More Bike Racks

Speaking of Bike Racks, Russ of the Path Less Pedaled captured Q as he was installing the bike racks at Stone Cup.  Stone Cup, which attracts many cyclists was in dire need and Q had been working with David, the owner, about getting new racks. 

  I love this picture of Q.  Russ, with a true photographer eye, caught the essence of Q, the bike rack man!

  And these are the bike racks installed.  I am loving these artistic racks!

Thanks, Q!

Big River Welcomes Cyclists

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Big River Welcomes Cyclists
Originally uploaded by donolmt

Of course, any landmark event deserves an after party to celebrate. Big River Grille (don't be fooled by their website.  They may have grown but Big River is Chattanooga, born and bred) came through for us.

Trek brought displays for the pool table!

 

Melissa Taylor, Chattanooga'sTransportation Planning Leader, and Phil Pugliese, Chattanooga's Bike Director

Sondra Aten of Collective Clothing and Ruth Thompson of Outdoor Chattanooga

Fellow Models- The Stone Cup Gang- Laura, Rusty and Stacy

Two more who have been known to show style on the bike,  Patrick  Hall and the Lady Jane

Click here for more pictures!

Abandoned (and other car issues)

I drove my car today. No. I am not driving it because of the wintry mix. I am driving it because the city threatened to tow it away if I did not move it

Abandonment sticker-notice how dirty my car is

    I have not driven my car since- well, I can't remember when I drove it last. It has been several months at least. My car has developed a bad habit of not starting on command. I have to have Q come over and jump it whenever I want to drive it. When you have to go to that much trouble to drive, suddenly very few trips are worth it

     So there it sat, on the side of the road, parked slightly cocked eyed( I cannot for the life of me park straight) collecting dirt, pine needles and other fallout from the trees it is parked next to.

    Apparently it was gathering a forlorn and abandoned air. Someone even left a note on it asking if I was willing to sell it. He would take it whether it was running or not.


     He was not the only one who thought it was a forgotten car. The city came by and slapped an abandoned sticker on it. It said I had ten days to move it or it would be moved for me. How nice of them to offer!

     I meant to move it and clean it up before now, but considering how much trouble it is to start it and then keep it running for awhile so it would start again, I had not done it before today-and today was the tenth day.

     Q came over to jump it (he has been so sweet to do this whenever I asked, regardless of weather, and the "wintry" mix is quite nasty today) and I left it running until I was ready to meet Q at Stone Cup for breakfast  I also left it running while in Stone Cup, blowing all my environmental capital that I have earned for riding the bike. Well, I try.

     I did not have any sessions this morning and while I was in my car, I thought it was a good time to get the emissions testing that Chattanooga requires for yearly registration. Since I never had my car out running enough to go by the testing site, my registration expired. Probably added to the abandoned air.

     I went by my studio first to stop and start the car just in case it didn't start up again and I would be where I needed to be. It started fine.

     I went to the testing site, stopped the car, got out and went in the waiting room. It wasn't long before the tester came in and said my car wouldn't start. Test flunked. At least they were kind enough to give me my money back. They wouldn't jump it though and just pushed my car around the corner, leaving me to deal with it.

     I was contemplating what my next step would be- I had already called Q but he wasn't answering- when I tried to start it again, and behold, it started right up! The testers had not even gotten back inside so I asked if we could resume the test. No telling when I will get a chance to come back-probably not till the next time I am forced to drive.

    But no, I was told I had to get it fixed before I came back. Durn!

     But I did get myself to the car repair place to get this figured out. I am sitting here waiting for the bad news.

     I don't think this is going to be pretty!

Stone Cup Visit

Yesterday morning Q and I had breakfast at Stone Cup. Q goes out for breakfast as his regular thing but during the week I rarely do so. I like the coziness of my own home for my morning oatmeal. but circumstances led me to go out with Q on this morning.




