The cycling trick in our linear north-south Rio Grande Valley is to match the Rail Runner with the wind. The best rides (where by “best” I mean “my favorite”) are in the valley, along the river and the ditchbanks that make up our ribbons of green. A wind out of the north calls for a …
It is an accident that my new bicycle is named after a 1960s cartoon superhero who fought supervillains in outer space with a sidekick named Blip. Blip was a monkey. I was on my own Saturday, no help from Blip, when my Space Ghost led me up a “trail” on the west side of the …
I got a couple of alarmed emails from friends after the last cryptic blog post, the one about how I can’t be broken. The post was aimed at a couple friends who I knew would get the reference. I forget that other people read this too, sorry. Your emails of concern made me feel loved, …
My usual Sunday riding buddy was gone last week, so I took my road bike out for a longer-than-usual spin, out past the dinosaur sculpture I call “My Red Friend.” I got the requisite Blake’s breakfast burrito early (they’re the right shape to fit in a bike shirt pocket, and properly nibbled over time can …
The “plate of food with a bike helmet” is my favorite genre of Strava photo.
Soto Avenue in Albuquerque’s Old Town Neighborhood is more “alley” than “avenue”. It’s one of our bicycling work-arounds for the unrideable stretch of Central Avenue – old Route 66 – on the east side of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. I ducked down Soto this morning at the tail end of a wandery bike ride. …
I was on the service road out behind the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History when I got a text this morning about the Supreme Court decision. I pulled up Scotusblog on my phone, read the headline. “Oh shit,” I texted back. And then I put the phone away and went back to pedaling …
In our years of urban exploring of Albuquerque on our bicycles, my collaborator and I have learned a number of guiding principles that I realized might be worth sharing. The realization came at this gate, which of course I checked to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, which led to the discovery of a …
Continue reading ‘Always check the gate. It might be unlocked and lead somewhere interesting!’ »
The secret corridor proves an amazing fast shortcut to any explorer determined to brush aside low-hanging branches and to risk broken glass and rusted wire. And it offers the probing and poking explorer another view of the chrome-and-glitter commercial strip, even of the regional mall, for it makes clear the stealth with which change comes. …