She Took Him to the Lake

I haven't updated here in a bit, but I assure you I have been riding. There's just not much to write about when you bike laps around the same boring small town every day. At least the worst of Winter is hopefully over and my daily biking streak has somehow survived. Update over. Ha...

Spring is just a couple weeks away, but there have been plenty of relatively nice days to be outside over the last couple months. Despite the cold, I was able to take advantage of one of those days this past Saturday when my family visited my girlfriend's family near Cleveland. They were all busy working or crafting during the early part of the day, so I borrowed her sister's bike to take a brisk ride:

I had a chance to explore the area surrounding their home back in November, which did include the Liberty Row Oaks living monument seen above. I kept to many of the same trails I visited a few months back and ended up going a few steps further. In some cases, onto different terrain:

A local saw me snapping pics of the sign and asked why. My honest answer: it looks funny to me. I'm not sure why. In any case, I moved through that area to the Lake-to-Lakes, which leads to the urban Harrison Dillard Bikeway just east of Midtown Cleveland:

This trail eventually leads to the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway:

This was my intended destination, and I arrived there 8+ miles after departure in about 45 minutes. I assure you, I was not warm, even with appropriate attire. It was worth it for some unique Winter views:

I've been to Lake Erie probably a dozen times or so (which seems like a lot for a guy who grew up in Eastern PA), but I'd never seen it partially iced over. It was neat to see, but I didn't want to stay too long due to the biting cold wind - SINGLE DIGIT WIND CHILL FACTOR WOOHOO!

Anywho, I decided not to backtrack on the return trip, and instead took a detour thru some of the lesser traveled areas in Midtown Cleveland, full of blighted abandoned buildings like this one:

I have no idea why, but I find old buildings fascinating. In fact, I once did a blog series that largely centered around exploring these kinds of areas via bicycle. I kind miss it, to be honest. Perhaps a return is in order...

I paused briefly to get a cup of coffee and a snack at Cafe Phix Midtown (not pictured) which featured this Nice Rack outside:

 Hey, I used to do a blog series on those too.

Anywho...after that, I began the somewhat arduous return trek to Shaker Heights. The nice thing about riding towards the lake was that it was literally all downhill. The return trip was the opposite (of course), but I did luck out in that I received a boost from a pretty significant tail wind. I did feel like I could ride a little more after I got back, but it was nearing noon and the family would be gathering for lunch soon. This was the only major cycling adventure of the weekend, but the first of hopefully many to come this year.

Thanks again to Jackie for letting me borrow her bike again. It was really nice to escape riding around the same 4 trails for at least one morning...