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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Biking around BWI Airport


For a very different bike ride the 10 mile loop around the BWI Airport is a great way to view the airport from many different perspectives.  Starting at the parking lot of BWI viewing area off of Route 176 the biking route winds around the perimeter of the airport.


On the backside of the airport route is this sculpture near a horse farm


By the Maryland Transportation Office these strange manikins are supposed to represent something but I an not sure what.

After going around the airport you can continue on the B and A bike trail to make the ride about 30 miles.
We don't always appreciate how the bike paths in Columbia were designed to not cross major intersections.  I can go from Savage Park to the Columbia Athletic Club, a ride of about 10 miles and only have to cross two streets.  The B and A trail in Glen Burnie makes you cross some busy roads like the one below.


One of the interesting features of the B and A trail is the sun and planet demonstration with representative sculptures. The Sun sculpture shown below starts the demonstration and the sculptures representing the planets are placed in relational distance to the Sun sculpture.


At .07 miles from Sun sculpture is the symbol representing the earth. The planet symbols are a short distance from each other until you pass Mars and the distances to Jupiter and Saturn show how far out these planets are.  After Saturn the symbols for Uranus and Neptune are each over a mile from each other.


  At almost 39 times farther from the Sun then Earth is Pluto and over 6 miles from the Sun sculpture. Below is a representation I found of what the Sun would look like from Pluto.


A little exercise, some sculpture art and a science lesson--not bad for a bike ride

P.S.

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