I am starting to get the hang of this furlough thing. Stay in bed until 8:45, read the paper, eat breakfast, surf the net, then go riding. And so I did.
My legs are pretty tired, not so much from high mileage but from not being used to my new saddle. After yesterday’s ride, I lowered the saddle a touch for today’s escapade.
Running out of places to go, I decided to do yesterday’s ride in reverse, a loop into Maryland on the Woodrow Wilson bridge, then up to Oxon Hill Road (aptly named). I worked my way west to the very edge of DC and turn onto Livingston Road SE. Then it was up a big hill to Malcolm X Boulevard and eventually to Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, the main drag of Anacostia. That’s what I intended, but I made a wrong turn. It didn’t matter because the hill and MLK are inevitable. MLK led directly to the new 11th Street bridge trail over the Anacostia River. On the west side of the river, I picked up the Riverwalk Trail. I understand that cycling is banned on this trail but I didn’t see the sign so I went with plausible deniability and rode.
I rode around Nationals Park and spotted the bicycle valet sign for future use. Working across near southeast and southwest on I Street which was being repaved. Not a lot of fun but it got the job done. After riding past the fish market, I made my way to the 14th Street bridge into Virginia. Then it was down the Mount Vernon Trail to Old Town where I stopped at Perks for a cuppa joe. I had the house medium roast with a blueberry muffin. Both were satisfactory. The leather sofa was much appreciated.
Up to this point, my ass was hurting. I checked my saddle and saw that it was developing a depression where my right sit bone was but not a corresponding one on the left. The reason for the asymmetry was the fact that the tip of the saddle was pointing between 12 and 1 o’clock, the result of my adjustment. I re-adjusted the saddle and was more comfortable right away. This could have been the result of sitting on a big sofa in Perks for a half an hour.
The ride home was my usual 12 mile per hour autopilot affair. The leaves on the MVT were still very wet and this made for some tense riding for about a mile.
When I got home, I checked the news. It appears that the government shutdown is all but over. Since this is my last day of sloth, I decided to mow the lawn.
Cofffeeneuring Stats:
Ride: Number 7
Place: Perks on North Fairfax Street near Old Town Alexandria
Drink: House medium roast (with a blueberry muffin)
Observation: Saddles should always point to 12 o’clock. Leather sofas are already broken in.
Woke up. No work. Stumble and bumble about the house. Get me outta here.
I pulled The Mule out of the shed and headed for the site of the Wednesday Coffee Club: Best Buns in Shirlington. My route was a meander that included neighborhood streets, the Mount Vernon Trail, Old Town, Del Ray, and Arlandria. It was a lovely day out so there was no point in rushing. One reason for my slow pace was that I am getting used to my new saddle. Before starting out, I adjusted the saddle a bit by tilting the nose up just a tad. This will keep me from sliding forward on the slippery new leather.
After ten miles it was clear that this new saddle was going to take some getting used to. Having a firm, flat saddle under my butt was messing with my pedaling mechanics. Only one way to find out: pedal some more.
I stopped at Best Buns and was disappointed to see that their coffee was Starbucks. I’m not a fan, but I have to say that whatever roast they were serving was fine. I had a bacon cheddar scone with the coffee and it was pretty darn tasty.
The scone was better than the coffee
After my coffeeneuring duties were done, I jumped on my bike and headed uphill into Fairlington, a planned community of row houses from decades ago. Not wanting to ride on busy Route 7, I turned and headed back downhill to Walter Reed Drive which took me to the W and OD trail. I’m getting sick of the W&OD so I decided to assault Mount Walter Reed. From the W&OD Walter Reed goes straight up. It goes so high that St Peter greets you at the top. Thanks to my granny gear I made it all the way without dying so St Peter gave me a pass for later use. I rode across Arlington and down to the Custis Trail which I took to the Key Bridge. It was so pretty along the river that a television cameraman was set up taking some footage of the twinking waters of the Potomac River below.
I rode with the cars and the buses and dodge a few pedestrians along M Street in Georgetown. Then more of the same on Pennsylvania Avenue. The plaza in front of the White House was open. I know the people who drive in DC hat that this stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue is closed but it sure makes for a great place for people to hang out.
