this thing, but with more than 100 pounds of sensitive electronic gear in tow and some rough terrain, there was just no way with the time restrictions. 20ish miles would have to suffice for today, but that's nothing to sniff at.

Side note/shameless plug: you can book me to play at your venue, birthday party, bar mitzvah, briss, or more. Click here!

21 down and sadly only 9 more to go. I've got a busy non-biking weekend in store, but you can bet I'll be on the road. Ride on!