When Worlds Collide

I was reminded on Friday that even though this city seems so small at times, it is quite the large animal.

I've worked part-time at Blue Ridge Communications TV-13 for the last couple years covering sports and other live events which take us all over Northeast PA. This Friday, we were scheduled to cover a rare game in Philly, Germantown to be exact. Exciting stuff, because it would give me an opportunity to ride my bike to TV-13 for the first time EVER, in an area of the city I know next to nothing about, other than when I pass through when the Turnpike is closed or something:

With an assist from SEPTA

North Philly gets a bit of a bad rap, and sometimes deservedly so, but I was pleasantly surprised to find ample bike lanes, like this one on Ogontz Ave:

Ogontz is fun to say.

Overall, lots of homes and nothing too crazy to write home about. It is pretty easy to get turned around if you're not paying attention. South, Center City and Lower North Philly is mostly grid work with very few diagonals. Everywhere else in the city, it's a bit of a crap shoot. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to consult the map a few times. There's also the slight annoyance of repeated road names with different suffixes (Walnut Lane instead of Walnut Street, Rittenhouse Street instead of Rittenhouse Square, etc.). Then, there are the unique street names that I didn't know existed:

Or 'Gansett for short...

I'm also not ashamed to admit that I enjoy a Narragansett from time to time. Anyway, all told, with taking the train and biking parts of the way, it still took me an hour to get to the field from my house. According to GoogleMaps, it would have taken 45 minutes by car with traffic. So, it was worth it, and so was this view:

This was the last game of the season. There's a metaphor here somewhere...

The trip home was uneventful, which I'm very thankful for, as it was the first time I biked at night in the city since my crash (still working on the Thank You entry, BTW).

A nice little work-related excursion away from my day-to-day routine. Today, I may venture back out to West Philly to check out the Earthship build site. We'll see...

You CAN get There From Here

I was riding near the intersection of Broad and Cecil B. Moore after just completing a delivery to The Rad Dish (see what they did there?), a student-run co-op at Temple University, when a woman called over to me.

Because "Wide Street" just sounds weird.

Excuse me," she asked, "can you tell me if the streets go up this way?" as she pointed east.

A very ambiguous question for sure, but I knew what she meant. In what was a perfectly wasted opportunity for sarcasm, I instead opted for the truth. I said, "This is Broad Street. There is no 14th Street. 13th Street is that way, 15th Street is this way," as I pointed in the appropriate directions.

She said "Thank you so much," and walked away. I didn't think much of it, other than that "pat myself on the back" feeling we all love to have from time to time.

But then I thought, this was sort of bizarre. For one, how did she end up smack dab in the middle of North Philly without seeing which way the streets are laid out, or without seeing a map of some sort (they're all over the subways and busses)? And, with so many people owning GPS devices, Smartphones with GoogleMaps, Waze and other direction-related apps, it's not often that people ask for directions these days. Even rarer are people who can give accurate directions. Some people have absolutely no sense of direction, which I now realize could have been the reason for this encounter.

In any case, I liked giving her directions. Made me feel important. Hah.

I'm Back

I'm back! For now.

The Worksman, finally back in order on a Summer-like Autumn Tuesday

I wrote a little over a month ago that I needed a bit of a hiatus, mostly to get some things in order in my life. Let's just say, I've had mixed results. I also didn't have internet for the last half of October, but that's another story.

I found a place to live. I moved successfully (with the help of friends, family, and roommates, of course). I also crashed my bike a week before and busted up my face a bit and am still recovering from the effects. One day soon (as in, after my teeth are put back together), I will write a retrospective, if for no other reason than to thank everyone who helped me get my smile back. But, as there is still work to be done, that will wait...

- - - - -

I returned to Wash Cycle on Monday for the first time in over a week. Thankfully, my first day back was rather uneventful and laid back. There were plenty of well wishes, such as "I'm glad you're OK," "I feel you, man..." and "Wow. You recovered pretty fast." My trike that had been injured in a crash several months ago was also fixed while I was out (see above), so that was a nice bonus too. Anywho...

Tuesday, I was on my way to deliver Outward Bound when the trike got stuck in a roadside ditch (again, you can see above, but that was taken after the fact). I'm sure I would have gotten it un-stuck myself, but there was a gentleman sitting nearby on a picnic table who came over to help. Goes to show ya, there are a lot of good people out there.

Wednesday, I made my first visit back to the office. Again, many more well wishes and one person even commented "I can't believe you were willing to get right back on the bike." Well I mean, what did you expect me to do? Haha...