The scone was wearing off so I headed for home. Down the 15th Street cycletrack to the 14th Street bridge. I did a bit of meandering along the Four Mile Run trail before heading across Del Ray to Old Town. Having survived Walter Reed, I decided to take Fort Hunt Road which has a respectable hill. This one was no problem thanks, in part, to a tailwind. I was going to go 40 today, but my hunger got the best of me and I headed for home and some left over beef stroganoff.
After eating, I went into my basement and fetched a box for the trash. It contained all the award placards from my government career. After my parents dies, we were left with all kinds of memorabilia that meant something to them but were just stuff to us. So as a gift to my kids, I tossed my box of awards. They’ll get plenty of their own.
Box of Awards – Heave Ho!
Coffeeneuring No. 6:
Place: Best Buns in Shirlington
Drink: Unspecified Starbucks with a splendid bacon and cheddar scone
Miles: 37
Observation: After the ride I lowered my saddle a touch which I hope will restore my mechanics.
Finally, a day without rain! Yay. I hopped on Big Nellie and headed south for the village of Occoquan on the Occoquan River. I was looking forward to riding the 20+ miles there and settling in with a book and a cup o’joe.
The Mount Vernon Trail was a bad choice for the ride. It is covered in wet leaves. Big Nellie does not like slick surfaces because her weight distribution is skewed toward the rear, resulting in the front wheel skidding out and the engine (that would be me) hitting the ground. I managed to avoid crashing but it made for a slow and tense trip.
At about 7 miles, I was supposed to turn into Fort Belvoir. Traversing the fort is necessary because US Route 1 through the fort is a high speed four lane road with no shoulders. When I made the turn, I was greeted by a big electric signs advising that the entrance was closed. Bummer.
Closed? But, but…..
I decided to ride across Route 1 and head back north on neighborhood side streets. It is a boring, flat ride and you can get lost easily. I’ve done it a million times though so no worries. Once back in my neck of the woods, I headed north on Fort Hunt Road, thereby avoiding the MVT’s leaves. I took a side trip to Spokes to cash in a coupon for a free tube. And who said ad mail was junk?
In the store I chanced upon an old friend Jeff who was buying pedals for his bike. Jeff’s son has a habit of appropriating bike parts from Jeff’s bike for his own bike. What are kids for, right? Jeff and I traded furlough stories for a good half and hour before heading our separate ways. I went north on Fort Hunt Road to find some coffee. I ended up at Misha’s Coffeehouse at King and Patrick (US 1) Streets in Old Town. The Route 66 blend seemed appropriate since I was getting my kicks. I also bought a macaroon-type food thingy. The coffee was tasty, but the macaroon left me wanting more eats.
Misha’s Coffee and Macaroon Thingy
I rode Patrick Street north through Old Town. I then turned off onto Potomac Avenue, a new road that runs parallel to US 1 and that seems to avoided detection by 99 percent of drivers. Several miles later I stopped at the Pentagon 911 Memorial, to use the rest room. It is a moving memorial that you should check out if you haven’t. There is ample bike parking at the entrance.
A mile further on I rode in front of the Lincoln Memorial where I was surprised to see tourists all over the place. I guess the Park Service has given up on the silly barriers it was putting up all over town.
Defiant Citizens Storm Lincoln Memorial
I rode Constitution Avenue the length of the Mall and up Capitol Hill. Then I hopped over to East Capitol Street and rode that due east to RFK Stadium. The signage for bike routes around RFK leaves a lot to be desired but I managed to find Oklahoma Avenue which led me to the Anacostia River Trail system. I crossed the river and rode the trail to the streets of Anacostia, because you can never climb Martin Luther Kind Jr. Boulevard enough times. I improvised, using part of the 50 States Route, and wended my way to Valley Drive which dropped me one block from the DC-Maryland line. I took a left and was soon riding merrily through strip mall bound traffic on Indian Head Highway. I moved to an access road to avoid the loving embrace of a steady stream of SUVs and ground up a long hill. Soon I was enjoying street luge on the streets descending to National Harbor.
I crossed the Potomac on the fab Woodrow Wilson Bridge trail and headed up the MVT for home. I arrived without any lead induced mishaps and congratulated myself for snatching a 48 mile ride from the clutches of the nonexistent biking infrastructure of southeastern Fairfax County.
