Didn't plan to ride today, then I saw a facebook post advertising a coffee tasting from a new roaster and that's too cool to pass up.
My wife Karen and I started at Schenley Plaza. Rode by the just-placed Ghost Bike for Susan Hicks. There was a rear blinky attached, still flashing; it's a very nice touch.
This was really excellent coffee and a fun rollout event. Great to see the Pittsburgh coffee economy expanding.
This Coffeeneuring was free. Earlier this month in a Pittsburgh cyclist facebook conversation, there was a discussion w/Kitaira about scrounging free coffee at hotel lobbies, car dealerships, waiting rooms, etc. Bill suggested: free coffeeneuring as a theme, then TriciaC leveled-up to the elegant phrase cofFREEneuring. I think that might be my 2016 coffee theme: CofFREEneuring, scrounging 7 cups of courtesy coffee (no thefts!).
Started off at the Bastille with my wife Karen. Rode through downtown and Oakland to an appointment. Kind of a brisk morning, about 43F when we started; pretty and clear weather. Near PPG Plaza we saw the beginnings of a protest march forming up; so cool to be in a city.
We rode out to East Liberty and I took Karen to see Olive & Marlow, purveyors of artisanal olive oils and balsamic vinegars (also, ice cream sandwiches). It's amazing to me that a store selling those two products exists in East Liberty. Also pleased to see two Pittsburgh bicycle police officers, pretty much hanging on a corner and talking with locals; very cool.
On Colin's suggestion, we rode to Morningside (which I've never poked around in before) and The Bookshelf Cafe at 1806 Chislett St Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15206. It's right down the street from St. Raphael's, which has an interesting exterior - I've never seen a Catholic church with that kind of architecture.
The Bookshelf Cafe has a bike rack out front, outside seating, wifi and all the things you'd expect. Great coffee shop.
For #Coffeeneuring, we had a Green Tea Chai Latte and a Double Espresso, along with Thai Pumpkin soup (which was excellent) and some sort of a crumb-bun which was also great. ++recommended.
There is a pathology of large groups: they take longer to use the bathroom, longer to get seated and served in a restaurant, and the odds of one person having a problem increases with the size of the group. Just like: multi-engine airplanes have more engine problems than single-engine airplanes.
This was Day2 of a weekend group ride, with 14 cyclists, and it was good to have a van staged at the overnight. One of the riders had an eye infection and needed to skip the return trip. Another rider wasn't feeling well but decided to ride anyway. It was great to have the resource present to give people choices to make.
It was a cold and snowy morning. There was no graupel /sleet /freezing-drizzle ambiguity; it was just snowing out. Between Saturday and Sunday, this was a Rule9 weekend. I'm so impressed at the folks in the group.
Rather than stopping to smell roses and take photos, we pretty much decided to ride fast and skip the blue herons and group lunch. Karen and I were off the front, so we stopped in at Fisher's Cafe in Peninsula Ohio for French Onion soup and coffee (Coffeeneuring 2015-5 for me, 2015-3 for Karen).
When we came out and got back on the trail, I figured we were behind the group but thought we'd catch them. Then I had a front flat tire. This was a bit of a puzzle; I found the hole in the tube but couldn't find the cause. Then my newish pump didn't seem to be working, and I was saved by my CO2 backup.
We got to the Botzum trailhead just as everybody else was closing up their cars. Great ride, good company, Type1 fun. Also it was a great weekend for shaking down the cold weather gear.
Started at the Bastille. Rode into Oakland, ran some errands. Rode over to 4121 Main for Coffeeneuring 2015-04.
My #coffeeneuring drink was "Ashram Afternoon" tea and it was wonderful.
The shop had a series of sketches on the wall by Maybe Sadeghi called "Constellations", I really liked this one (in fact, I bought a small copy)
Coming through the neighborhood, passed the house on Main St with the rotating murals on the side:
I believe this is Hazards of Modern Living by Gary Duehr.
Today was a magnificent fall day: bright, blue skies, no wind.
Started at the Bastille, rode past the start point of the 321 Ride which was just forming up. Seemed very well organized and there were signs all over the course.
Coming across the Ft.Duquesne bridge I picked up a piece of glass in my front tire. Heard it, pulled it out after a few rotations. I thought I'd dodged a bullet, but shortly thereafter I was flat. I need to get Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires for this new bike and stop with the nuisance flats.
Took a group of CMU grad students out on a tour. Riding through the SouthSide we took the designated detour around the new at-grade crossing at the Frank Bryan concrete plant
We used the official detour because the generally-used previous route has been blocked by somebody who seems to have a pent-up need to say, "nanny nanny boo-boo, follow the rules!"
