Black Dahlia/Historic West Adams Mosey Wrap-Up

I’m usually the last one to shed my humility and  slap my own back, but if I do say so myself and obviously I do: this morning’s ride was an epic success — replete with spoke cards even:

scard

Yeah, I caved and bought a bargain basement laminator this week and roughed out some graphics that I then slapped between some plastic sheets last night, sealed them up and then cut ’em into bite sized portions, as seen above.

bdgroup

Thankfully I had some hearty fellow urban explorers to hand them out to! Above from front to back is Jessica, Ron, Hap, Roman, Ian and David. Who I met up with at Silversun Plaza. At the Biltmore we were joined by Kay — a veteran of past rides to Watts.  and after that as luck would have it Kay’s friend Ben rolled up on his Flying Pigeon  while fixing a flat on Kay’s bike at Hoover and Adams.

So from there the nine of us set out to check the remaining 18  of the 26 stops on the trek, which from one perspective looked a little sumthin’ like a whole bunch of pages tabbed in my book of record:

bdwam

It proved an invaluable if not bike-sized resource, but thankfully Jessica volunteered to shuttle it across town for us in her pannier, saving me time of having to put it back and pull it out of my backpack at each stop.

I’m not sure why, but one thing I’m never able to do on rides I’m leading is take  pictures. I’m usually a pretty good multitasker, but since I’m trying to remember the route (and it was a complicated route; check it out after the jump) and doing most of the talking (from text out of a book) I just can’t seem to remember to stop and haul out the cam. Thankfully I know pretty much everyone else was pixelizing everything so hopefully I’ll have some links soon to photo albums from the trip.

UPDATED (3:30 p.m.): And just like that, Hap’s images are already online in an awesome set that can be viewed here.

In terms of a timelapse vid, my cam lasted longer than I’d thought. its battery finally running out of juice just as we arrived on Adams Boulevard for the first two stops in that district. I’ll update this post with that clip as soon as I get it up on YouTube.

UPDATED (8:40 p.m.): Here’s the video:

After the last stop at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery followed by the late addition of historic Menlo Avenue between Adams and 29th Street, we all cranked it over to El Parian on Pico for their excellent food and then people started going there separate ways when Hap, Kay, Ben and I headed to the Marathon Expo at the Convention Center, where I went against a long-standing decision to crash the L.A. Marathon Bike Tour this time around out of protest over the date being moved to May, and instead went legit and registered because attendance is going to be way down and if there’s any year where I need to support this event that I’ve participated in since 1994, its 2009.

Tomorrow’s the Memorial ride across town to Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood  and maybe a side trip up to the Getty afterward. It departs at 9 a.m. at Silversun Plaza.

UPDATED (5/24): The photos of my keen-eyed friend David are up as well at this Flickr set.


ROUTE (numbers at end indicate stops)
Sunset East to Park
Park south (r) to Glendale
Glendale south (becomes 2nd)
2nd East through tunnel to Hill
Hill south (r) to 5th
5th west (r) to Olive 1
5th west to Flower
Flower south (l) to Washington
Washington west (r) to Figueroa
Figueroa south (l) to Adams 2,3,4,5
Adams west (r) to Chester 6
Chester south to Adams
Adams west (r) to Scarff
Scarff north (r) to St James Park 7
St James Park east to St James Place
St James Place south (r) to Adams
Adams west (r) to Hoover 8
Hoover south (l) to 30th
30th east (r) (becomes McLintock)
McLintock south to Jefferson
Jefferson west (r) to Denker
Denker south (l) to 36th Place
36th Place west (r) to Western 9
Western north (r) to 29th
29th west (l) to Arlington 10
Arlington south (l) to Rodeo
Rodeo west (r) to Coliseum
Coliseum west (l) to Norton
Norton south (l) to 39th 11
39th east (l) to Degnan
Degnan north (l) (becomes 11th)
11th north to Jefferson 12
Jefferson east (r) to 10th10th north (l) to Montclair
Montclair west (l) to Edgehill
Edgehill north to Adams
Adams east (r) to Arlington 13,14,15
Arlington north (l) to 24th 16,17
24th east (r) to Cimarron
Cimarron south (r) to 25th
25th east (r) across Gramercy Place (becomes Gramercy Park) 18
Gramercy Park to 24th
24th east (r) to St Andrews
St Andrews south (r) to Adams
Adams west (r) to Gramercy Place 19,20
Gramercy Place north (r) to 21st
21st west (l) to Cimarron
Cimarron north (r) to 20th
20th east (r) to Gramercy 20a
Cross Gramercy to 20th
20th east to Manhattan Place 21
Manhattan Place south (r) to 21st 22
21st west to Gramercy Place 23
Gramercy Place south (l) to 24th
24th east (l) to Western
Western north (l) to 22nd
22nd east (r) to Hobart
Hobart south (r) to 25th
25th east (l) to Harvard 24,25
Harvard north (l) to 22nd
22nd east (r) to La Salle
La Salle south (r) to 23rd
23rd east (l) to Congress
Congress south (r) to 24th
24th west (r) to La Salle
La Salle south (l) to 25th
25th east (l) to Normandie
Normandie north (l) to Washington
Washington east (r) to Angelus Rosedale entrance
Angelus Rosedale entrance north (l) into cemetery 26
Exit cemetery east (l) on Washington
Washington to Budlong
Budlong south (r) to Adams
Adams east (l) to Menlo
Menlo south (r) to 29th
29th east (l) to Hoover
Hoover north (l) to Union
Union north (l) to Pico
Pico east to El Parian
Pico east to Convention Center South Hall
Figueroa north to 2nd Street
2nd Street (l) to Glendale Blvd
Glendale north to Park
Park north (l) to Sunset
Sunset east (l) to Parkman

STOPS

1 Biltmore Hotel
2 Stimson House
3 St Vincent de Paul Church
4 Auto Club
5 St. John’s Episcopal Church
6 Chester Place (various)
7 Stearns-Dockweiler residence
8 2nd Church of Christ Scientist
9 Jackie Robinson’s 1947 residence
10 Diamond widow murder house
11 Black Dahlia body found (3825 Norton)
12 To Protect and Serve mural (11th & Jefferson)
13 MacGowan Residence
14 Guasti Residence
15 Fitzgerald Residence
16 Marquis Residence (Six Feet Under house)
17 Dupuy Residence
18 24th St Residence
19 Britt Residence
20 Clark Library
20A Congressional Medal of Honor Walther Ehlers Residence
21 Glover Residence (DeVilliers murder)
22 Brauer Residence
23 Asher Residence (Marvin Gaye’s murder)
24 Rindge Residence
25 Cochran Residence
26 Angelus Rosedale Cemetery
27 Menlo Avenue
28 El Parian
29 Convention Center