I check the weather. It was 58 degrees, a bit breezy, with a touch of mist in the air. Basically, it’s impossible to dress for this kind of crap. So I put on my shorts, a wicking shirt, and some wool socks, and topped it off with my Marmot Precip rain jacket and headed out to get The Mule.
At the last coffee club, Ed, founder of the coffee club and King of Espresso, took a hold of the top of my saddle and wiggled it. It sounded like it was about to fall apart. What a shame. It’s a Brooks Flyer, a leather saddle with suspension springs. The leather is broken in like a well worn baseball glove. Unfortunately, the saddle is sagging in the middle, and the tensioning bolt is stripped. It’s kaput.
So the mission was to ride to Bicycle Space, a bike shop in DC that carries Brooks saddles. No sooner had I put my feet on the pedals than the rain started. No longer mist, this was a steady soaking rain, great for lawns, lousy for fall bike rides.
I stopped, put my hood up underneath my helmet and pedaled away. The Mount Vernon Trail was slick with wet leaves so the going was slow and methodical. The rain let up, but the leaves still meant no quick stops or turns or there would be a quick fall. On the Dyke Marsh bridge, a 50-something cyclists on a road bike was peeling himself off the decking. He was okay; he just felt stupid for riding too fast on the slick boards. In Belle Haven Park, crocuses were in bloom. All this cold rain fooled them into thinking it was spring.
Along the trail just north of Old Town, a middle aged couple was walking, he on the right, she on the left. The came to an intersection and crossed. A bollard was situated in the middle of the trail in front of them. She steps to the left of the bollard directly into my path. I had my finger on my bell but he tugged her to the right side of the trail. I rolled past and heard him say, “Say something” to me. So I said, “Walk on the right” a decent enough retort as I didn’t use more colorful language or confront him.
The planes were taking off to the north meaning I had a head wind. So I ground away at 10 miles per hour, just right for rolling over the wet leaves and keeping the rubber side down. In the city I rode up 7th Street hitting red light after red light. Um, DC, it’s Sunday and the mall area is deserted. Set the lights to blinking, please.
I rode through Chinatown looking for Chinatown Coffee for my coffeeneuring fix. I couldn’t find it and did not have my smartphone to help me (it’s government issue and I am forbidden from using it). I continued on to Bicycle Space and bought the saddle. With a new saddle and its recently installed, The Mule has a completely different feel.
After my shopping stop, I rode over to Eastern Market and sat down for a cup of coffee and a scone. The coffee at Peregrine Espresso was as good as I’ve had so far and the scone was delish. Back on the bike, I rode back to the MVT and headed for home. I ran into Ed, a friend from work, who is also furloughed. After the chat is was on to home with a ten mile ride around the perimeter of the Fort Hunt neighborhood and a stop at Sherwood Hall Gourmet for a Garry’s Lunchbox sammich.
At the end of the ride, I was left with one question: why does Peregrine spell it’s name with a schwa?
Last Friday, I slept in and missed the most heavily attended Friday Coffee Club. This Friday I would not be denied, even if it meant riding in the rain. So I was up and out of the house by 6:30 and headed to DC. It was DARK. Middle of the night DARK. I pedaled The Mule toward the circle of light cast by my Stella headlight. The mist made me regret wearing my rain pants but when it gave way to steady rain, my choice was vindicated.
It was good to see plenty of runners out on the Mount Vernon Trail. The marathon season is here and those last long training runs must be done. As every runner knows, there are not bad days for running. They sure looked soggy though.
The ride north was into an occasionally stiff headwind which really got my attention as I crossed the Potomac River on the 14 Street bridge. The rain was so steady that there was little need to reach down for my water bottle. From the bladder of the gods.
I took 17 Street to Friday Coffee Club because I did not know if White House Plaza which connects the 15th Street cycletrack to 17th was open. When I arrived at Swings a handful of folks were sitting at the outside tables which are protected from the rain.
It took a while but a decent number of people, ten or fifteen, gathered to chat. Jacques showed up with Hugo, the cutest one-year old boy on the planet. We (excepting Hugo who was busy eating Jacques’ muffin and some Cheerios) solved all the world’s problems in short order and lingered because most of us had no job to go to thanks to the government shutdown. Mary, Queen of Coffeeneuring, was anxious to get back to her government job. I tried to get her to be one with the furlough, to accept her nonessential fate, to embrace unpaid sloth. I am not sure I convinced her.
