Yeah, I'm back home now where I feel nice & safe
Now I don't mean to sound so harsh, but you just don't always see urban decay on such a scale and concentrated doses here in NY. Sudden changes in scenery can catch me off guard. Wish I could have stopped to take pictures - I could stare at & explore urban ruins all day (anyone remember that old busted-up building just off the CMWC course?)


* * *So going into Baltimore went like this:
R1 rolled on and on, long hills that you sometimes had to charge to climb up. Many cars and trucks, and the wide shoulder thinned out to a gutter about 10 inches wide at times. At first it was straight-up country riding. Finally, signs of civilization - car dealerships, strip malls, fast food joints. Had to time the stoplights going thru - the road was pretty much hill after hill. I guess that was the suburbs.

Eventually, that thinned out to some low-level shops and apartment buildings. Some signs of poverty. Several blocks later it started looking pretty severe - large, burned out buildings, fenced off, abandoned, collapsing in places.

Right around then, my boss pulled over to finish a pepsi. He then nonchalantly dropped his empty on the ground and started to push off. A bunch of locals saw him do it and started calling him out to pick it up. I hadn't stopped rolling but I was like "dudewhatareyoudoing?!" and punched it. It felt good to be back in the city hauling ass again. When those downtown buildings finally came into view I started whooping it up.

One of the first things I saw when we got into the harbor area was a FG rider on what I believe was an orange KHS. But I never saw another one when I went out hunting on Thurs. & Fri. nights. Hardly any riders at all after dark, it seemed. Still, the varied terrain made for good riding. Very different than the ample flats of nyc..and those rails scared me. More on that later.