Back in the Day

I am a life member of Hosteling International, and I was once a board member of the San Diego American Youth Hostel local organization (now called HI-USA). I'd forgotten both those facts until tonight, when I rode past the house once occupied by Clark and Aileen Elliot and sons Ralph and Glenn (?). It's a bit overgrown now.

Aileen and Ralph were movers and shakers in local cycling. She was the driving force in establishing the local youth hostel back in 1979,  just a mile or so from her house (and mine). The hostel used to be named after her, but times have changed and the identities of the virtuous have been lost.

It was a very nice evening, warm enough for shirt sleeves (and yellow luminous vest) and cool enough that I could go up the hills without overheating. Here's a look out at the city.

Not far from this spot I saw my first front-yard Zebra. He didn't seem to mind having his photo taken.

I also smelled lots of flowers - their aroma fills the air on nights like this and a bicycle is the best way to transport yourself from scent-cloud to scent-cloud. I wonder what it would be like if we could actually see the extent of the smells around us. Do you think that's what dogs can do?

Speaking of Dogs, here's a great old Chevy pickup that was sitting right directly across from the Rambler Ambassador labeled Lilly Riley Bail Bonds - the "Bail Bondswoman of the Beach"

MUSTANG CONVERTIBLES

Regular readers of this blog might be wondering if I saw any Mustang Convertibles today. The answer is, Yes I did! These are the only ones I captured with my camera; I think I saw three more M Cs, making a total of 7 today. It must be summer in San Diego!

  

The End

Not Much to Say Today

 

I went for a ride after dinner. Not too much to see, not too much to say. Except:

Our neighbors were filling their pool, and forgot to turn off the water when they left the house. It flooded out into the street. I turned it off.

I saw a bunch of cars with magnetic signs, business names painted on them, and personalized license plates. I took pictures of all of them, thinking I would do a post of how to promote your business with your car signage. Except due to the late hour, none of the photos were clear enough for the high quality standards demanded of my blog. Except this one:

Yet if you check the web address painted on the side of the van, you will find the site is inactive and you can get the address from GoDaddy for free. It must not have been much of a web business. Sigh.

I kept circling in an outward spiral through residential streets looking for an incredible, or striking, or beautiful sight to report. All I could come up with is these two cars, with home-made car covers. I know that the car in the driveway, under a tarp, is a not-so-very-nice kit Countach replica, based on a Fiero. I have forgotten what the car in the street is, but I do like the sheer audacity of sewing up two half-covers out of beach towels and fastening them onto the car with clothes pins [click the image to see a larger version]

I went by the road garden and watered it by carefully pouring the contents of my water bottle onto the plants.

HO HUM.  But wait, I just thought of something!

MUSTANG CONVERTIBLES

Earlier today, I saw two Ford Mustang Convertibles, one white and one red. Add that to the seven I saw during the rest of the day and it's an all-time record for me. Red (several shades), White, Blue, Black and Yellow. Here's a shot of a blue one in my rear view mirror (of my car).

I've remembered something else which I don't think I reported earlier. I was going to save it for the future Mustang Convertibles Only blog. But given the scarcity of material tonight ... here goes:

Saturday I saw three white M Cs in 7 minutes. Going over the Coronado bridge to drop off some borrowed tools, this car went past on my left. Top down, nice day, a guy on his own. Time of the photo?

May 25, 10:00:01 am. 

[Have the NHTSA banned taking pictures with a cell phone while driving over a giant bridge yet?]

I looked in my rear view mirror, and coming up on my right was another white M C, top down, one guy driving. An older model. Both in view at the exact same time as shown below. The time? Twenty seconds later.
May 25, 10:00:21 am.

Here is the first car, turning left in front of me. Time of photo? Thirty-five seconds later.
May 25, 10:01:56 am.

Marveling, I dropped off the goods, swung the car around and got back on the bridge within 5 minutes. Swooshing past me went a couple in another white M C, top down, enjoying their day in San Diego.
May 25, 10:06:51 am.

I will have to decide if when I decide to convert my cycling blog to a Mustang Convertible blog.