Hugo is my favorite coffeeneur
After a long linger, we went our separate ways. I actually participated in my first roll out, the tradition of riding east across White House Plaza. Ed, normally the roll out photographer declined to snap my picture, protecting his camera from the steady rain. I bid adieu to Ed and Mary at the Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track and headed for home. Once back on the MVT I enjoyed a steady tailwind and a trail of my own all the way to Old Town. With each passing mile the rains increased in intensity until I was riding through a deluge. Belle Haven Park had a decent number of runners slogging about. Runners are tough.
I rolled into home to find my house invaded by our cleaning service. I snuck in the back door and went down to the basement to take off all my wet things. Once the crew left, I showered and sat down to another hard day of furloughing.
Coffeeneuring No. 4
Location: Swings House of Caffeine at 17th and G Streets NW, Washington DC
Drink: Colombian house brew. The best of the four coffeeneuring brews so far.
Miles: 28.5 (I think my new front tire short changed me by about a mile.)
Myers-Briggs tests consistently show that I am an introvert with a capital I. My idea of hell on earth is being in a big reception and not knowing anybody. Another manifestation of hell on earth is US Route 1 in Fairfax County. To put two hells together I attended a long range planning meeting tonight on the future of Route 1. The meeting was billed as “Route 1 Multimodal Alternatives Analysis”. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
It’s actually a pretty interesting project. Route 1 has no rail rapid transit, is overwhelmed by car traffic, is a nightmare to ride a bike on or walk across, and is butt ugly. And the 15 miles of Route 1 between Alexandria and Route 123, just over the Prince William County line, is expected to see plenty of growth in the next 25 years.
The project is being done by a bunch of state and local agencies that recognize that planning for more car traffic which currently rules the road is a non-starter. Many years ago the people who planned Metro decided not to run the yellow line down Route 1. Everyone now sees what a mistake this was. The future will almost certainly include a rail (light or heavy) or bus rapid transit. It will also include something like six lanes for cars. Eek!
The meeting was held at the South County government center on Route 1 about 1 1/2 miles from my house. Normally, I had already ridden this stretch of Route 1 earlier in the day to fetch my car from a body shop. That was in daylight with no rain. The meeting was after dusk and rain was falling. I drove. Shoot me.
The perimeter of the meeting room was lined with posters explaining various aspects of the project. I saw the word “bicycle” twice. Once was on a board about the desire to build a healthy alternative to the current car-centric mess. The other was on a poster that showed the new bike lanes already being built along Route 1 through Fort Belvoir. I was not optimistic about the bicycle aspects of the project.
Project leaders gave a 30 minute presentation. For the first 20 minutes, the word bicycle was not mentioned once. In the last ten minutes, it was mentioned six times. The development team realizes that making the corridor bike and pedestrian friendly is a high priority. (There is nowhere to go but up.) One slide was dedicated to the fact that the bike routes near Route 1 are, to cut to the chase, an inadequate mess. When the presenter said that the bike routes in the area lacked “connectivity” I actually laughed out loud, because that’s the word I used on my comment form.
Fortunately the project planners are aware of successful retrofits to old infrastructure in Arlington, DC, Charlotte, and Richmond. They seem to intend to steal liberally from the best of these kinds of projects.
After the presentation I went up to the “connectivity” speaker to offer more bike comments. It turns out he’s a bike commuter (from DC to Arlington). He obviously gets it. Then I got interviewed by a reporter for the Patch online newspapers. I don’t know why she picked me out of the crowd. Maybe it’s the new “Interview Me” tattoo on my forehead.
After the presentation, the project staffers were aligned around the room next to their posters to listen to feedback. I went to one poster to make a comment about biking and the first thing I saw on the adjacent white board was “Make it more bike and ped friendly”! Somebody beat me to the punch. I hung around and chatted with some folks, explaining how much nicer a place it would be to live if you could access all that retail activity without driving.
So, with some irony, I left the meeting and drove home.