Stone Cup was doing a bustling business. It was closes for a while and it is good that business seems to have bounced back. Maybe even better then before. Chattanooga has had,in recent history, great coffee shops with several that do their own roastering (I read once that Chattanooga has more roasters per capita then Seattle. Who knew?) But at one time there seemed to be a trend for these coffee shops to develop ownership/management problems. It was like a virus that fell over our most favorite coffee shops. It was getting hard to go and find a spot to enjoy a good cup of coffee.



But it seems Stone Cup is back. and is better then ever. The new owner has brought in fresh ideas. He has brought more of a reading room atmosphere to the place with lamps were positioned next to the couches and chairs-I never understood why many coffee shops are kept so dark that reading at night is very difficult. Pictures of banned authors have been placed on the wall plus the banned books are for sell.



But of course, a coffee house is about the coffee. The coffee is still being roasted by Jennifer Stone and her gang so that is the same as always. But Q, as much as he loves coffee, judges his morning coffee house visits by the oatmeal being served. While Stone Cup was going through its woes, their oatmeal got very inconsistent. Q, patience finally running out, quit going. There is nothing that can set a negative outlook to life then stiff, lumpy oatmeal.



I am pleased to say Stone Cup has gotten its game back and has been producing consistently good oatmeal. Q believes you can judge the state of the management by the oatmeal and I agree with him. As these coffee shops started going through their woes, the first sign was a decline in oatmeal quality. Don't know why, but that is what we have found in our experience.



Of course, Stone Cup's location provides unique amenities. The view out the garage doors is the one of the best views of the bridge. The doors are raised on nice days to open out to the patio.

And the bike parking is covered! The breeze way next to the shop serves as the ideal bike parking place. On rainy days, I feel bad if I am in the cozy dry while my bike is left out in the rain. And then there is the coming back to a rain logged seat. Invariably I left something in my panniers uncovered. So covered bike parking is the best.



As to be expected for a coffee shop on Frazier Ave, there are plenty of bike riding patrons. The only business that I can think of in town that regularly have more bikes parked outside their door is Greenlife. So Stone Cup is definitely part of the laid back biking lifestyle.

It is so good to have Stone Cup back!

Urban Riding and Hooch watching

Today was again one of those breath taking beautiful fall days. We, after an extremely wet fall start, are having our days of such autumn magnificent, that there is no choice but to get out in it.
After a typical Saturday morning breakfast at the Blue Grass Grille, Q and I decided to join the bike club ride to Crabtree Farms. Crabtree is an urban farm owned by the city and is runned by a nonprofit to produce and introduce organic vegetables to Chattanoogans. That is just one of the small treasures of our city that I feel makes it unique and special.


The ride was lead by Sydney Roberts who has a CSA membership at the farm. Periodically she uses her weekly pick up as a chance to organize an easy, relaxing ride for all who wants to join in.
The group was split almost evenly between urban riders with our city bikes and regular clothes and road bikers with bike clothes and dropped handle bars.

Every one seemed to enjoy themselves. At one time when all of my biking was the road biking type, I wouldn't have thought the distance and difficulty level was even worth getting my bike out for. But I am over that line of thinking

It was nice to see the farm and ask questions about its production. It is 22 acres with about half of that in production. They support 60 CSA's, sell at the Main Street Market and to Greenlife and have a U-Pick part of the farm. All organically. That is quite a high rate of production.

I was so busy looking around the farm that I forgot to get pictures. Take my word for it, it was beautiful.
After the ride some of the riders went to the newly reopened Stone Cup for lunch. Here we are sitting outside, overlooking Coolidge Park

Then on to shopping and other errands. The wonderful thing about biking it gets you to experiences just by riding by that was not on your list to attend. Car driving isolates you. Really, the only unexpected encounters to be had in a car are traffic jams.

No traffic jams for me! Instead, all the goings back and forth and along the river gave me a chance to experience the Head of the Hooch, one of the country's largest rowing regattas. Beautiful day, beautiful water, beautiful rowing.

I know I am overusing the word beautiful lately, but what else can I say? Even without seeking it, my bike riding gives me the gift of beauty. Can I help it that I find myself taking notice of it, that I feel it soaking into me, enriching me? That my vocabulary seems to be limited? Maybe I should buy a thesauras.