It was a serendipitous pleasure was seeing a long-time colleague, TommyH, walking along McKean Street with his wife. It was a surprising place to see him, people generally just stroll through there. Thirty years ago when I reported to Pittsburgh, Tommy was one of the old-timers. He's still there! More than 50 years of government service. Among the older bunch his nickname was The Whale but I never knew why.
As we crossed the Smithfield Street bridge we picked up two lost transients who were trying to find Point State Park and told them: follow us. That worked well.
I think the high point was riding under the Convention Center (fortunately, the rainbow waterfalls were operating; I will miss that this winter).
Then we rode inbound on the Penn Ave bike lane, where I chanced to see Stu working an intersection for the 321 Ride, rocking a videocam on a chest harness. I dropped off the tour group and they seemed to have had a good time.
Rode to the Point again. It was so nice and sunny I hung out catching rays for a while. But #Coffeeneuring calls, so I got back on the bike and rode out to La Prima Espresso on 21st Street at Penn.
I had an Americano Doppio and a scone, and they were both excellent.
I sat outside at one of several tables. There was an interesting bunch of folks, including a few tables of older Italian men playing cards and making small-talk. You could probably get a leg broken by somebody they know; it might be your leg, it might be somebody else's leg, you'd have to find out.
There was a great two-person band playing on the steps of the closed bank next door to Enrico's Biscotti. Unfortunately, there was a road closure on Penn Avenue and several drivers needed to honk and yell at each other, which kind of confirmed riding the bike to get coffee. Quite a bit of agita.
Started early-ish at the Bastille with Karen. As we rode inbound approaching the casino, two opposite direction cyclists with loaded bikes passed by, asking is this the way to Cumberland MD??
In fact, it's the exactly wrong way (or at least a very long right way) so we offered directions. One of the two gents almost wasn't sure we were correct, so we led them across to Point State Park and pointed them in the right direction. Two retired CoastGuard-ers from the Outer Banks, nice folks.
Rode east along the Allegheny to Millvale, stopped at Pamela's Pancakes for strawberry crepes because: Pamela's. I think we got there just before the Saturday morning crowd appeared.
Departed and crossed the 40th Street bridge. Poked across Lawrenceville to Butler and 54th Street, where we found Caffe d'Amore, a fairly new coffee shop with a well-experienced proprietor. There's been a Caffe d'Amore in the Public Market for a while, and this standalone brick-and-mortar is the next phase.
I had a pour-over promising hints of cigar and vanilla. It was amazing. K had a Honduran pour-over which was also very good. Coffeeneuring report: 10/10/2015, Caffe d'Amore, 5401 Butler Street Pittsburgh, 25 miles, pourover coffee. Bike friendly (bike rack outside, very cool w/cyclists). Recommended.
The chalkboard discloses they carry "shrub" which I only learned about in the last few weeks, when I also learned about it's fellow-traveler squash. (Thanks, ETRT!)
We rode Penn inbound to town, using the bike lane and then transitioned across to Golden Triangle Bike Rental where we rented a tandem and took it down to SouthSide and back. It was an interesting ride, there's a lot off things to coordinate when - as on the Hot Metal Bridge - you're simultaneously turning, descending, coasting and braking.
Back to GTBR, then back to the NorthSide. The Pitt game was in progress so there wasn't much stadium traffic on the trail. A very nice day, 25 miles.
Today started off as a cold, dismal, rainy Saturday and later in the day it stopped raining. I started at the Bastille, met a few friends on the trail, then rode over to Thick Bikes to pick up a rear-view mirror I'd ordered. Thick Bikes has hosted a coffeeneuring session earlier in the morning, I think that's so very cool of them.
I saw Bob-H and sang Happy Birthday to Maggie and him. They had a negative experience with deep soft gravel on the Southside Trail, which is sporting some railroad improvement work.
Rode to Big Dog Coffee 2717 Sarah Street, SouthSide Pittsburgh for a Mocha Blanca: white chocolate caffeine goodness. #Coffeeneuring 2015-01 on Oct.3 2015, 28 miles. So excellent.
Coming across the Hot Metal Bridge I overtook a wedding party and photobombed the picture taking:
I was involved in escorting a large group on a cycling tour, it was an impressive lineup of bikes:
As we transitioned from the NorthShore Trail onto Washington's Landing via the switchbacks, I got to photobomb my second wedding party of the day:
One of our groups went through the southside and A. had a harsh experience with the soft gravel at 2nd Street.
Parked at the Bastille after the rain stopped. Rode Hot Metal Bridge to Southside. Stopped to deliver Coffeeneuring posters at BigDogCoffee, Joe's Coffee, Thick Bikes, Delanie's Coffee, Espresso A Mano, Iron City Bikes.
Saw this car wrapped in CAUTION tape, with a nice cutout for the parking sticker so they wouldn't get a ticket.
3526 Butler Street, by Jeremy Ramer
Stopped at Kraynicks for an egg-cream, saw the saddest thing ever.
