Avocado, the kitten, and Bay Ridge nightmares
I’m a planner. Always have been, always will be. My “spontaneous” bike ride through South Brooklyn, sans a planned route, is a good reminder that I should always create a route for rides, lest I get lost in Bay Ridge again.
It was BEAUTIFUL out this weekend and my only chance to ride my bike during the week was a short trip to the drug store so a Sunday ride it was! It’s starting to cool down a bit, finally, which I am so excited about. I do NOT do well in the heat so I’m looking forward to rides in the cooler, autumn weather.
I started prepping my road bike, which was made only slightly more difficult by little Avocado:
He likes chewing the velcro straps on my cycling shoes.
I’m fostering this little guy until he finds a permanent home! Avocado was originally supposed to be a TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) since he was found as part of a feral colony, but he was just too friendly to release back. The bike room/office is now the bike room/office/kitten room. There are toys and scratching posts and beds everywhere but Avocado insists on hanging out by the cycling shoes.
Anyway, I got myself out the door, fumbled with my Wahoo Elemnt a bit because it keeps having some connectivity issues, and then was on my way. My only “plan” was to take Bedford Avenue south and then go from there. I don’t really love riding south on Ocean Parkway - the path itself is not the best and I find crossing all the intersections to be more difficult than normal. Bedford Avenue becomes a really beautiful ride once you are south of Flatbush Avenue and there is a lot less traffic in the residential areas, which have some ENORMOUS homes.
Once I got to the end of Bedford Avenue, I spent a little time on the docks overlooking Sheepshead Bay.
After this, I rode west, connecting to the Neptune Avenue bike path. This path ends abruptly at a private residential complex so I looped back east through Coney Island and took Cropsey north, riding until I got to the Belt Parkway Bike Path. I’ve ridden this path south before so I figured I’d try it heading in the opposite direction this time.
Start of the Belt Parkway Bike Path.
REGRETS. I was used to always checking the wind speeds when I lived on Long Island and did my rides along the beach path. Since my move to Brooklyn, I have gotten out of that habit and with this SPONTANEOUS ride of mine, I didn’t think about the wind factor. Well, this headwind was NOT fun and while my Strava is only reporting windspeeds of 10.7 mph from the north, I’m not convinced about its accuracy.
I spent a few minutes on a bench, complaining to myself about the wind and how I was tired and then convinced myself to get back on my bike (mostly because I needed to get back home). I followed the Belt Parkway path through Owls Head Park in Bay Ridge and then it was kinda all down hill from there. There were signs for the 7th Avenue bike route, which I kept following but without GETTING to 7th Ave. I wound up in Fort Hamilton, without wanting to end up in Fort Hamilton.
Then I wound up in Fort Hamilton AGAIN. Each time I tried to follow a bike route, I wound up heading south, instead of north! I was near the Verrazano three times, when it should only have been once! Maybe it was delusion from not fueling enough (which was because I was cranky and annoyed and just wanted to get home!), but whatever it was, I was really struggling to find a route back to my apartment. I resorted to Google Maps for a path home and even managed to screw that up somehow.
Clearly struggled through Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton and then had to escape the clown on 5th Ave!
Eventually, I got my wits about me and had a general sense of how to get home but my efforts were only made more difficult by the clown who kept trying to push me off the road on 5th Avenue. Yes, an ACTUAL clown was driving the car.
Didn’t fuel enough on the ride out of frustration so I was happy to get home, have a beer, and eat some gnocchi for dinner. Next time, there will be a route.