Part of me envies the planners because it’s a cool project with so much upside for making the area a better place to live. From 1970 to 1990, Fairfax County bought in to the idea that sprawl and haphazard development was good. Now that county residents have had 20+ years to experience the fruits of these policies, the county and state realize that they have a ton of work to do to make.
Today marked the 8th day of the federal government shut down. As much as not working is starting to get to me, seeing my 401K take a major hit from all this budget gridlock is really starting to piss me off. Time for a cold Yuengling.
This morning began with a quick trip to the drug store for asthma meds. I took The Mule. I like the little strip mall in Hollin Hall but I do wish they’d add some decent bike parking. Yet another reason why cycling in Fairfax County is a pain.
After watching the HVAC folks put a new humidifier on my furnace, I took Big Nellie out for a Coffeeneuring run to Buzz at the north end of Old Town Alexandria. The riding was slow as my leg muscles are still a little sore from this weekend’s riding. I had a medium house blend and a cinnamon muffin. The coffee was nothing to write home about but it carried a caffeine wallop. The cinnamon bun looked far better than it tasted. It was surprisingly chewy and flavorless.
Getting my Buzz on.
In anticipation of picking up the Millennium Falcon (our Mitsubishi Lancer) from the body shop, I headed home. The tailwind was nice. The flat rear tire wasn’t. I put a Panaracer Pasella tire on a month or so ago. It is supposed to have a Kevlar belt in it. They must have skipped that step because a small piece of glass cut right through the tire. Re-installing a tire on the Tour Easy is something of a struggle. As I was getting the chain onto the cassette, the bike flopped over breaking the mirror in the process. Then I learned that the neoprene grommet that holds the head of my pump onto the tire valve stem was not gripping the valve properly. And the rear brake was rubbing. If I had a gun, I’d have shot the damn thing right then and there!
Lacking firearms, I rode to Wheel Nuts bike shop about a half mile away and used their floor pump and bought a new mirror. I rode to City Hall and decided to prop the bike up on the low wall of a planter and work on my rubbing brake. After 15 minutes I got the tire rotating freely, but now the brakes squeal.
The tailwind helped make the ride home quite pleasant. When I got there I learned that the car would not be ready until tomorrow. Something tells me this is just not my day. To reward myself for the little frustrations of the day, I did some online shopping, including ordering replacement parts for my pump.
Shopping is almost as therapeutic as drinking a cold beer or going for a bike ride. I’ve already done the latter so I do believe I’ll do the former now.
Ahhhh. Hits the spot.
Coffeeneuring No. 3: Buzz in Alexandria
Drink: House roast. Not the best but it gave me a buzz
Eats: Cinnamon bun. Meh
Miles:17.5 (not counting the 2.5 ride to the drug store)
Observations: You can have a tire that gives a nice ride or a tire that won’t easily puncture but you can’t have both. Skar was right. Life’s not fair.
A recent comment to the blog from South Lakes Mom asked me if I was attending the Fairfax County Bicycling Summit at George Mason University (GMU) on November 4. I don’t plan on going since the focus of the summit is improving cycling in and around Tysons Corner, 23 miles from my house by bike. I have been in or through Tysons Corner about 10 times in the last 30 years. (Most of my visits were to a VW dealer to get my Golf repaired because the repairmen at the dealer near my home were incompetent.) Whether in a car or on a bike, I avoid it like the plague. I commend the County and the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling (FABB) for trying to improve life in Tysons. No matter what they accomplish it will have no practical relevance to me.
The apparent reason for holding the summit at GMU is that it has lots of meeting facilities and it is centrally located in the county. It is also 25 very cycling unfriendly miles from my house. Go ahead, try and ride cross county from Mount Vernon to Springfield or beyond. I advise that you notify your next of kin before heading out.
But let me stop kvetching and add some suggestions, in no particular order, for better everyday cycling in my part of Fairfax County. Before I begin, let’s set a basic ground rule. I am talking about everyday cycling. Riding a bike to the store, the library, the farmers market, the pool, or the office. I am not talking about the Tour de Fairfax. The objective is to make cycling to these places as safe and convenient as driving. Here’s my list. It goes to eleven.
Put a flyover bridge or a traffic light at the intersection of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Belle View Boulevard. This is a primary connecting point to the Mount Vernon Trail and the intersection has one of the highest rates of vehicular accidents in the DC region. The Parkway is owned by the National Park Service which is more concerned with esthetics than safety.
