Month: September 2014

Turn Left at Greenland

During the press conference scene in “A Hard Days Night,” a reporter asks the Beatles “How did you find America?” John Lennon replied, “Turn left at Greenland.” I was curious as to how people find my blog. Lucky for me the WordPress software provides a list of search terms.  Here are a few choice ones:

Racher Godshave (What I would be called if I were a Game of Thrones character)

Feel shy when I moan boy (Must have been an interesting night or my next hit single)

Queen no more rack (The b side)

Where can you buy bicycle spokes in Sweden (Turn left at Malmo)

Why does my blockhead have wheels above her head (My blockhead would be a she, now, wouldn’t she?)

Speeding turtle (okay, this one is pretty descriptive of my riding style)

Neil Finn dyslexia (His new CD? Features the song “Dream Don’t Over It”)

Kirsten Holin Vernon (Possibly the best supergroup ever)

Name of the slowest bike in the world (Now wait a minute!)

Shy Naked Caged Woman (I’m speechless)

and, perhaps, the title of my next post:

Mount Vernon Man Blows Trail

 

 

 

 

Stuff to Do: Squeezing in 46 Nearly Perfect Miles

Kirstin and I had stuff to do in the afternoon. Sunday stuff. The kind of stuff that just has to get done. There was no time for riding a bike all day. The was no time for getting lost. So we decided to do the a ride as part of the Southern Maryland Century festivities.

The Southern Maryland Century is put on by the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club. I’ve done the metric century (100 kilometer) ride many times but never the 100-miler. The weather today just begged for a long ride but there was the aforementioned stuff to do. Kirstin and I decided to ride the 46-mile route.

The morning was cloudy and cool. We took off from Indian Head following the freshly painted green arrows on the road. This time we also had a cue sheet. Cue sheets are really useful when you don’t want to get lost. We tried to get lost but alas we done failed.

We spun along the country roads. Cars and pick-em-up trucks gave us plenty of room. The roadside alternated between soybeans, wildflowers, and modest rural houses. Along the way we passed a topiary horse (what every front lawn needs, if you ask me), a box turtle on a rail trail (saved by fearless Kistin), a hill of kudzu that was trully impressive, and a very noisy pileated woodpecker.

(Did you know that Saint Kirstin is the patron saint of defenseless animals? It’s true. You could look it up, because, if you did, you’d find out what a liar I am.)

The wind seemed to be at our backs for much of the ride but this makes no sense on an out and back route. We joked about how we are suckers for a tailwind. Normally I am a hill hater down to my chamois but this time I took to the few challenging climbs without complaint. Kirstin did all but one of them without resorting to her chainring of shame. And not a howl did she shout.

The only really negative aspect of this ride was the simple fact that it was too short. Witrh such perfect conditions the two fo us could have ridden for hours longer, but stuff calls.

We answered.

Some pix from a pretty darn nice day on the bike can be found on my Flickr page.

August Recap

As is usually the case, the month of August is a bit of an off month for bike riding. There just seem to be too many other things that crop up. In the middle of the month we spent five days driving to/hanging out/driving home from Indiana. I managed to squeeze in a 34 mile ride among the corn and soy.

Early in the month I spent a day exploring the trails in Rock Creek Park. The distance was something like 11 miles and I have to say it was a bit beyond my comfort level. I am eager to do more hiking. I sure wish I had some footwear that was more appropriate to the task though.

I commuted by bike all 16 days that I went to the office. Many of these were short commutes from car mechanics in North Arlington. It gives my legs a rest to do these 4 to 6 milers instead of my usual 28 to 32 milers. Also, the car mechanics are infinitely better than the ones near my home.

Thirteen of the bike commutes were aboard Little Nellie, partly because it’s easier to fold her up and plop her in the trunk of the car when going to the mechanic. The other three were aboard Big Nellie, my cushy recumbent. All that commuting added up to 379 miles.

I tacked on another 280 miles doing fun rides and errands on the weekends. I did a 37 mile ride into the city on Big Nellie but the rest was aboard Little Nellie which passed 13,000 miles and is starting to show signs of fatigue. The long ride was a 70-miler that included the third Hoppy 100. did two 64-mile rides. One was a repeat of the Vasa ride plus a side trip to Meridian Hill Park with Flor. Saturday’s ride with Kirstin among the farms of the Piedmont added another 64 miles.