Rocks and Rollin'

I stopped my ride to inspect this wall today. I saw three kinds of rocks meeting - pea gravel, fake round rocks and fake flat rocks. They don't look like they would occur together naturally. But in that strange universe we call American Suburbia they need no geological explanation. You could probably find a Home Depot SKU on each rock.

Speaking of stones, earlier today I weighed my bikes on the scale. The tandem = 46.5 lbs, the Platano = 25 lbs, and the Paramount = 23 lbs.  They don't feel exceptionally light, but they're not bad for 40-year-old bicycles either. And that's including water bottle cages, racks and pumps - plus pedals with straps and clips, mind you - not like today's bikes where pedals aren't included.

I also stopped by to see how the road garden is doing. I featured it in THIS episode of the blog. After all the road construction above and around it, I'm surprised anything is still living. Maybe I'll sneak up there and water the plants that are surviving.

Here are a few nice flower plants, seen from the front wheel's perspective.

MUSTANG CONVERTIBLES

No Mustangs today for me, but my wife spotted three. Maybe all these signs scared them away.

Police Interceptor

I like police cars. In the US, I'll wager that the most memorable police car of the last 25 years is the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Recently discontinued, it still claims a significant place in police fleets across the country. And is readily available "second-hand" for the police car lover. I've never had one myself, but have often thought of getting one.

Those thoughts were re-awakened this morning on my ride. I went through a large parking lot which is normally empty at this time of the morning. It was packed with cars of all sorts. I noticed a push-bar or two sticking out, where a police car was backed into a space with its nose protruding - ready for quick action.

As I looked around the lot, I saw Police Interceptors everywhere. From all sorts of city and county law enforcement agencies. Not customs, homeland security, or military, but everyone else.  And a number of covert Crown Vics, given away by plain paint jobs, small hub caps, tinted glass, an vast array of antennae, spotlights, hidden flasher lights behind the grille, etc. Not to mention the push bars.

I decided to try to photograph them all before I got myself arrested. So here we go ...

Now as to this white one, could it be covert operations? It has an undercover cop look, I think. But civilian wheels. No badging. The spotlights had been removed and plugs inserted in the A pillars. I say a "wanna-be cop" owns this car. Or maybe the pastor.

Finally I found a clue to the plot. This is an overflow parking lot often used by the Rock Church. The pastor, a former football player, has a ministry to help with gang violence. I guess there must be a conference going on for police officers and others who deal with gangs.

Luckily, late-middle-age cyclists aren't considered a gang threat, and no one seemed to give me a second glance as I rode around in the parking lot this morning.

This video shows a few folks who now attend the Rock Church and reach out to kids positively, instead of causing trouble in their neighborhoods.

My Hands Hurt

Too much work today. My hands ache. Partly from the riding. Partly from the working.

We took some old wheels down from the rafters in the garage - and discovered two sets of NEW but Old Stock Arc en Ciel (Rainbow) rims that I bought as spares for the Paramount, and Super Champion rims I bought for spares for the tandem. And a set of 650B rims and tires for the tandem. But they didn't look too good.

Even though the flashing marks from molding the rubber hadn't been worn off by riding, the sidewalls were shot. The rubber was hard. You can tell they are obsolete by the $6.95 price!

We washed the wheels. We rubbed each spoke. We lubricated the freewheels, and steel-wooled the edges of the rims. My wife used a round tail file to clean the rim's bead groove, so new tires will seat properly. I put the new tires onto the empty rims to stretch them out for the eventual appearance on the Paramount.

 She's not in a wheel chair, it's a real chair surrounded by bike wheels. Here they are in the garage.

After the wheels, we turned to washing 3 cars and conditioning the leather on another. Then we set out for a ride to the lighthouse. It was a nice, warm, windy day. We saw two black on black M Cs, but didn't catch them on camera. I did spot this Monte Carlo which is from "my car era".

Here's an action shot to show we are not making this all up. It's my wife's calf and thigh.

Finally, here we are, looking like tourists and getting our photo taken by a stranger. He did a nice job, don't you think? We are at the whale information station; the photographer was facing north and west.

and here's a shot looking to the east and south, over North Island and back at San Diego.