Allow bike commuters to park in Belle Haven Park (and other National Park Service lots) along the Mount Vernon Trail. Bike commuters currently run the risk of being ticketed so instead they park on the opposite side of the Parkway and have to make a crossing at grade at rush hour. These parking lots are empty during the week. The Park Service could auction off slots for half the spaces and use the funds for improvements to the trail or parks. All that is needed is a “Yes”.
There is no viable, route connecting Mount Vernon to the Lee District from the Beltway to south of Fort Belvoir. The only way I know of involves riding over Beacon Hill which is reasonable only to Claudio Chiappucci and Fausto Coppi (and Coppi is dead). There is a right of way through the northern edge of Huntley Meadows Park that would make a wonderful, flat trail connecting US 1 to Telegraph Road. Since the county is now plowing up the edge of Huntley Meadows Park near the western terminus of this right of way so that motor vehicles can travel more conveniently, how about showing cyclists a little love. Oh, and to make my case, let’s take the responsible Fairfax and VDOT officials for a ride on the current, on-road route, South Kings Highway, a hilly, high-speed, two lane, shoulderless monstrosity. After their funerals maybe we could get some traction on this idea.
Other than the Mount Vernon Trail there are very few north south bicycle routes in southeastern Fairfax County. This is a shame because the Hybla Valley area is the lowest income area of the county and cycling is the cheapest form of transportation for distances over one mile. Start by thinking of ways to build trails with switchbacks to get over Beacon Hill from all directions.
Speaking of the Mount Vernon Trail, how about a little plowing and sanding during the winter months? When left unpaved, the trail becomes a long series of icy foot prints that make the trail unusable to everyone.
Connect the US 1 connector trail to something. ANYTHING. This trail connects the Mount Vernon Trail to US 1. Then you are on your own. Was it designed by Sarah Palin?
Fix the sensors embedded in the road at the traffic light at the Belle Haven Country Club so that users of the trail can get onto Fort Hunt Road without having to run the red light.
How about some shoulders on the roads! And while you’re at it PAVE them! VDOT seems to think that shoulders are bad road design. Sometimes (e.g. Fort Hunt Road) the shoulder appears then disappears. When there is a shoulder it is sometimes paved and sometimes not.
Elected officials should be required to get to their offices by bike once per week. Pretty awful, right. Then have them ride to Old Town Alexandria on the Mount Vernon Trail. See the difference? There shouldn’t be one!
A general note about bike trails: sidewalks are not bike trails. Slapping asphalt over unimproved soil makes for a lousy sidewalk and a lousier bike trail. Don’t try to impress the cycling community with the many miles of slapdash “trails” built in this fashion in the last 20 years. They are worse than worthless; they are dangerous. Stop building them.
The recent addition of bike trail along Fort Hunt Road near the Belle Haven Elementary school is well intentioned and a big improvement over the slapdash trail it replaced. It will get very little use by everyday cyclists because it is too steep and narrow and has too many curves. If you have to ask why, imagine designing a road for your car that mimics these design features. You wouldn’t drive it. If you think it costs too much to build a better alternative, you have two possible results. Either nobody will use it and you’ve wasted your money. Or, you can build it right a second time after the county gets sued by somebody who loses it on the steep, curvy descent.
If you can sense the tone of impatience in my words, you can see why I have little tolerance of the advocacy process. These changes should patently obvious. Many of them have been suggested and ignored by our elected officials for decades. So lets start with one or two. Can we agree to do that? Then do a couple more next year.
Something odd is happening. For the last two months, despite riding Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, almost every day, I haven’t been able to get the bike moving satisfactorily. Every ride has been a frustrating struggle. Yesterday that changed. Riding my recumbent was effortless. After 51 miles I wanted to ride a lot more.
So, today I did. And the riding was even better. With temps in the high 80s, you cannot complain about the weather. It took me a while to get started though. I spent the first half hour of my ride doing maintenance on The Mule, my 20-year-old Specialized Sequoia. I put a 700×35 tire on the front to match the width of my new back tire. Then I took it for a quick test ride. The Mule likes wider tires. No doubt about it. My test ride did surface a problem: really squeaky rear brakes. So I fiddled with them for a few minutes.
