Diversions

I never knew Micky Mouse was born at 31st and Forest. This was among the things I learned riding around Midtown and the Bottoms with Corinna the other day.




We had Arthur Bryant's by way of a birthday meal. It'd been about fifteen years since I'd eaten there, but I remember the carboys of sauce in the window. Wonder if they're the same ones, still aging since...







Took the time to really look at Scribe's legal wall on Southwest Boulevard (Dessert Feud).






Hit a flea market that had some cool old bikes, including some great looking Schwinn's from the made-in-Chicago days.












We also visited the Turkey Creek Diversion Tunnel. Corinna told me how she'd looked up some microfiche articles about when it was built, 1915 or 1918 (she couldn't remember and we couldn't tell for sure looking at the inscription).







The city of Rosedale, then an independent entity, came up with it because Turkey Creek had a bad habit of flooding and being unruly.




I guess you can't throw an unruly creek in jail, so they gave the creek diversion, running it underground for about a mile. Quite a piece of engineering, really.






And we visited the apparent ruins of an old power plant. The stacks are all that's left, I guess the scrap metal and whatnot had some value. I'm surprised, tall as they are, that they don't have safety lights for aircraft even if it is a defunct plant.


When we got back, the flint I picked out of my tires and the general wear and tear they've been taking from some of our non-paved adventures, I'm going to have to buy a different sort of bike tire next time around. The RaceLites are fine for on the street, but I think I'd be better served (for the same money, more or less) with one of the touring tires Schawlbe, Continental or Vittoria make. That, or I might go for the Air-Free tires. Looks like they weigh something like half a pound to a pound more than conventional tires, and it's impossible to have a flat.

Or, if you want a super light air-free tire and money is no object, they do offer an option any racer would love, the Mythos Unobtainia...