|
We rode 40 miles today. This includes five significant hills and my ride falling apart about midway through for no reason whatsoever. But the company was, of course, lovely:
And the scenery was nice. Say this about this place, if you can get in a few dozen miles you can see plenty of different scenery. For example:
As ever, this barn was at or near the top of a hill on today’s bike ride. It was but a 22-mile ride, and another piece of mounting evidence, impossible to ignore, that I don’t know how to ride on hills. But a nice little piece of farmland, somewhere, I think, around a place called Unionville.
Or maybe it was around New Unionville. Hard to tell at this point. They are both unincorporated areas — One has a recycling center, the other has a post office — and appear to be perfectly lovely and sleepy places to pass through.
Wikipedia tells me that Unionville was the center of the U.S. population in 1911. According to the 2010 Census the center is in a place called Plato, Missouri. As the crow flies that’s a 337 mile shift to the southwest in a century. That’s just migratory patterns. (And air conditioning.)
Furthermore, Wikipedia tells me “The 20.7-mile shift projected for the 2010–2020 period would be the shortest centroid movement since the Great Depression intercensal period of 1930–1940.”
Historically … If you looked at the mean center in 1810, the spot was in Loudon County, Virginia, 470 miles east of here. Short of a trend, let’s split the difference. I’m guessing, if you give it another 100 years, the mean center might be somewhere near Woodward, Oklahoma, which is 400 miles from Plato. Someone print this out and keep it for your great-great-grandchildren to verify.
But, anyway, hills or no, I averaged 20 miles per hour or more over the course of four different miles today. So there’s that. A quick glance at a map of Woodward suggests it might be flat. Maybe I should ride there.
The barn on my bike ride home from the office:
This is on a bike path. The route is just under five miles, much of it on quiet neighborhood roads. Near the end I can enjoy a stretch of a seven-tenths of a mile stretch on this path with only the odd walker or occasional jogger. On one end is a round about, on another is a playground with a punchy little climb up to another playground and park and then the easy downhill home. In between is that barn, sitting there like a forgotten toy, out of place tucked into the suburban carpet.
I’ve been trying since mid-July to get this shot since I saw one like it on a cycling site.
First, the one I saw, was shot by a stationary photographer. Second, it is hard to frame this just right while pedaling myself and holding my phone. Third, The Yankee is moving really fast.
You know, every building just about has closed doors. No signage, no one going in or out, just locked door knobs. And that makes me curious. Today I saw inside one of those at the office:
It is just a small server room with some wiring and routers and whatnot. I looked inside and left quickly, before Hal 9000 could take over. That’s just not something you need mid-week. He starts running A/B testing on you and the locks and your whole weekend is “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Kenny.”
Today someone built up some bike racks in the sub-basement.
You can literally ride in off the street, up a sidewalk ramp and then walk your bicycle through three doors to an indoor, climate controlled storage room. A camera will be going up at the door. There will eventually be a digital lock on the door. They’ve put some thought into this.
Not pictured: My bicycle. I need a chain, I suppose. Until then, I’ll just stow it in my office after my four-mile ride in.
