I remember about 2 years ago I was oblivious to the Metro network in and around Los Angeles. I was chained to the day to day grind of driving back and forth to work from my parent’s home. 
Ever since I started riding my bike, I slowly found that not only is bicycling great but the Metro network of buses and trains are an enjoyable way to travel around town. I am still picking up new routes even to this day. Combine both the Metro and bicycling, you can practically get anywhere in Los Angeles. That is why I am excited that the Metro Gold Line will be opening up the expanded route from Union Station into East LA on November 15th.
If you had told me 2 years ago that this was happening, I would have easily dismissed this as anything significant. Why would I care about an expansion of a Metro train? 
I would not have realized that this opens up a way of getting to a part of LA in which I would not have gone in any other circumstances. This was true about a year ago when I took the Gold Line from South Pasadena to Highland Park. I definitely wouldn’t have been comfortable going there in previous scenarios. I now hang out at that area more frequently than my own town. This new expansion means more business to each of the local communities that is fortunate to have a train stop at their neighborhood. It allows people to be able to mobilize easily between East LA to Pasadena which connects multiple cultures, a multitude of different wealth class, and open up opportunities for the people in the communities that line up against the path of this train track.
If you find the time on Sunday, try to get to a station on the Gold Line and see for yourself. I heard you will be able to ride free that day and may even get to attend a block party to see a Mariachi Festival in Boyle Heights. Heck! They promised a special appearance of Santa at one of the stops. What better way to kick off the holiday season than with Santa? 
Photos provided by waltarrrrr on Flickr.
Today marks the one year anniversary of when my escrow closed for my home purchase. I remembered how nervous I was. “How am I going to pay this mortgage?”, was what I had thought that day. It was tough at first but here I am 12 payments later. I am able to pay my mortgage without a hitch.
I also knew that I wouldn’t be going out too much but I think I still enjoyed myself this year. Tax benefits certainly made it easier. I know I haven’t been hanging out with friends too much. Not sure why. Perhaps I like staying at home whenever I can. There’s nothing like having no where to go and enjoying whatever is on tv or Hulu.
The place still looks pretty much the same as I had it sine I’ve moved in. I’ve only added a bed, washer, dryer, tv and a tv stand. Everything else was given to me by friends and family. Still using those furniture. Perhaps I’ll get to buy some bedroom furniture and then some living room furniture. Definitely no rush since I don’t need anything at this point. Besides, I’m trying not to add more clutter in my life. I’m trying not to over consume.
To kick off this momentous occasion I decided to do my planned ride to Santa Monica this morning. I rode out around 8:30 am after I made a PBJ sandwich and loaded up with some energy drink and water. It was a chilly morning so I brought a light riding jacket. I rode east on Burbank Blvd to Sepulveda Blvd. A Harley rider pulls up to me on one of the stop and asks if I wanted to race for pinks. I laughed and said my bike don’t have pinks. He smiled and we went our separate ways.
I road the unfamiliar road down Sepulveda until I reached Wilshire. On Wilshire I went Northwest onto San Vicente into Brentwood. Brentwood was a scarier place to ride than any other neighborhood I’ve been today. People don’t know how to react with a bicycle on the road. I was able to signal a car to slow down on a right turn because a man was making his way slowly across the sidewalk. That was my good deed.
I followed San Vicente until it turned into Ocean. That was my destination and I pulled off into the park lined street to catch my breathe and eat my sandwich and rest up. After a few minutes of relaxing, I proceeded home. Going up Arizona. They closed the street on Second for a farmers market. I walked through the market and got back on my bike and road all the way to Barry Ave and turned right. I made my way to end of the street on Ohio and road up until that street ended. It brought me to Thayer and I made a right and ended up on Santa Monica Blvd. From SM Blvd I was on the bike lane until Avenue of the Stars. I then took the ramp down to Olympic Blvd. Took Olympic all the way to Rimpau. Turned left and the right onto 4th St. I took 4th all the way until it ended on Hoover. That was where I got lost. I somehow ended up on Sunset. I overshot where I wanted to be. I then rode back down Sunset towards Hollywood. Looked for Griffith Park Blvd. I was again held up a bit by another farmers market. Walked through that and proceeded to ride up to Los Feliz on GP Blvd. From there I took Los Feliz Blvd till the LA River Bike Path. I was finally at a place I had rode before. Went north on the path until I reached the end at Victory. I decided to take a more scenic path on Riverside Drive. I also decided to take a series of Bike Routes of Burbank. Until I couldn’t go further North. That lead me out to Buena Vista Blvd one block before the railroad track south of Empire Blvd.
