The difference between boys and men…

…is not that big at Bally’s Total Fitness. Consider the signs:

Please do not cut your hair in the sink.

Do not throw paper in the urinals. If seen, your membership may be revoked.

These are not metaphoric signs. They are pieces of paper pasted strategically throughout the locker room.

I’m sure this is not a phenomenon unique to Bally’s. At every gym I’ve ever visited, clients demonstrate a difficulty in returning dumbbells to their proper location, or removing weights from the barbell. In the unlikely event a bar is unloaded, it is a near certainty that barbells will not be returned to their homes.  Today there was an old apple core beside one of the cable machines.

In college, our coach would not let anyone leave the gym until every dumbbell and barbell was returned to its spot. This took less than 5 minutes.

Irony is everywhere. You would think people go to the gym to AVOID being a lazy slob.

Summer Adventure-Installment #2

starting line--the pickleball house

This OC ride was probably the finale, and it was nothing the like the 70 mile beat-down (from Newport to Redondo and back) I put myself through a couple of summers ago. This one was a leisurely cruise from the usual parking spot in south Newport, (near the house with the pickle ball court), up through Huntington to the pier.

U-turned it at the Huntington Pier

I stopped to watch the volleyball tournaments, picked up a discount pair of jeans at the Jack’s sidewalk sale, and snapped a few pics of what used to be, for some strange reason, my favorite beach. Now it’s odd if we visit Huntington more than once a year, and we were at the beach almost weekly this summer. 

I once spent the night in the sand enclosure in front of this beach house.

 

I ran into the dad of one of my high school friends and teammates on the way back; he was lounging on the boardwalk. I was lounging on the boardwalk. He has a house on the beach, I had a mountain bike, but we were in the same boat for a split second. That’s what I like about these summer ride-aways.

Amateur Outdoor Adventures Summer 2009 Edition

Last year it was a two-day nonstop Mt. Baldy blitz. Haven’t been backpacking since.

Wednesday Jake and I woke up at 5:30, worked out for an hour, came home, loaded the bikes, and commuted to Redondo. The bike ride took us from the Redondo Pier

Redondo Pier

through Hermosa, Manhattan, and Playa del Rey,

Playa del Rey, north of Manhattan and Hermosa

 around Marina Del Rey, into Venice

Venice again

 

 

 

Venice

and up through Santa Monica all the way to Temescal Canyon, just shy of Sunset and Malibu.

South view

 

The way up took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes, with a brief pitstop (we were seduced by a thirty foot climbing rope just south of the Santa Monica Pier):

Dude, you think you can climb that rope? (riding past)

(Glancing at the rope) Yeah.

Glancing back at the rope) You want to do it?

(Pause.) “Let’s do it.”

“Let’s go.”

(U-turn because at this point we’re about 100 yards past. Rope climb commences, and we’re back on our way.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The return trip took less time, and we made it back by 2:15.

Total travel time: 4 hours.

Total distance: 42.6 miles.