Los Angeles Is Like A Big Dumpster Of Fortune Cookies: Ya Never Know Whatcha Gonna Get

I can’t lay claim to discovering the Dumpster of Fortunes, found where Commercial Street deadends into the Los Angeles River and photo’d and Flickr’d by some intrepid urban explorers a couple/three years ago, but I have paid it several visits since I learned about it — the latest being yesterday’s “Ten Bridges” ride, which thanks to the magique of the inturnipst wasn’t a solo endeavor as I’d figured it would’ve been.

Instead I was very pleasantly surprised to find four morning-minded fellow cyclists — Hap, Alex, Helen and Jared — awaiting my arrival at the start point, and away we went on the viaduct-crossing excursion, the last two bridges of which were not captured on my increasingly glitchy handlebarcam:

When early on Hap dropped the knowledge on me that fortune cookies were invented in Los Angeles (there’s a history of the treats here that also lists San Franciso as the snack’s origin), I knew I had to show him the Dumpster of Fortunes — and hope it hadn’t been emptied yesterday. Thankfully it hadn’t.

While at first it seems entirely incongruous why a large trash receptable pretty much in the middle of nowhere would be almost entirely filled with fortune cookies, the reality is Amay’s Bakery & Noodle Company is located right there and these are their discards.

Next week’s rides will most like be a combo Black Dahlia/Historic West Adams mosey on Saturday, followed by a Los Angeles National Cemetery/Getty Museum cruise on Sunday. More details to come on those.

Hap’s excellent photo album of the ride is viewable here.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."