All that took about 3 and a half hours and stretched out to about 55 miles. LA streets are pretty bad. Cracks and holes line almost all the streets that jarred the heck out of my poor bike as well as doing a number on my body. I’m a exhausted now but I’m glad I finally did this ride. Planned it for quite some time. Now I know what the journey looks like visually.
Happy Halloween!
On October 8th, I had the pleasure to attend a fundraising event that was hosted by Junior Achievement of Southern California. It was held at the Sports Museum of Los Angeles. First of all, I didn’t even know we had a sports museum here. Apparently the museum is not opened to the public. As we approached the building, it was a huge building located on the corner of Washington and Main. The entrance and parking lot was gated away from the hustle and bustle of the people traveling on the Blue Line Metro train tracks. In bright red letter it read, “Sports Museum”. For a place that was closed to the public, I find it ironic to have a bright red sign telling everyone outside that this was a sports museum.
I carpooled with Ron and as soon as we parked our car at the abundant parking spaces, we were greeted by a friendly gentleman who guided us to the registration table. We were given the option to sign-in or drop off a business card. I quickly dropped off my card so I can start exploring the 32,000 sq/ft of heaven at the world’s largest private collection of sports memorabilia. We walked right into an area where there was a complete gym set with antique equipment. We then perused around all the century old bikes on display. Obviously that was my favorite area of the entire place. There were bikes there that I’ve been reading about as well as bikes that I’ve only seen as drawings. It was incredible and impressive.
We couldn’t believe that this collection was from 1 person. My impression prior to this event was thinking that this would have been something that wasn’t going to be so expansive as it was. He’s got so many different sports highlighted through-out the facility. The owner, Gary Cypress, was an avid collector who focused on the evolution of sports. You can tell by the pieces he collected. For example, he had versions of footballs through the years.
Besides the free food provided by ESPN Zone for the event, we got to see the display of where his Honus Wagner tobacco baseball card would have been. This multi-million dollar card was not available that evening. We saw uniforms from Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Sandy Kofax, and other famous baseball heroes. He also have an extensive version of Los Angeles Rams jersey. Not to mention my favorite sport of basketball was on display with old school basketball rims and old basketball used back in the days.
Gary explained that he is opening this for private tours and charity events and may open it next year to the public. If that happens, I’m planning to go again for a closer look and spend time at each section. I’m sure I may have glanced over a few of the 10,000 collectibles and not notice their significance. See the remaining photos by clicking on the image below.
I decided to do a few things as part of my adventure for this beautiful Los Angeles Saturday. I pedaled up to my favorite train stop in South Pasadena and took the North bound train towards Pasadena. It was my first time riding the Gold Line up to the last stop in Sierra Madre. From there I made my way down 4 stories of car parking and rode over to Harbor Freight, Pasadena location. For those who don’t know what Harbor Freight is, it’s a store where you can find all sorts of miscellaneous tools and items you wouldn’t find at your local hardware store or even at an auto parts store. It was great because they had so many tools for all sorts of things.
I then cruised over to Sears across the street and bought a 15mm wrench. I finally used a gift card that had $0.94 of credit! One less card to carry. I made my way out of Sears and took the train to the Bike Oven. At the Oven, I had some time to work on my bike. I had to tighten up the chain ring bolts and rewrapped my handlebar. By time everything was over it was 5PM. Me and one of the volunteers decided to go get smoothies in Chinatown. We rode our bikes from Highland Park area and chilled out and chatted for about 30 minutes and went our separate ways.
