Friday night, I dropped a granddaughter off at a meeting in Montrose and started riding my bike in the south part of Montrose. I have no pictures because it was getting dark. Sorry. I tried to stay on neighborhood streets with no traffic. Fairview is a street that works well, as it will get you close to several B Cycle Stations.
I started at Freed Library, rode through St Thomas (nice little campus), And drove past the Rothko Chapel and the Menil Collection. Alabama, Richmond and Westheimer have all sorts of little restaurants, cafes, and bars, most were rather busy on a Friday night. Taft and Fairview has a busy Mexican Restaurant, but there is also an Art Gallery with the large windows where you could see the beautiful people being cool looking at strange art while holding their drinks and canapes (I could not spell hor'something, and my spell check was no help).
Riding on Houston streets, especially at night, is like playing FROGGER. If you ask me what that is, please send me a Geritol. It seems that everyone in Houston, no, Texas, has a death wish. Cars seem to take aim at bikes, pedestrians cross Southwest Freeway at 3:00 in the morning and we wonder why we have so many deaths, and we cyclists are just as bad. We do not own the roads! Stop signs and traffic lights are there for us, too.
I looked it up on the TxDot website. November 7, 2022 will mark 21 years of constant daily highway fatalities. People, we average 10 a day! Even worse, during the pandemic lockdown when traffic dropped by 50 percent, fatalities actually went to 11 per day!
OK, enough preaching.
Saturday morning I headed to Buffalo Bayou and Eleanor Tinsley Park. Road were closed because of an art festival, and the walkways were crawling with people on some kind of organized walk. Parking is never easy down there, but can anyone figure out the signs on the Allen Parkway parking areas? Every post says emergency no-parking. I watch too many UTube videos from GTOGER where we watch tow trucks haul away cars because people cannot read signs, so I went to another station, parked, and started riding.
I am not the only one doing this Tour de B Cycle. I met several. The check-in and right back out is the give-away! I lost track of how many times I crossed the bayou, but it was worth looking at every time. Beautiful weather, many people out walking, riding, walking dogs, playing, and just enjoying NOT melting in the heat!
Spotts Park had a parking space, so I started there. Crossed the bayou and went to Eleanor Tinsley Park. The Sabine Bridge is real close to The Cistern, and I found my first restroom. Short ride to the next station. Took me a while to figure out how to cross Memorial and go up Sawyer to two stations. Long stretch of back streets to Pearl Washington, and now I am heading south to the other side of the bayou.
The Lost Lake station is across Allen Parkway from Lost Lake, which looks like someone used a lot of concrete on a bog. A notable feature of Lost Lake B Cycle is that it is in the shade! How did that happen?
My map told me I was close to the Royal Norwegian Consulate General, and I had never seen it. Seen it, got the T Shirt. My final Montrose station was Regent Square. Nice buildings, the B Cycle is bolted directly to the concrete, has no solar panel, and just looks very neat.
I'm on my way home. The nearest B Cycle stations to me are the Inner Loop SW stations. Now, I love our B Cycle staff, but its obvious there were a number of spread out stations that didn't fit into a neighborhood. Welcome to Levy Park, north of Southwest Freeway, and many miles from my Meyerland JCC station, on Brays Bayou. Levy Park is not easy to get to, it's kinda hidden. It is also a very beautiful little park that includes carts full of games, art supplies and books, and I saw teenagers playing with a pile of toy trains. There is a dog park with some of the most active dogs anywhere! The children's play area is incredible. There is a putting green with toddlers trying to putt. Cute. Even some food trucks.
But here's the thing. The bike station is across the street from the park. It is labeled "Levy Park" and all bikes (I saw three E Bikes) have the City of Houston Seal. Levy Park is a Houston City Park, with the longest list of rules I have ever seen, to inlude: NO CYCLING. I was asked to leave by security. Despite all the rules, the place enjoys a lot of usage.
Went home and took a nap. Sunday, I may pick up some loose ends.
F
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