Friday: bikin' around the hood

After working diligently last Friday, I decided to reward myself with a post-work bike ride around Asheville.

West  Asheville yard art

Early in my ride, I passed by the yard art pictured above. Pretty cool, no?

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an older gentleman sitting out on his front porch, watching the suns start to set.

I Immediately wanted to take his picture. But alas, I have a hard time with that. 

Traveling as much as my wife and I do, we know you should always (yes always) ask people before you take their picture.

No matter how sneaky you think you are. Yes, this means you. You never know when the process of taking someone's picture is going to actually steal their soul.

In fact, I'm sure that technology is already out there. NSA, I'm looking in your direction.

More yard art

Worried about all this, but still intrigued by his appearance, I actually turned around and rode back up a giant hill, only to decide I would have ruined the older gentleman's sunset. Or somehow upset him.

But who needs an image when you have words, right? 

He looked like an old guy, sitting with his legs crossed on an unpainted wooden chair that's probably been on the porch since it was built in the 1950s. He gazed westward, contently watching the sunset over his neighbor's towering green trees.  

He wore jeans that hadn't been laundered lately - per Asheville regulations - and what I can only imagine was a blue flannel shirt, even though it was about 85 degrees outside. 

That's the cool thing about getting old: flannel in the summer. 

Also the name of my next studio album.

Sidewalk art

Natural art

For a few months now, I've been semi-obsessed with capturing an image of downtown Asheville from one of the mountain tops that surrounds the city. I've seen many of these images, but I can't figure out exactly which hill to climb.

Downtown Asheville is hiding in there somewhere

So, I rode up the most logical hill. It took about 20 minutes. And yielded the image above.

Close, but not the one I was hoping for.

At least the ride down was a blast. Winding my way through the trees, I made it back down in about two minutes. 

I suppose after five months here, that's my big theory. A biking theory. Any hill you climb, just lop a zero off the end of the time it took you to do so and that's how long it will take to get down.

For example:

• 20 minutes up, two minutes down
• 50 minutes up, five minutes down
• 10 beers up, one beer down

Once again, thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to purchase an FYiA commemorative cheese plate in the gift shop on your way out.