But seriously, looking at it from an outsider's perspective, I can understand why you might think I would be gun shy. In fact, I haven't ridden my personal bike since my crash, so I actually AM a little hesitant. While on the job, not so much. There's something so inherently neat about what I do that I sorely missed in my time off. I guess when your house is full of boxes, you're bound to go a little crazy regardless, but nevertheless, I also missed being out on the bike.

Why? Because of the stories above and the day I've had so far today. A friend once said to me, "You're really connected to your environment as a cyclist. You can't tune it out like you do when you drive a car." She's right. And I love that.

I love to ride through the neighborhoods, a cool, misty breeze on my face, saying "Hi" to passersby, listening to the chorus of 50 school children as a school bus passes, sharing a 10-second exchange with the PWD, and of course, responding to strange questions from onlookers like "You delivering beer in that thing?" Just an average Thursday...

Cycling has become a part of who I am, much like this blog, and it's good to be back to both. Happy Thursday.

Nice Rack: 4th & Cross

I'm still taking a hiatus of sorts, but I figured I could take 2 minutes to post this one...

There's a neat little place not far from my house called Fourth & Cross (guess where it's located?) that serves a pretty awesome menu, locally-sourced and organic if at all possible. I got stood up on a brunch date on Sunday, but despite being annoyed by that, I stayed for a meal. Her loss.

I also saw this when I was leaving:

Obviously it's been worn from use:

But even so, it's nice to see a business embrace the bicycling culture. I support this use of branding. The lettering kinda reminds me of Knoebels' hand-painted signs, if you've ever been there.

Happy Trails

It's been a few days since I've posted. I'll explain why in a bit. Meanwhile...

One day, I'm going to complete the D&L trail. I know it's something that could be completed in less than a day, but since I don't live close by, I'm going to have to piecemeal it together.

Last weekend, I knocked out another small section with my Dad (thanks for letting me borrow your bike while mine was being fixed yet again). The section between Slatington & Palmerton is a nice, gentle, mostly flat ride that takes less than an hour round trip. I did the upper part of it back in April plus a few small detours.

Anywho, not much to report on this section really, other than the Slatington Airport:

I swear I've never once seen a plane take off or land from this airport in all the years I lived there. It's gotta be a front.

There's also this ancient water tower that sits unused, unrestored and yet, is still standing for some reason:

Biggest thing I noticed: no graffiti either.

It's always nice to get outside the city and onto a trail for a change. It's always nice to experience different things, especially since my schedule has gotten crazily busy the last few weeks, which brings me back to the beginning of this post.

I love writing this blog, sharing my experiences and of course, living them. However, without going into too much detail, my personal and professional life has gotten very complicated recently, and over the next month or so, I'm probably not going to be blogging much, if at all. At least, not while I'm working on sorting this stuff out. Even writing a short post that takes up 10 minutes seems daunting at times with so much on my plate.

It's nothing serious, and I know this blog is nothing serious either, but as I've built a somewhat loyal following, I felt I owed it to you - the readers - to let you know what's going on. The biggest thing I have to take care of is finding a new place to live in Philly. So, if you can help with that, let me know. If not, I'll see you on the other side.

I'll be back to normal before I know it, so stick around. Thanks for reading as always, and happy trails!

Movin' Awn Up...

As I've mentioned before, this city is rapidly changing, and I see it every day right in front of my face. Case in point, last Friday morning I was riding up to the laundromat when I noticed the newly-adorned facade (it wasn't entirely a surprise, as I saw the guys measuring for it the day before):

Because "Illuminati Coin Wash" would have been too obvious.

From a strictly graphic design standpoint, I hate the color scheme. We all know what black and blue together implies. But, it's an improvement nonetheless. Of course, the place looks way better than it did back in April, before we opened to the general public.

Big picture-wise, I remember driving through this neighborhood when I first started volunteering at SHI back in January 2014. It looks nothing like that today (sorry, no pictures to prove it, but trust me). Gone are many of the vacant buildings that marred the landscape, and in their place are a garden (behind the laundromat) and an open triangular lot that seems ripe for development into a small park. We've also created half a dozen new jobs (gotta start small, right?). It gives credence to this mosaic half-wall just up the street:

It's not a Great Wall, but it's decent.

It reads "Ridge on the Rise" in the middle of the sun. At least in the area around the laundromat, it's true. There's still a lot of work to be done...

Rustcycles: Pennsylvania & Spring Garden

It's been a while since I featured one of these.

I'm surprised they haven't removed this one with the Pope visiting next weekend. It's most definitely within the "Black Zone." I guess there's still time...

Rustcycles is a series of abandoned bicycles and locks I've stumbled upon throughout Philadelphia.