I took the Gold Line and then transferred to the Red Line and got off Hollywood and Vine. From there I proceeded to the theatre that was having the 2008 Bicycle Film Festival. I was greeted by Mr. Rollers, a very well known photographer for the Midnight Ridazz. He offered to valet my bike and so I allowed.
First time getting my bicycle valeted and I don’t mind it at all, unlike car valets. I waited in line until 7:30 rolled around and we all finally got to see some movies about bicycles. It was inspiring. When we got out, the line for the next program was long! I wanted to stay back and catch this last showing but I was hungry and tired so I bolted out to the train station.
The train was crowded with families who spent their day at Universal Studios and were heading back home. I know because they were holding souvenirs. I got off at the Civic Center stop hoping to catch a bus and try using the bike racks in front of a bus for the first time. I waited almost an hour and no bus came so I got fed up and road home from Downtown LA to Alhambra. Fueled by popcorn, a smoothie, and a power bar from earlier in the day, my head was pounding as I made my 7 mile journey at 11PM. I quickly stopped by Yoshinoya and picked up a chicken bowl with a cup of water. A well deserved meal that eased the headache and my sore legs.
Not bad for a 19 mile day (according to my cyclometer).
Bicycle, Special Event, Travelling
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Bicycle, Bicycle Film Festival, Bike Oven, Chinatown, Gold Line, Harbor Freight, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Red Line, Sears, train
We made it back to LA last night. It was quick 2 hour flight. I slept most of the way in. We finally made it back to Marie’s place and we did some post-vacation administrative tasks. I still need to go home and wash my clothes and clear out some of the receipts from my trip. Who would’ve thought that vacationing is such hard work. I was exhausted last night and slept in till 11:30 this morning. We finally have pictures all uploaded on to my machine. I’ll have to process them and pick and choose which ones to upload here. Stay tuned for that. I do not want to go back to work. Looking at the messages coming in and out of my BB, it isn’t going to be a fun week. 
Despite the weather here being wet and cold, my gf and I decided to head on over to the LA Auto Show at the LA Convention Center. I was surprised to see so many people there this year. I went about 3 years ago and remembered there being a lot less. But with cars like the 2006 Bugati Veyron, I can see why the mass arrived. On the subject of the Veyron; This has got to be the most popular car in the show. Crowds of people was constantly flowing in and out of that car’s exhibit room for a chance to peak and see the $1.3 million car that top out about 250 mph.
My personal favorite was the new Lexus IS. That was “the car” that I had to see before leaving the show. Many people were buzzing over that car waiting to take a seat in the driver’s seat. I was one of them. Not only did this new IS seemed a bit more refined than the older one, the new one had many other great features. One being the paddle shifting on the steering wheel, much like what Ferrari is doing. The finished look of this car was very nice and up to par with Lexus standards. I didn’t feel they achieved this with the prior model, but they made sure the quality and luxury of all their Lexi (?) was represented here.
My other favorites were BMW and Mercedes’ exhibits. I was very disappointed with what Audi had to offer. All but maybe a couple of their models were silver colored. Alot of Audi and VW models are designed to look similar from one another, it was very difficult to tell an A6 to an A8 to an S8.
My favorite part of the show was the aftermarket section. They had more exotic cars there for the regular Johns and Joes to come up close and look and touch. These cars were probably customer cars that was brought in to sell the product the aftermarket store was selling such as rims or those invisible bra/stickers. I have not seen that many Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Bentleys assembled under 1 roof anywhere.
Like many other years, Porsche exhibit was at the same location and again their cars look pretty much the same. So it wasn’t too exciting. I didn’t really dive too much into the domestic market except the new muscle cars like the Chevy Camaro Concept, the Dodge Chargers, Chrysler 300, and Cadillac’s XLR.
I have to admit, this year’s auto show was much more impressive and kept my attention for a much longer time span than previous year’s. If you haven’t checked it out, you still got 1 more day!
Toys
| Audi, Autoshow, bmw, Bugatti Veyron, cars, Chevy, Convention Center, Dodge, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lexus IS, Los Angeles, Porsche, VW
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