Lite Therapy

After a couple somewhat frustrating days in the office where I literally spent all day solving computer-related problems (we don't need to go into any more detail than that), I decided at some point yesterday afternoon that I needed to spend some time with My Therapist.

The final push came from an email I received from GoPhillyGo, all about great Christmas lights displays. Their email included links to plan a trip to various display locations (including some that I'd visited a week ago on the Holiday Lights Ride). GoPhillyGo is a pretty neat little tool, allowing for trip planning across multiple modes of transportation (or multi-modal, if you want to sound cool). Though they inspired my destination choice, I chose to go solely by bike yesterday evening, approximately 10 miles all the way up to the great Northeast, Greeby Street to be exact.

Last nite was near perfect for riding, with temps in the 50's and very little wind. That doesn't mean the ride was without challenges. For one, I knew going out that I'd be forced to take two of my most hated roads in the city, Columbus Blvd. and Aramingo Ave. Both are 4 or 6 lane roads with unprotected bike lanes (which I've been talking about a lot lately) and also not buffered, so you're literally riding next to traffic that's going 35 MPH or more. Even with experience, proper lights, reflectors AND a bright orange bike, the whole experience was a little nerve wracking as it always tends to be. As you can imagine, I didn't stop to take pictures.

To make matters more challenging, litter and broken glass are common in areas where the industrial fallout has led to abandonment and dumping. There's an abundance of these along last night's route. I was regularly running over debris hoping that the popping sounds I heard were just rocks and etc. squirting out from under my tires. I had my tool kit handy of course, but this really wasn't an area I'd prefer to have to stop to fix a flat (I'm not sure I prefer to fix a flat anywhere, to be honest). Thankfully I escaped unscathed.

I've been everywhere in this city including the Northeast multiple times, but I'd never rode up there at night. Every place always looks and feels different under cover of darkness, and you're going to run over things and hit bumps even if you know where you're going. I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary, and I most likely won't do this route again unless I'm in broad daylight.

All this aside, once I made the final left onto Greeby Street, I was rewarded with an absolutely breathtaking sight, well worth the time and energy spent:

Literally every house on the block was decorated. The only blank spot you'll see is a tree obscuring a house on the far left:

Talk about Griswoldian light displays. This spans the entire block on both sides. Makes you wonder about their electric bills... Some came complete with holiday music. I should have taken a video. I can only imagine what this looked like under snow cover. I guess I'll have to come back (more on that later).

Of course, for almost every trip out, there needs to be a trip back (what goes up must come down or something). The ride back was a little less stressful. I opted to take Frankford Ave. against the advice of GoogleMaps, simply to lower the amount of turns I'd need to make, but also because I knew the terrain a little better.

Again, that doesn't mean it was easy. I had been out for about an hour and a half at this point and the wind had started to pick up. By the time I got back to Fishtown, I had this strange feeling like I was almost home. The reality is that I'd still only traveled 4 miles or so, with another 6 to go. Being that it was around 8:45 by now, I was understandably feeling a little gassed.

I took a brief pause to visit/pay homage to my former favorite bar at 3rd & Girard (I randomly popped up there a couple months ago too), which is currently being demolished. A sad sight for sure, but there's a metaphor here somewhere:

I'm sort of glad I moved out of this neighborhood when I did, even if I do miss the good old days. Anyway, I made it home safe and sound. The therapy session was quite successful, I'd say:

I found out AFTER I got home that there's another large light display not too far from where I was last night. I guess I'll have to go back soon if I can find some time...