The View from Above

While waiting to see one of my docs at Charles River Plaza yesterday, who should come by but the Rolling Redsox Rally! Here are a few views from the 9th floor:
Not much detail, but you can sense some of the scope. Pretty cool.
Some of you who were there might even know which of the Sox were on this second one, but I only got the big picture, so to speak. So I call this photo "The Orange One."


BTW, riding my bike to the T at Alewife was definitely the way to go. The T garage was overfull, many roads were blocked off--even the T itself was so jammed that they let us on the trains for free because of the massive pileup at the Charlie Ticket machines. Nice gesture or just expediency? Does it even matter?

All around, a beautiful day for a parade.

Rolling Rally Rolls Right Over My Plans

So...I lined up two doctors' appointments back-to-back tomorrow at Mass General. Since I have to hike in from the 'burbs (time off work, traffic, etc), I try to be efficient. And then the mayor goes and announces that the Red Sox rolling rally will be tomorrow, exactly when I'm supposed to be on Cambridge St.

The mind mulls: Postpone the appointments? (It's not that easy to line up the schedule of two different offices.) Drive in and risk being barred from entering the streets I need to use? (Though they can't shut down the road in front of a big hospital, can they? Huh, huh?) Take the T down? (But by the time I need to leave for the T, parking will probably be long gone.)

I'm leaning toward biking to the T, like my hubby. You can always find a chainable location (unlike a car parking spot) and mash yourself onto a T car. It will take longer to ride to Alewife than drive, but will probably be better than trying to fight the traffic in the city itself. And if I get sweaty, I can bring an extra shirt to change into before my appointments.

Maybe I'll even get to see part of the rally between appointments (there's a little break in the middle). After all, it's Sox! In Duck Boats! What more could you want!

Hmmm...ride or cancel? I'm thinking those are my two best options right now. They posted the route on Boston.com, and it doesn't look promising for my usual drive in to MGH.

What to do, what to do?

Map courtesy of Boston.com

Darwinian Test on the Bike Path

Wednesday night, after a delicious meal with friends at Uncle Pete's--he has real Texas-style burnt ends now!!--our friend dropped my husband off in Arlington Heights. Jim had ridden his newer bike home earlier in the day after picking it up from Quad Cycles (broken spoke repair), so he'd left Frankenbike chained to a post. (Frankenbike is composed of many parts from two different bikes, hence the name.) It was about 9:30, and I expected him home in about 20 minutes.

Instead, he showed up almost a full hour later. I hadn't been too worried, since I knew he had his phone, but I was beginning to wonder. He finally came in at 10:30, so I asked where he'd been.

"I was leading some bikers down the Minuteman," he said.

"What?" I said, in my uniquely eloquent way.

"I was riding on the trail and nearly ran into two idiots who were stumbling around on the path with their bikes and no lights. They literally couldn't see the trail. So I offered to ride in front of them--slowly--so they could follow me to Lexington."

(If you've ever been on the Minuteman Trail, you might remember that it has no street--trail?--lamps and a lot of dense foliage surrounds it, which blocks out any ambient light as well.)

"But it was past 9:30--it's not like it JUST got dark--they had to know it would be too dark to ride without lights," I said.

"Whatever," he shrugged. "I guess I could have left them out there in the dark, but it wasn't safe. And going out on Mass Ave. without lights would probably be worse for them. As a driver, I don't like being on the road with bikers who don't know what they're doing."

That's what we call a "Darwinian Test" in our family--as in, these people should think twice before spawning.

Ah, what the hell--we all screw up sometimes. And at least I can say my nice-guy husband led two strangers to Lexington Town Center where they could safely walk their bikes the rest of the way. One day, he might need some help, too. I'm not sure if that gains you Darwinian points, but I think it raises your Karma score.

Awesome Beach, Hilly Ride

There are few beaches in New England as beautiful as Wingaersheek in Gloucester, but also few with as small a parking lot (also, there's between a $15 and $25 charge, depending on the day). So my hubby announced: "We'll park behind the police station in Essex and ride our bikes to the beach. It should be about 5 miles, mostly flat. It's at sea level, after all."

Well, we did park behind the police station easily--check. No trouble getting onto the beach at Wingaersheek on a bike--check. As for the other parts: Ummm...not flat and the winding roads make the route definitely more than five miles to the beach. Beautiful place to ride--salt marshes, nice houses. And an equally nice place to push your bike up a hill because it's the sixth hill in a row and your panniers are full and you just need the break (although pushing a bike up a hill is no picnic either).

Nevertheless, thanks to a restorative break at the beach concession stand (very reasonable prices and delicious fruit cups at this time of year) and some water and sand, we felt refreshed. Really--this beach is spectacular, all Edward Hopper-y with a lighthouse in the background and all. And in the end, despite an offer from Jim to pick me up in our van, we all (hubby, The Boy, and me) made it back to the Essex P.D. intact--and a little more fit for the effort. In fact, I blazed through the last two miles on Rt. 133 (we came back a different way) as though I'd gotten some sort of second wind. So I guess I'd do it again.

But next time, I'm getting a topo map first.