4 Corners

It was the last four days of the Cycle September Challenge and I got a text from Meg. "I want to hit all four corners of the City in the last four days. Which corner would you rather ride, SE or SW?" I was reminiscent of Meg rolling up on me and my daughter at Patterson Park when she first moved to Baltimore fulfilling her quest to bike to every neighborhood in the City. What better way to familiarize yourself to a new city than by bike! That was a few years ago. Now we are at tomorrow. She sent two google routes: Do you want to go down to dundalk or through leakin park to the piercer? I love a working harbor, but it is closer and a piercer sounds like an adventure. "piercer through leakin!" was my easy choice. Last day of September and the sky could not have been bluer. We meandered our way through debris-strewn back roads, navigated potholes (and bigger holes), braved tailing cars, found ~50-ft of bike trail on Frederick Ave, and arrived to the piercer just in time to bask in the last warmth of the setting sun as we waited our turn on their outdoor porch. Dermal piercing mission accomplished, we took the quick way home along Baltimore Street on a less auto-traveled road. Famished, Tabor hit the spot. Another great end to a weeknight. Another ride in the books. #BaltimoreLove #BikeLove

Just Cuz

5 minutes from home coming off of my 40 minute work commute (in my car) from Aberdeen at ~6p, my phone rings. It's Meg. "Are you home? I'm by your house and was wondering if you wanted to ride around on the bike with me." YES!! I'll be home in 2 minutes. It was the day before the autumnal equinox so darkness was encroaching upon the evening. On this particular day, the sky was thick with dark clouds and a strong waterfront wind was sweeping through the streets. I parked two blocks away - not bad for a weekday after work arrival in Fells Point. As soon as we got started, we felt the water droplets. Droplets become torrents became sheets. But it had been a 12 hour work day, and 2x40 minutes in an automobile. It felt amazing to be on human-powered 2 wheels, whipped in the wind, washed by the rain. The perfect way to end the work day.

Growler Shop - Atlanta

90+degree humid heat in atlanta. it was late afternoon and I had been out in it (on foot!) for many hours. she sold me a cold grapefruit soda for $1.36 and free unlimited ice water so my stop at the growler shop became an extended one. she could tell i was not from here as i was toting my airport carryon, and engaged me.

she told me about the checker board intentional plan that governs housing development; where gentrification is only allowed in isolated checkered squares. this generates neighborhoods like hers where an at&t ceo lives on one side of her and her neighbor on the other side is (literally) a crack addict who cuts her grass for a beer. it ordered in my mind a map of my earlier wanderings and i realized i had been walking through checkerboard neighborhoods. when i thought i was getting too deep in the hood, i would cross the street and see yuppies on their electric scooter boards silently glide to their corner artisanal craft beer spot (with outdoor seating!). moving through those few blocks back into abandoned yards littered with debris and disintegrating structures enclosed by warped chain link fences - close enough to move through them within minutes on foot. effectively distributing poverty and wealth uniformly. #mindblown

she closed with a musing, they (atlanta) do such a good job with housing, i don't understand why they do such a terrible job with transportation! #carculture

-listen when you wander

July 4, 2014

We watch our children train. Shameka went out to Starbucks and received a double boon on the coffee she ordered due to a slight misunderstanding. Somehow, 'java chip' got into the barrista's mind when it should have been three 'mocha chip.' No problem. He gifted the errors and re-made the chocolate delights; Spreading the mocha and java chip joy!

More training today. Ui-Seng's dancer training has yielded result.

 

The last member of the team arrives! The joy is palpable; Treated like a rock star being followed by the paparazzi.

 

I went in search of internet and sunshine at this point and found myself sitting at an outdoor spot on a piazza with a service called Wickedlyfast Wifi, apparently a free service for the San Jose downtown vicinity, when Sean rolled up on me throwing his backpack over the ledge where I sat updating my itinerary for the trip.

"I'll be around in a minute." And that was our introduction: Like a conversation being continued from time immemorial; Like he had just left a minute ago and was coming back from some small errand.

Around he came, and so began my San Jose connect. In another time, things could have gone in another direction, but in my recent maturity, it was just a beautiful confluence of like-spirited souls. So I was able to experience this Iranian-American, adorable, born-and-raised-in-San-Jose boy. His perspective, revealing the underside of the shiny shell of the tourist's view of his city; all the underworkings to keep the city looking and running the way we see kind of like in H.G. Well's Time Machine.

When I returned from my foray into my soul-connect and mind break, sufficiently fed and sated, I found the team and parents @the swimming pool. They had finished a training session in the pool were just about to roll out to get ready for dinner...

 

...healthy and happy children!!...

...and on the way to dinner, I passed these mushroom trees:

We went up the street of downtown San Jose to an open air food court called San Pedros something or other.

July 3, 2014. Thursday,

Our first day in San Jose! About three quarters of the team was here. We all ate the breakfast provided by the hotel - which was much better than anticipated. We ate a beautiful breakfast every morning we were at tournament together, as a team. The team took it upon themselves to spend time in the hotel fitness facility to build conditioning. That's what I'm talking about. All youth should be as such.

 

The weather in San Jose seemed to be permanently dialed to 'perfect' as illustrated as the backdrop of the bird sculpture set in front of the San Jose Convention Center. Without urgency, we understood we would be getting our bearings and spending time together as a team, warming to the rhythm of the tournament, and getting a bit of training in. As we had the presence of only a partial team, the mood was relaxed and easy for today, but with slowly mounting excitement. Osezwa's ripstick made a fleeting cameo appearance before it was confiscated by Master Frantz. Seriously? You're going to break your bones on a ripstick BEFORE you compete?

July 2, 2014. Wednesday.

We awoke very early and loaded the van Tim rented the day before. The entire cousin entourage arose at 5am to send us off! Coming off their own days long flight from halfway around the globe, their time was still waking.

With great excitement to begin our trip, we did not think much of breakfast, but grabbed whatever was left sitting in the refrigerator. Here is mine....

 Hours upon hours of cabin pressure. Boredom sets in...

 Son selfie.

Teen selfies.

 

We arrive at San Jose Airport! I was bumping to Tupac's "California" on the earbuds.

Yeah, mommy does not call a cab; not when there's $2 metro lite rail! It's opportunity and principle. Traveling on public transportation is not only cheaper, it invites an interaction with the city that is not to be had cocooned and isolated in your own cab. Anyway, so what about carrying our 40# bags. Aren't we supposed to be training??

When we arrived we had to stash our bags temporarily with Shameka and Rim since Frantz would not check in to the room until 8pm. I have a hard time with air travel. I'm convinced that I leave my soul behind when I travel against time and it takes a few hours or days before my spirit and my body reunite. I was barely conscious, so they took me out to Starbucks for a caffeine injection. Rim wanted food, so we sat at Johnny Rockets. Welcome to downtown San Jose!