Category: Albuquerque

Return of Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 12 Comments
Out near El Malpais National Monument on a shoot for the Adventure Cycling Association.
Out near El Malpais National Monument on a shoot for the Adventure Cycling Association.

The New Mexico Touring Society, New Mexico Bicyclist Educators and the Adventure Cycling Association are throwing a hoedown on Sunday at Balloon Fiesta Park, right here in Duke City, to celebrate the new Bicycle Route 66 with presentations and speechifying, New Mexican grub and (of course) a bit of cycling.

In honor of the ACA’s visit to my little ciudad, I have been empowered to arrange a number of free six-month trial memberships to the beautiful and talented people who follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or lurk around this blog waiting for me to pull my thumb out and get caustic, funny or both.

Members get discounts on maps, access to special organized tours, and Adventure Cyclist magazine, wherein one may discover glistening pearls of wisdom from cycling authorities who are not me. But I’m in there too.

Click the link and saddle up. See you on the road.

Here comes the sun

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 17 Comments
It's all right.
It’s all right.

One of these days I’m bound to get tired of the view out the back door. But not today.

My mood may be extraordinarily light because we’re actually getting a refund from Uncle instead of having to forward the usual duffel bag full of tear-stained greenbacks to the Eternal Revenue Service.

I’ve lobbied heavily to direct this windfall toward consumer spending, in order to jump-start the economy going into the 2016 elections, but Herself just chuckles and tells me to get back to work. I think she’s a closet Republican.

Perro-Roubaix

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 26 Comments
Never did find the damn velodrome, though. I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque.
Never did find the damn velodrome, though. I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

Them’s what y’call your free-range, grass-fed, humanely raised, non-GMO, gluten-free, all-American, New Mexican pavé, cuate. I bet you even John Degenkobble would have a few misgivings about riding this lot.

Dig it

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 15 Comments
A stretch of the Paseo del Bosque trail, south of the zoo.
A stretch of the Paseo del Bosque trail, south of the zoo.

There are times — even when my eyeballs feel sandpapered and my snout is clogged like the Paseo del Norte at rush hour — when I think I was pretty smart to let Herself take that job with the Military-Industrial Complex here in Duke City.

A recently resurfaced section of the Bear Canyon Arroyo trail, just west of Tramway.
A recently resurfaced section of the Bear Canyon Arroyo trail, just west of Tramway.

Like today, when I read in the Albuquerque Journal that Duke City just broke ground for a project to create a 50-mile bike loop around town.

About 80 percent of the “Activity Loop” trail already exists, and I’ve ridden quite a piece of it. Mostly it’s a matter of linking up and sprucing up all the various bits and pieces. Bike-ped bridges, on-demand signals, striping improvements, and what have you. The project will take years — the work is to be done in nine phases, as money becomes available — and cost about $20 million.

This sort of thing is not a panacea for problems like violent crime, trigger-happy cops, chronic long-term unemployment, and a sluggish economy. But it can help make a town a better place to live, which in the long term might help address at least a few of these issues.

I did most of my 61-mile birthday ride on separated bike path. The rest was on streets that were designated bike routes or had bike lanes. Not bad for a place where Bugs Bunny was always missing that crucial left turn.