Once General Bike Hospital was over with, Big Nellie and I hit the road. We cruised through some neighborhood streets before hooking up with the Mount Vernon Trail near the stone bridge. I had a noticeable tailwind so I knew that the easy of riding was not all my doing.
In about an hour, I pulled into Saint Elmo’s Coffee Pub in Del Ray for my second Coffeeneuring stop. The coffee was much better than yesterday’s and the blueberry and banana muffin was moist and tasty. I brought a book with me so I could linger over my brew.
I was still hungry so I dropped into the Dairy Godmother, an ice cream store two doors down from St. Elmo’s. I had one of their root beer floats. Ahhhh. Perfection!
Root beer floats should be allowed in the Coffeeneuring Challenge. Root beer is brewed, right?
Now that my diet had been shot to hell, I hit the road in earnest. In about two miles I was heading west on the Four Mile Run trail heading for the W&OD trail. I took that to the Custis trail and headed back toward DC along I 66. Just I was getting my kicks, I turned off the trail and worked my way through hilly North Arlington. My destination was Glebe Road which drops like a ski slope down to the Potomac River. Big Nellie loves street luge. Weeee!!!!
Once down the hill I headed northwest on the C&O Canal towpath. Big Nellie’s long wheel base does a wonderful job of absorbing the bumps which are pretty much continuous. I was bombing along at 15 miles per hour passing mountain bikers who must have been wondering how such a strange bike could handle the rough trail.
At Great Falls Park I turned off the trail and rode up a long, long hill. Unlike my experience at the Backroads Century the hills didn’t much bother me. At the top of the hill I mashed on the pedals. I could hear the rear tire digging into the pavement. Down the other side we went. I love doing downhills on my bent. It would have been epic had a car with a kayak on its roof not pulled out in front of me from a parking lot at the bottom of the luge run.
The ride back along MacArthur Boulevard was into the wind, but I didn’t much notice. I was cruising along at 15 miles per hour – about three miles per hour above my commuting speed – with very little effort. I turned off MacArthur and rode Reservoir Road and some alphabet streets across Georgetown. The streets were rather quiet so I rode down 17th Street straight to the Tidal Basin. I caught a bunch of lights and zipped across the Kutz Bridge, normally a nail biter of ride.
I was across the 14th Street bridge in no time and headed into the wind on the MVT going 17 miles per hour. The sun was setting and it seemed to be doing so rather quickly. I was wearing sunglasses so I knew I’d have to stop soon to switch to my regular glasses. I was having such a blast riding that I didn’t stop until Old Town Alexandria 3 1/2 miles later. There I put my light on my helmet and activated my red blinky lights.
The helmet light did a fine job of illuminating all the bike riders without lights heading my way on the dark section of the MVT south of Old Town. The light also helped give me some early warning about the clouds of gnats hanging intermittently over the trail.
I arrived home in the dark after 64 miles. Unlike yesterday, I actually felt somewhat tired. I definitely could have ridden more though.
I really think it’s unfair for my cycling fitness to peak just as the cold weather comes around. If the furlough continues, maybe I should just ride to Cuba. I’ll bet Raul could use a cycling economist. He might even find me essential.
Saturday marked the start of the Coffeeneuring Challenge, sponsored by Mary Queen of Caffeine. If you do a bunch of weekend bike rides to coffee places and follow a shedload of annoying rules, she dubs you a Knight of Espresso and gives you a pin. I can’t resist a gimmick so I headed out in search of my fix.
I hopped on Big Nellie and headed for the big city where the coffee is strong, the women are virtuous, and the men are above average (in their own minds). My journey took me along the Mount Vernon Trail for the four billionth time. Good thing it’s pretty cuz a guy could get sick of riding it over and over. I was cruising along at a surprisingly fast clip so I checked the tree tops for evidence of a tail wind. There was none to be seen. I gots legs!
As I entered Old Town, I came upon a couple of volunteers staffing a rest stop for the Ragnar run. This is a 24-hour relay that goes something like 180 miles. Too bad I can’t run anymore because this would be right up my alley. Through Old Town I rode eventually reconnecting with the MVT and heading ever north.
