Sunday, March 29, 2020

Opening Day

No one comes within six feet of any guy in bike shorts except bad drivers and buses, so my sport is safe: they won't be closing down cycling season.

Yesterday was opening day for serious biking season, and perfect for it. The sun warmed Atlanta slowly from 70 to 80 as I rode the Stone Mountain Trail for the first time this year, tenth year I've been riding that trail. Sure, there've been some spring training rides earlier this month, truncated because Paulding County closed off, first, the trailside rest stops, then the trail itself. But this was a satisfying return to places I've missed:

Clockwise, from top left: start at Martin Luther King Center on Boulevard, parking lot unusually empty; new bicycle bridge over eight lanes of I-285 to Clarkston, a vibrant town with America's highest concentration of refugees; first glimpse this year of Stone Mountain (where Hairston becomes Mountain Industrial Highway); gateway to the Lake Clair neighborhood, an underpass highly decorated with graffiti and publicly commissioned spray paint art; "Art Lot" in Avondale, not far from the original Waffle House, now a museum.

Stats in 2020, so far: From the first day of 2020, I've had 11 rides, 225 miles, average 14.8 m.p.h.
Grand total 24,124 miles, 2001 - 2020*
25,000 miles = earth's circumference. 876 miles to go.

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