October 13, 2015 – Sun, 90 degrees

Miles Today: 10

Miles to Date: 8,436

States to Date: 25

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City began as newspaper stories about San Francisco, a place rich in variety and vignette. In just a few short hours today I chronicled a few of my own tales from this fascinating place.

I cycled down Haight Street, which may be faded but still has its place in counter-cultural lore.

I navigated The Wiggle, a bike route of lefts and rights that maintains a relatively flat grade in this city of monstrous hills.

I appreciated beautiful painted ladies …

and visited a few other ladies as well – at Good Vibrations, a female-positive local chain of sex shops.

I learned that politics is a social activity in this city, and that gardens don’t need soil.

I lunched at Salumeria in the emerging Mission District with Shannon Weber, an inspiring mother / social worker / artist whose loveyou2.org brings love and affirmation to people everywhere. She introduced me to kombucha, a locally fermented drink, though our barista told us that beet juice is the new rage.

I couldn’t resist stopping at Volute, a tech start-ups at Otherlab where they work with their garage door open. Amy was happy to tell me all about their innovative CNG tank prototype configurations.

By mid afternoon I was overwhelmed by the energy of the city – and it was ninety degrees outside. Intellectually, I know that weather is not climate, but it has been unseasonably warm wherever I’ve been for three months now. This man cannot pedal his way out of global warming. So, since I had to take BART to get to the East Bay anyway, I opted to train all the way to Pleasant Hill, a distant suburb where I had a long overdue reunion with my good college friend Ed and his wife Daphne. Boston has its charms, but I would happily give up a few of them for a subway as clean and efficient as I enjoyed today.