Uptown and Memorial Park

   

One of the challenges of bicycling as well as B Cycling, is getting to the start point, if you live some distance away.  I have gotten pretty good at taking Park & Ride buses down Southwest Freeway to downtown and the Medical Center, and then getting on my own bike, or using a B Cycle, but how the heck can you get to the Post Oaks and 4 Oaks Station in Up Town?

I am very leary of parking in Houston.   Commercial Park garages charge too much, and most store parking lots have signs that threaten to tow me away if I am not a customer.   One of my favorite group of videos on YouTube are the tow truck videos (GTOGER) where idiots who ignore the numerous signs, come back to find they must pay $150 if they want their car back.

What to do then?   Well, in Uptown, there is the Silver Line.   This is a bus that acts like a Metro Rail train, with it's own dedicated roadway, and stations, but without the massive cost of  overhead power and tracks.   I parked at the Lower Uptown station on West Park and took this novelty.   Do not be afraid of the fact it's a bus, I was almost the only rider.   The bus took me right to the 4 Oaks station area.    Stopped at one of the nicer McDonald's for a fish sandwich, and then crossed the street to look for the B Cycle Station.    Aah, someone is getting sneaky!   The app said there were four bike, and not only were there NOT four bikes, slots 10, 11, and 15, that showed bikes, the slots didn't exist!    What the......?   I looked around for a few minutes, and found the rest of the station a block away!    Don't I have enough trouble with technology?

Got me an E Bike and headed North East, following Uptown Park Blvd right to the Loop frontage road, where I turned left onto an almost hidden, but very smooth concrete trail that took me North to Woodway, where I crossed under 610 Loop and entered Memorial Park.   Full separation from car traffic, put the brain in neutral and cruise!   I soon found myself at the Living Bridge and a B Cycle station.   The Living Bridge makes about 3/4 of a circle up and over Memorial Drive, then falls prey to construction detours.   That's OK, I had nothing  else to do.   

I followed a very nice dirt/crushed gravel trail that followed the Memorial Loop Dr, a fair piece until I found a legal way to cross loop drive and headed back South where I picked up an East Bound trail that took me around the Land Bridge construction and almost out of the park before it would let me cross Memorial and go to the MP Picnic Loop, where another bike station is.    Continue West on the trail.

Right in the middle of Houston, it looks like they are recreating the prairie that once was here.   The city planners, I guess they miss their Tonka Trucks,  are constructing two land bridges over

Memorial Drive and I hope eventually there will be cool trails over them.   But right now, I kept going west until  I encountered the trail that parallels the railroad.   A bonus today was two trains heading south at the same time.   I will tell you the first one was going to Sugarland Business Park, because I have chased that one so often, that I know these things!

I got back on the Memorial Drive trail and headed back to Uptown, with a minor trip down South Post Oak lane.   Total distance on the bike: 7.19 miles, but I could have done a shorter trip into the park.

If you take your own bike on public transportation, remember:   Silver Line and Metro Rail, take the bike into the train.    standard city bus, put it on the rack on the front of the bus (there are only three steps and they are numbered!), and there is a rack under Park and Ride buses where you can slide your bike.   I would drop the seat before stashing.

And a final thought, it took me a long time of experimenting, but if I insert the pictures first, I can type around them and put the text next to the right image.    I can be taught, but it is very messy.