Coffeeneuring 2018

Got off to a pretty slow start this year, and am finishing up in the final three days. And because I haven't spent nearly as much time riding during the rest of the year as I really should have, I've really become quite the cycling wimp.

#1 To Walnut Grove Park in Old Colony Anaheim (or is it Historic Colony Anaheim? I keep forgetting), which really used to be a walnut grove. 9.75 miles.

#2 To Citrus Park, also in Old/Historic Colony Anaheim, adjacent to the original Santa Fe Depot. They have a couple of nice reproductions of orange crate labels on the east wall. The mainline tracks are on the other side of this wall. 8.95 miles.

#3 To Boysen Park, also usually referred to as "Airplane Park" because there is an airplane in the playground. This is the one named for Anaheim's first superintendent of parks and recreation, and Rudy is the guy whose hybridized berry was named for him by the guy who salvaged the canes before they were lost, a fellow named Walter Knott, who had a fruit stand over in Buena Park. 11.85 miles.

#4 To George Washington Park as an official Coffeeneuring destination and not a side trip as it was on one of last year's rides. This was the site of one of Anaheim's first schools, and the first paid-for-by-bonds school in the state. There are pillars like this one on the modern main streets bordering the Colony. 11.34 miles.

#5 This is the one which started out with me breaking the valve stem while trying to make sure both tires were well-aired up before beginning. So I went back in the house, checked the bus schedule, pushed the bike to the bus stop, took two buses to the bike shop, then rode home focussing on downtown Fullerton, where I stopped for brunch at a new-to-me place, Crepes Bonaparte. It would have been even nicer if the parental units resting there had exerted more control over their rambunctious offspring. Oh well. 9.52 miles.

#6 Was almost thwarted by the overnight and much-needed rain, but it sorta cleared off a bit, so I braved the leaden skies for a quickie to one of the nearer parks, named in honor of Albert Schweitzer. It's a little place, next to the same-named elementary school and alongside Carbon Creek, itself figuring in long-off plans to become a river trail (it would be a wonderful shortcut to Coyote Creek Trail and then to the San Gabriel River Trail if they'd ever actually make it happen!). There was a tiny bit of sprinkle while I drank my coffee, but the ride home was dry. 5.28 miles.

And finally, #7: This was a visit to a trail along the Santa Ana River, Anaheim Coves. The county sanitation district pulled out all the non-natives and replanted with natives. They're extending it north of Lincoln Av, which is nice to see. 13.29 miles.

I have a whole nother year to think about what to do for next year's "Without Walls" adventures.

Coffeeneuring

Sometimes I'm grateful that we don't have ad-blockers on the browsers at work, because that occasionally lets me discover new things I would likely never see here at home. One of those things is a Facebook cycling group The Slow Bicycle Movement. Because I joined that group, I also learned about Civilized Cycling (predominantly but not exclusively British) and Coffeeneuring.

The Coffeeneuring Challenge takes place in the fall/autumn, and this year, the 7th, runs 7 weeks (ending Sunday Nov 19). I decided to join, and spent several work hours on Google Earth and the mapping program I use at work and on Google seeking out coffee houses to ride to, or to stop at for a break on a ride from Point A to Point B and back again. As the start of the Challenge approached, there were more and more discussions about what riders were going to do, as there are a number of options. My original plan had been to visit some of the coffee houses in the area, but that fell by the wayside when I stopped for a break in a park on my very first ride.

And began a Without Walls Coffeeneuring.

That first stop was Central Park in La Palma, which was actually on the way to one of my planned coffee houses, but I found sitting under a tree Thinking Profound Thoughts (yeah, right) and watching baseball (the local Little League? I dunno) practices and working on a writing project quite pleasurable.

Number Two was undertaken during an abominable heat wave that saw me riding The Black Pearl, riding the MetroLink, riding The Black Pearl, riding OCBus, and riding The Black Pearl from Anaheim to Buena Park to Fullerton to Orange and back to Anaheim on a stupid-hot day. But I had a nice breakfast on the patio at the Kimmie's Koffee Kup in Old Town Orange.

Number Three took me to Founders' Park in Old Colony Anaheim, where I discovered that while they have both iron and concrete benches, they have no picnic tables! Well, I sat on a bench and had most of a pack of those mini-donuts, a banana, and my coffee. The vines are the same variety as, but not descendants of, the vines planted by the original German settlers. The house in this photo is the oldest residential building in the city, and out of frame to the right is an exquisite Victorian.

Number Four took me to Anaheim's Central Library to drop off the DVDs I'd borrowed the week before, and then back toward home to Betsy Ross Park, on the western edge of Old Colony Anaheim. Picnic benches there! And another person at another of the benches having a riding break with a beverage. I haven't seen any posts from other Anaheimers, so I'd guess he wasn't a part of the group. I actually got a bit of writing done that time!

Number Five was a post-work afternoon ride to Maxwell Park, also in Anaheim, the next-nearest to my home, and also home to the Edna Haskett Branch of APL, named for the city's first children's librarian. That one was hot chocolate, because I have a self-imposed time limit on coffee consumption.

Number Six actually happened on the eastern edge of Lakewood, in LA County. I had started out to attend a rubber stamp convention, but got some expensive news about van repairs, so I turned around and headed home again, stopping for a break at Palms Park.

Number Seven was a shorty, basically a ride around the big block to gain the necessary minimum mileage, at the nearest park to home, Brookhurst Park, squished between a middle school on the east and an elementary school on the west. The whitish case on the back is the case I carry my spiral notebook and pen in. The brick-bounded area in the background to the left is the park's skateboard park.

Number Eight, my just-in-case ride, ventured over to Pearson Park, one of those in Old Colony Anaheim. And in an act of utter laziness, I'm copying and pasting from my laboriously-typed-on-the-phone-post-to-the-group! The cactus garden was planted many, many years ago by Anaheim's first parks superintendent, a gentleman who also hybridized a berry made famous by a fellow down the road in Buena Park. The berry grower was Walter Knott. The hybridizer/park superintendent was Rudy Boysen. There is also a park named for him, not far from the place us oldtimers still call Anaheim Stadium.

I also rode over to George Washington Park, even more centrally located in Old Colony, built on the site of one of Anaheim's earliest elementary school and the first elementary school in the state to have been financed by bonds, according to the plaque on this column: 

The Coffeeneuring Challenge has been wonderful fun, both the doing and the reading about others' doings. I'm really looking forward to not only participating in next year's challenge, but also in continuing with "off-season coffeeneuring"! Thank you, Mary! I'm really glad I stumbled over this all because of the lack of an ad-blocker at work!