Rustcycles: 10th & Cuthbert Streets

It almost feels like this could be a landmark. "Meet me at the Huffy."

...and then you realize the much more noticeable Chinatown arch is a half block away.

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

Don't Worry. Bike Happy.

It's been a relatively tame week for me as far as traffic incidents go. I guess it's because I switched to working in the mornings, and most of the traffic is outside of the city until about 8:30-9 anyway. I usually average one, maybe two honks from motorists outraged by my trailer blocking 1/4 of "their" lane.

Today, however, there must have been something in the coffee. I counted at least 6, including one that was totally unwarranted, as I was actually riding in the bike lane on 11th street. It was a couple driving a Land Rover with a New York plate. I'm not sure what rolling down your window to yell at me to "get off the road" accomplished other than allowing a cold wind to blow into your car. Well, I guess it also partially inspired this blog post...

My favorite, however, was the woman in a white Lexus that aggressively honked at me even though I was over as far as I possibly could go and left MORE than ample room for her to pass. When we got to the next intersection, I pulled over in the crosswalk to let her pass. She all but ran the stop sign and no more than 50 yards ahead was forced to slam on the brakes. Garbage truck. Ha!

It made me think of this quote from this fantastic article in Philly Weekly about the sometimes adverse relationship between cyclists and motorists:
"Don’t take it personally. Have you seen how drivers treat each other?” This is what I tell myself: I’ve made a choice to be on the bike because it’s the best place for me to be. So I just need to find the part of it that I enjoy… and try and have some sympathy."

I'm guilty of a little schadenfreude here, but I do enjoy biking, and not just because of incidents like this.

The Wake Up Guy

7:10 AM

I arrived for my first delivery of the morning, calling the customer as per usual to confirm they were present (because none of the doorbells in this city work).

The phone rang.

And rang.

And rang again.

Finally, there was an answer, a brief pause, and then a very labored "Hello?"

I could tell I had just woken her up. I felt kinda bad, but she WAS expecting us...

We've all seen ourselves, family, significant others (if you have one), roommates and friends first thing in the morning. But complete strangers? That's rare. It's...weird.

At any rate, she was happy when she came to the door (who doesn't love clean laundry being delivered first thing in the morning?), AND she was awake enough to tip. :D

Winding to a Halt

No "crazy" story this time, just a little appreciation.

So yesterday was supposed to be the "tough day" for biking because, despite the lackluster blizzard, the city was covered with slush. I did pick up a flat, but surprisingly, today was more difficult.

Bright, sunny skies in Winter also mean much colder temperatures, and fierce, biting winds. If you've never ridden a bike and been hit by a 40 MPH gust, trust me - it's not fun. Add a trailer full of laundry to the mix and things get interesting.

I was crossing the South St. bridge this morning when I was rudely greeted with one of said gusts, or so I thought. It pushed me back to a near halt, at which point I decided to "wait it out." I looked to my left:

As a small town boy, I can't believe I'm about to type this, but something about that skyline makes me feel "home."

Rustcycles: 12th & Spruce

All it needs is a new tire...bonus points for the communist Yoda on the City Paper dispenser.

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

Free Wheel Spirit

It's time to try something new in my ongoing quest to find creative outlets and/or means of expression. So, I present to you, this shiny new blog!

I started my first blog, "The Present is a Gift," a year and a half ago just as I was about to embark on a cross-country adventure to Oregon. Even after I returned home to PA, I kept the blog going. I still come up with new things I'd like to write about all the time.

The problem has been that while I get started on something, my schedule is so jam-packed these days with work AND extracurriculars that I would often leave blog posts unfinished, with the intent of returning to finish later.

Needless to say, I have about a half-dozen unpublished drafts that may never see the light of day. Obviously, I'm not getting out of it what I intended. If you enjoy it, don't worry. It's not going anywhere. I do intend to write more some day, but for now, I'm taking a break to pursue other creative ideas. Other, less cerebral ideas. So...

I've been working as a delivery cyclist at Wash Cycle Laundry since late October, and I encounter my fair share of ups, downs and straight up oddities. I've also been noticing a lot of abandoned bicycles and bike locks throughout the city. I wanted to do something with these and kind of let it evolve into its own thing, either as an art project or just for my own personal amusement.

It might be daily, it might not. I may post a story, a picture, or both, or none. Hah...so here it is. My free spirit on two wheels in the city of Philadelphia. Let's ride.