The Heights

 On my last ride, I may have ridden too long.   I tried to fix that Wednesday.

I took the Park and Ride to downtown.   I managed to find an E Bike with a full charge (a first for Dan) and I kept it all day.    Here is a note about how the system works.    It's fine to check in and out all day with the standard B Cycle, but I now know that every time I checked this E Bike in and back out, the cash register went ding!   $8.64 for the day.    (B Cycle people, this was my doing, I should have known.)  Whatever, I worked about as hard as I do with the old 3 speed, but I went faster.

Monday, I had to go back home for my iPhone.   Wednesday, I reached into my backpack, and found that my insulated quart thermos of ice water was still on my kitchen counter!    Deal with it!  (By the way, as I write this two days after this ride, I asked a stranger to call my phone when I couldn't find it in the car.    It was on top of the car!   And we encourage this guy to ride a bike?)

I headed into the Washington Corridor for a few stations, then headed north to pick up the Eastern most Heights stations.  I rode through an old part of the heights, lots of old house, trees, and signs marking this as a historic district.  Bric-a-brac and wrap-around porches. and two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard, now everything is ........The Heights have so many cute little streets with cute little bungalows, and most of what I see is either restored homes, or new homes that try to blend in.   Three story homes no wider than the two-car garage seem to be the norm, but I see no McMansions.

Beach Park has an HEB water feature.   I may be 69 years old, but I hit the red button to activate the water jets, just as if I were seven!   

Where on earth am I?  The sign says 19th and Rutland and I thought I was riding through the Houston Heights, but I think I've been transported to downtown small town Americana!  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.

I was ready to stop, and hey, here's Heights Central B Cycle.  Right here is Ike's Love and Sandwiches, so I parked my bike and ordered my sandwich, and now I don't remember what I ordered, but it is good, and I like it.  The bread is listed as their own Dutch, and it's very tasty.   The décor up in the ceiling is lunchboxes!

It's a school holiday for Yom Kippur.   There are a couple of boys just outside a park on the main MKT bike trail, and they are selling lemonade and cookies!   Good, too!   Ice in my cup.   It doesn't get much better than this!

I have passed three ice cream places so far today, all in the Heights!  but was too full to stop.    When I finished with the heights in Stude Park.   I found that the new connecting trail from Stude Park to the MKT railroad bridge is not quite open, so I turned East on White Oak Trail and on to MKT, into downtown, where I swapped the E Bike for a ride on Metro rail to Wheeler.   I climbed aboard 152 to Westwood  Park And Ride.   An interesting thing here is Bus 152 doesn't stop between Wheeler and Hillcroft  Transit Center, which made the ride shorter than taking Bus 65, which was also an option.   See what I have learned!

My trip Wednesday was a good two hours shorter than Monday.   Good plan.