Down Donovan Street

August 12, 2025

Rachael's been after me to come up with some rides we can take right from home rather than loading the bikes into the car and driving somewhere, so last night I drew up a pair of them for her consideration. One goes northwest, an out and back to the Lummi Island ferry; and the other goes southeast, skirting Lake Whatcom on the east side of Chuckanut Mountain before cutting west to the end of Colony Road. Both are generally flat and roughly 35 miles long if followed to their farthest point before turning back. They're quite different otherwise though, with the one to Lummi Island exposed to the full sun most of the way and the Lake Whatcom ride offering much more possibility of shade as it passes through the woods on the slope of the mountain.

We're still in the midst of a heat wave, so the Lake Whatcom ride is the obvious choice once I point out that there's a gas station/market strategically placed as a pit stop along the way. We wait around until ten and then we assemble for the ride and head out to the car to unload my bike. We find a favorable omen on the hood, indicating a great ride ahead.

Another reason to prefer black cars over white ones.

With our Garmins checked to validate they've both got the correct route loaded, we mount the GoPro to my bike and we're off heading east and downhill on Donovan Street.

We don't get far though, as almost immediately I holler ahead for Rachael to stop, because my chain is off the chainring, something that apparently happened when the bike was loaded into or out of the car. It just takes a few seconds to lean across the bike and remount it's and we're off again.

We don't get far this time either though, although it takes me a few hundred yards to notice the soft, rhythmic thump that indicates I may have a flat tire. Rachael's well down the road, but I bellow her to stop - it's a good thing that we're both blessed with a healthy set of lungs and can shout each other down at great distance - and as I pull up to her it's apparent that I've definitely got a flat.

It's late enough into a hot day that it doesn't make sense to take the time to fix a flat, especially since the bike is going into the shop tomorrow anyway. We redefine the day as a hike for Rachael and another rest day for my golfer's elbow, and turn back to the house.

And depending on how you look at this we're either really lucky or really unlucky. It's unlucky that I've gotten a flat already on a tire that's essentially brand new. But it's really lucky to have it here and now - within easy walking distance of home, and especially not after having invested a half hour drive to get to a ride we'd probably have scrapped.

And it's lucky too that we biked far enough to have video!

Sound track: Sambalelê, by Anat Cohen and Trio Braziliano

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It doesn't take long until I'm back on the porch, sitting in the shade with the camera ready and alert for that Steller's jay. What I find instead though is that a garden spider has been hard at it this morning so I sit down on the porch close to it to take a shot.

The Canon isn't quite as good on close-ups as the phone though, so I get up to grab the phone, but when I sit down again catastrophe occurs when I inadvertently break free one of the anchoring lines that apparently was attached to the deck. I feel guilty ruining her morning's work, but I at least might as well take a shot now that the evil deed is done.

Awhile later I remember a task I had planned for a convenient time: to see if I could find the house Carol And I shared with Alan and Larry 55 years ago when I was a student at Huxley College. Carol and I have been comparing notes on what we remembers and putting them together I'm pretty sure it's less than three blocks from here - probably on the northwest corner of Donovan and either 21st or 22nd.

I could walk, but it's easier to hop in the car so I can drive through all of the nearby streets looking for possibilities, hoping to find one with similar shingle siding. It's not here any more though, and neither is any of the older houses that would have been there at the time. Everything here now on that side of Donovan is fairly new construction, most of it low cost, trailer-like units that look like student housing managed by the nearby university.

Back on the porch, I sit around for a few hours while Rachael starts off on her walk, bound for the Amazon locker over by Fred Meyers to pick up the replacement she ordered for her lost shirt that we finally gave up looking for. I'm still hoping for the Steller's jay, but am happy to get a somewhat reasonable look at a western grey squirrel rustling around high in the red maple tree.

A closer look at our flowering ash. We were lucky to have arrived while it was still in bloom, because they've all gone now.

When four comes I head down to the waterfront and have a happy hour meal, thinking I'll check out the bay for birds when I'm done. When I come back out to the car though it's still blistering hot so I just return home to the cool of the porch. Before long Rachael returns, carrying her new long sleeved shirt (a great bargain at $11), and raving about one of the best frozen yogurt stops of her life. In her words:

What can be better than pistachio, chocolate mint and tropical fruit frozen yogurt, not mixed together! Even better on a hot day. This is the best frozen yogurt I've had anywhere! Mencheis Frozen yogurt was it's name. I'm definitely gonna have to go there again!

With so many other customers around she felt too embarrassed to take a photograph of it, so of course we'll have to go back. Soon.

She does return with a very nice bunny shot, a surprisingly good one given that she shot it with her phone:

Another eastern cottontail, the same species as the one that hangs out in our yard in the early morning.

And then she models her new shirt, which I agree is very nice.

And later, just as we're getting ready to watch tonight's show (The Bookshop, with Bill Nighy and Emily Mortimer) a surprised laugh comes out from the bedroom. The lost shirt we exhaustively looked everywhere for has turned up, on the floor next to the bed. Remarkable.

Today's ride: 1 mile (2 km)
Total: 516 miles (830 km)

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