Biked into Center City today

I was so excited to bring my bike with me to Philly, but this feeling was dampened the other day when I finally tried to look up where the bike lanes are.  I came across a site where users could contribute location markers to a map to mark, for the most part, bad spots related to biking -- accident occurrences, nasty run-ins with drivers, intersections where cars tend to ignore you, and so on.  I was certainly scared off for a bit, but after gathering a bit more info (Google maps has an option to turn on a layer marking bike lanes, paths, and bike-friendly streets), I decided there was no other way to get started except to try it.

So while there was still enough light out this evening, I rode to Rittenhouse Square.  Taking Spruce and then Chestnut over the river provided bike lanes most of the way until about 22nd Street.  From there I moved onto the sidewalk.  Don't know if that's the appropriate thing to do (people on foot have the right of way, right?), but there seemed to be no space on the streets and I didn't want to be in the main car lane.

At the park I stopped to rest on a bench with no real plan of anything to do besides drink some water.  But soon a homeless(-looking) man shuffled over to my bench and sat on the far end.  He was muttering, and I couldn't really make out if he was saying anything sensible.  I kept thinking of that movie, with the homeless guy who's actually a fantastic musician...  So this guy had an old plastic drink container and I figured out he wanted some of my water.  I didn't know what else to do so I poured a bit in.  After that he headed off.

My unexpected encounters for the night were not over, though.  A guy came up to me -- I'd guess around my age -- and said hi, and then something like, "I have to tell you, you're really beautiful."  I was rather taken aback, and also wondered why he was so impressed when my hair was tied back and probably messy from biking, and certainly I wasn't dressed in anything special.  Either way, he introduced himself, and then we had at least a half hour conversation on the bench there.  He told me about Philly and how he loves skateboarding and biking and some mechanical stuff about cars that I didn't understand.  At least he was pretty nice, and friendly, and didn't do anything sketchy.  Eventually I said I was going to head home, and (again with some sidewalks though...) made it home before it was totally dark.

It was nice when I got back, because I felt like I accomplished something.  I figured out where some bike lanes were, made it to Center City and back.  And the sweat kind of felt good this time, since I accumulated it while actually doing some physical activity more than walking a couple of blocks.  So I decided I earned it.

...Seems like life in the city could be interesting.