I turned off into Crystal City to check out the new painted bike lane on Crystal Drive. It looks marvelous. With the new bike lane and the renovated Clark Street (now renamed Long Bridge Drive), there is now a decent alternative to the MVT all the way to DC. Near the Pentagon I came upon some serious road work. They were cutting into the pavement down to the foundation of the roadway. No road riding here so I took to the sidewalk and the grass.
As I was taking pictures my camera ran out of batteries. The nearest drug store was in Rosslyn across the street from my office so I headed there, past Arlington Cemetery. Visitors were being allowed in to pay their respects which is pretty nice of the government seeing as how nearly everything else in town was shut down thanks to our profoundly stupid elected officials.
After procuring said batteries (he says in bureaucratspeak), I was off to Georgetown across the Key Bridge. M Street was bustling as usual but I managed to weave through the sea of SUVs and survive the ordeal. I felt a bit like a mongoose running through a herd of elephants. Don’t step on me!!!
I picked up the L Street Cycletrack and made fast work of it. I wanted to do a Perfect (a complete ride across town without catching a light), but my timing was off. I was treated to some shoaling by an annoying guy on a hybrid bike. He cut in front of me at two lights. Big Nellie was offended. We stepped on the figurative gas and left the guy in our bent wake.
My destination for java was Eastern Market where I dismounted for a house brew and a chocolate chip scone. The brew was mediocre but the scone was not half bad. After my snack, I walked through the outdoor marketplace making a mental note of possible Christmas presents as I walked. I decided to go for a cruise along the Anacostia River.
Finding the trail on the west side of the river was frustrated by construction going on near the 11th Street Bridge. I used my 50-States-Ride knowledge of an obscure alleyway to ride to the Sousa Bridge. On the far side of the river I found the trail alongside the closed roadway. The parkland was empty but for a couple of cyclists and an old man sitting under a gazebo.
At Benning Road I crossed back to the west side of the river and took the trail back toward 11th Street past the hulk of RFK Stadium.
Once back in southeast DC I picked up M Street. I was spinning along effortlessly and having a great time. A taxi cab tried to pancake against a line of parked cars but even that couldn’t ruin my mood.
I decided to ride down to Hains Point which has also been closed thanks to the brilliant minds in our government. Instead of riding the road, I rode along the sidewalk on top of the retaining wall next to the river. The sidewalk is a decrepit mess. Nobody wants to pony up the money to fix our national parks. I have an idea. Why don’t we set up ticket booths on the national mall. Sell passes to the Smithsonian museums and National Parks. Ten dollars a day per person. Five for kids and seniors. Maybe sell week and annual passes too. Take the money and fix it all up. This would have the added benefit of keeping down the visits from your annoying relatives who found out they can have a free vacation by staying in your guest room and going down to the mall for a week.
Now that we’ve solved some serious problems, we return to the ride.
As I rolled along the sidewalk, I watched the planes from National Airport taking off. They seemed to take an awfully long time getting airborne. The sidewalk in front of me dipped down with a fence on the river side to my left and a retaining wall to my right. I could see some mud at the base of the ramp. I got not more than 20 feet into the mud when Big Nellie’s front wheel slid out from under me and down I went. It was like falling on snow except the mud was much slicker and slightly warm. When we stopped sliding I went to stand and I couldn’t. The mud was a quarter to a half inch deep. I couldn’t get my footing. After a good laugh, I managed to plant on hand and a knee in the mud and carelfully extract myself from the quagmire.
Other than a tear in the underside of the fabric cover of my bike seat, Big Nellie and I were unharmed.
We rode out of DC on the 14th Street Bridge and bombed down the Mount Vernon Trail at great speed. My speedometer read “Lickety Split” so I know we were going fast. Gravelly Point park was practically empty thanks to the closed parking lot. Just past the park, I passed a couple of bike tourists who were finishing their ride from Pittsburgh to DC. They reminded me that my friend Lisa is starting the same trip today. Have a blast, Lisa.
I rode along Union Street in Old Town and spotted a bride with her groomsmen on the sidewalk. Did they ditch the bridesmaids?
The rest of the ride home was effortless. I can’t remember a time when riding 50 miles seemed so easy that I felt like doing it again right away. As a matter of fact, I think I just might.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 