A Saturday Morning Bike Ride

Yesterday morning I went on a bike ride by myself.  Since he got his bicycle, Tom has usually come with me, but he didn't yesterday morning, so I could stop and look at things that usually we just ride by.  Here is what I saw.

I rode into the Piedmont Park extension, across Monroe, and over the wooden bridge that goes across Clear Creek, which runs behind Ansley Mall and eventually joins (or perhaps becomes) the South Fork of Peachtree Creek.  Although it may be less polluted than it used to be, as the city has been forced to address storm sewer overflow issues, it still sometimes smells of sewage.  There are signs that say no fishing and no wading.  So it's always a surprise to see wildlife there.  Looking north from the bridge, there was a pair of ducks.

Once I was through Piedmont Park and back across Monroe, there was the ghost bike in memory of the Grady High School student riding her bike home following a school theater performance who was struck by a car and killed in February.  I've ridden by here a number of times but had not stopped before.  Near the ghost bike there's a memorial to Alexia.

Continuing south on the Eastside Trail, there are koi painted on the trail.  I know the Beltline people are fanatical about unauthorized art, but I really like these.  I think the same artist has painted koi on the sidewalks on Edgewood; I probably have pictures from there, too.

In Inman Park, there was a new tiny door I hadn't seen, from TinyDoorsATL.  

And one of the old tiny doors has been relocated.  This is the one at the overpass near the skate park.

Coming back across Clear Creek, looking south this time, there were these turtles sunning themselves on a partially submerged log.

And finally, on that long uphill stretch of Cumberland Road, I stopped at the Little Free Library.  There was a Post-It note on the door, saying the books were all new as of April 16.  I looked, and somewhat to my surprise found (along with the expected popular fiction) a copy of Balzac's Old Goriot and Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.  What a great neighborhood.

You miss a lot, if you don't stop to look.