The Spokesrider

I’ve been slow at blogging lately. Not much bikeriding, either. I can think of several excuses, one of which is duties at work. Speaking of which, the above is a photo taken just before riding home from work in early May 2006. I found it while looking for other photos. When I explain where I [...]

At this point on Sunday afternoon’s ride, I thought I was approaching the intersection across from which lay Harvey Jones’ farm. I stopped here just in case there wasn’t anything else to take a photo of. But I was off by half a mile, which I came to realize when I stopped to visit at [...]

The article that inspired the name for the new blog, Front Porch Republic, tells of a 1975 essay titled “From Porch to Patio”. It explains how homes used to be built with front porches where people could interact with their neighbors. Now we more often have patios in back. They are more secluded and private–places [...]

Tonight I rode home from work the long way, which is a mile or so longer than my usual route. It’s a route with less traffic than the usual, so I felt free to work on my assignment for the course in Conversational Russian that I’m taking. It’s a non-credit course that meets one night [...]

This rather bleak scene is from my last history ride of 2007. I was reminded of it when riding home from work today, listening to “Demon of the Waters: The true story of the mutiny of the whaleship Globe,” by Gregory Gibson (2003). I started on the book last week. Then I ran into a [...]

Climax, Michigan is on the route for a lot of my rides to Indiana. It’s 13 miles from home, and sometimes I make my first stop of the day here in the town park to make adjustments. On a very hot Sunday in July 2006, I stopped when traveling in the other direction, on my [...]

This was from my first photo stop on Sunday afternoon’s bike ride, about 12 miles from home. The land for sale is on Climax Prairie in Kalamazoo County. I suppose the scene doesn’t look very interesting, but the place is interesting to me because of a much earlier land sale. Andrew Hays of Marshall, MI [...]