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!

More Ride Pictures

Posted in a Picasa album.

Fun Day Today

Well, kinda. And kinda not fun at all. Parked the van at Maxwell Park in Anaheim and rode Orion down Magnolia to Warner, then Warner to PCH, and then up PCH into Seal Beach. Stopped to refuel a bit (I'd ridden that bowl of cereal away completely), then went out Marina Av over to Alamitos Bay to the farmers' market there. Very pleasant so far, and even saved a wallet from who knows what when I picked it up off a bus bench and turned it over to the first LEOs I saw (actually the second ones; the first two were on the other side of the road, headed in the opposite direction from me). Stocked up on some stuff at the farmers' market, then headed over to the San Gabriel River Trail.

And hit my heel on the grocery pannier so hard that I knocked one of the pannier's hooks off the rear rack, and it crashed into the wheel, breaking a spoke in the process.

So I limped it back to Maxwell Park, and headed over to a bike shop in Fullerton. Where it'll be ready by Wednesday close-of-business, but I won't be able to get back over there until Sunday. So Radagast the Beige-and-Black will be getting some attention this week.

And I'm now about 20 miles from Bag End.

Alameda

By the time I got to Alameda, there wasn't much time left for a ride before the stitching get-together, but I did get to see a few things of interest. Like this tattered but interesting looking house about a block away from where the GTG (Get ToGether) was held:
Then I started to ride past it and saw the doors:
They don't seem to be using it for anything right now, but like Anaheim (which is at least using theirs for a museum), Alameda has a Carnegie Library building:
And a dyslexic lane marker:
And apparently just one park:
But a charming little cottage complex with an irrestible-to-me name:
The view through the gates:
And a 13th Commandment at the Episcopal Church:
Finally, here's Orion at the beach in Alameda:
I want to go back. I want to see more. And not just of Alameda, but of Santa Clara and San Jose, too. It's so very, very bike-friendly up there!! What's the weather like in December? The Caps have a West Coast road trip which has them at the Shark Tank on December 30.

More Pictures!

They have directional signs up telling you how to get to the Columbia Memorial Space Center, but the facility still wasn't open a week ago when I last rode by there. I'm beginning to think they're never going to open it.
Many many years ago I worked for what was then known as Union Oil Company of California. I saw this plane over near the West Imperial terminal on my ride last weekend:
Next rest stop: Tokyo. The end of Imperial Highway:
And this bridge crosses Torrance Blvd not far from where I work:

Less Than 12 Miles!!

The BFFs and I went to the Joint Forces Training Base (formally NAS Los Alamitos [the Navy still holds the lease] but currently being run [down] by the Army, hence the name "change") for their annual Independence Day celebration. We had a good time, but on one of my bicycle tours of the base, I got a flat tire. So today I'm off to the bike shop. This is the same tube I had replaced on Thursday. This just sucks out loud!

One of my coworkers is on vacation this week, so I'll be starting work about 11:30 each morning. That gives me about an hour and a half for a ride each morning, unless I opt to go to the gym.

And how is it that gardening seems to use muscles you don't use during strength training?

Checking In

I know it's been a long time between posts. Just not a lot to talk about here lately. Periods of conscientious exercising mixed with (too many and too often!!) periods of laziness.

Yesterday's bike ride was really shorter than usual because the BFFs got up much earlier than they normally do, so I was only about 15 minutes into my ride when the phone rang and it was them, telling me they were ready for our breakfast date. Anyway, after breakfast I headed over to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana to see the new Science of Hockey exhibit. Well, I was in the wrong lane on the freeway, couldn't get over, and found myself trying to find the back way into the facility. Ended up in Santa Ana's "Floral Park" neighborhood, which I'd heard of but had never seen. Omigawd, it's gorgeous! Can you say "house envy"?

So today when I headed out for my Sunday Long Ride, I parked over by the stadium, as usual, and headed over into that area. And spent nearly an hour roaming the streets of Floral Park, and still haven't seen anywhere near all of it. I did see enough to know that if the lottery gawds ever smiled upon me, that's where I'd buy a house in Orange County!! Then I wandered back over toward the DSC, because I'd seen a bike trail yesterday and wanted to know where it goes.

It—Santiago Creek Trail—goes to just a teensy bit past Tustin Av, just north of the 22 freeway. So I wandered down Tustin Av to 4th St, headed east on 4th until it turns into Irvine Blvd and stayed on Irvine Blvd until I reached Tustin Market Place (I know this is meaningless to some of my readers, but the local ones will have an idea where I was), then onto Peterson Canyon Trail (after stopping at Performance Bike Shop's store at TMP to have the tire inflation checked, then going over to the formerly Chick's now Dick's Sporting Goods [yes, Melissa, the one where we picked up the packets for Make Room for Santa] to stock up on Body Glide, which Performance didn't have in stock), and on down to Jamboree Rd/Dyer Rd. From there, I wandered over toward the Tustin Legacy shopping center, near the old Tustin Air Base (two separate links there), and gradually wandered back over to SART and to where I'd parked. 42.9 miles of wandering, many of them places I'd never seen. And I still didn't find the trails that part of the Make Room for Santa 5K was on!

A note on the SCT link above: the trail's western terminus is at I-5 and Broadway on the Bikely.com map I linked to.