For the year, I’ve racked up 5,203 miles including 108 bike commutes. Little Nellie leads the pack with 54 bike commutes, twice as many as Big Nellie and the Mule which each clocked in 27 commutes. Little Nellie has 2,405 miles this year which is remarkable especially in light of all my back problems in the spring. Those little wheels can be hell on my back but somehow I’ve become dialed in to the ride. I really like the fast accelerations and the quick handling. The pothole jolts not so much. Big Nellie accounted for 1,694 miles. The Mule has been all but ignored (by me at least, my son has been riding it) this summer but still has 1,104 miles, mostly in the cold of winter.

The month of September promises to hold lots of miles. I have signed up for two rides: the 60+ mile Fifty States Ride and the Backroads Century. I may also throw in the Southern Maryland 100 next weekend.

Now We’re Getting Somewhere – Taking a Mulligan

I needed a grease injector to service my pedals. It’s a bit of a mess trying to do it with a baby medicine injector. Not enough oomph in the lilttle plastic plunger.

My local bike store doesn’t sell them but Performance does. I could have ordered it online but that would have taken away a prefectly good excuse to ride over to their Springfield store. A couple of weeks ago, friend of the blog, bike commuter, and Friday Coffee Club devotee Reba told me that Mulligan Road was now open.

Mulligan Road is the new road that connects US 1 with Telegraph Road near Fort Belvoir. Woodlawn Road used to serve this purpose but the military closed it for security reasons after the 9/11 attacks. Traffic has been a mess ever since. In true Washington area style it only took 13 years to fix the problem.

The road seems to have been recently renamed, Jeff Todd Way. Jeff Todd was a local businessman who was very active in the community. He died in a car crash in 2011.

Whatever the name, it was time to check out the road on two wheels. Big Nellie got the call.  I stepped out of the house and was smacked by searing heat. Labor Day may be the first day of meteorological autumn but somebody forgot to tell the weather gods.

To get to the new road, you ride the Mount Vernon Trail to the end at Mount Vernon. Then you keep going down the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway all the way to US 1. At US 1 you’ll see a mess of road construction which will soon be cleared up. Cross US 1 and you are are on the old Mulligan Road. It has been moved a bit to the south and widened. (The old entrance to Woodlawn Plantation has been removed. Access is now available from US to the south. Good luck with that if you are on a bike.)

In a half mile you come to Pole Road. This used to be the end of the line for Mulligan Road, but not anymore. A new road winds up (and I do mean up) through Fort Belvoir. It’s a four lane highway with a 40 mile per hour speed limit. The road isn’t quite done yet. For one thing it needs another layer of asphalt to make the road bed even with the concrete edge of the road. The right lane seems extra wide which I hope means there will be a bike lane.

Up, up, up. Put me in the zoo.

After cresting the hill, you get a nice reward descending through broad curves until you start to ride up again to Telegraph Road. Telegraph is a bit of a mess heading south. The hill you just came down now goes back up, and then some. There’s no bike lane (yet) so it’s just you and the constant flow of impatient drivers yearning to get to I-95 and go absolutely nowhere.

Just before the crest of the hill there is a sign saying “End of Bike Lane” which suggests that maybe there is supposed to be one. Not 30 yards later a new bike lane begins. Signage is not VDOT’s strong suit. This bike lane continues all the way to US 1 south of Fort Belvoir. I turned right at Beulah Road expecting to do battle with heavy car traffic but to my surprise I was given a bike lane of my very own. Yay! It continued all the way through Kingstowne to the Franconia Springfield Parkway. (It wasn’t actually my own. It was used by a man driving a car while messing with his smartphone. He kept weaving all over the road. I caught up to him at a red light and yelled at him to put the damned thing away before he killed somebody.)

I could have taken a side path all the way to Performance but the wide paved shoulder on the Parkway was too nice to pass up.

Mission accomplished thanks to the folks behind the Fairfax County Comprehensive Bicycle Plan.

The ride back was more better because the other side of Telegraph was in much better shape including an on-road bike lane. I turned right onto Mulligan/Todd and saw a wide side trail. I do hope this is not going to replace on on-road bike lane because the right lane is extra wide and can easily accomodate a bike lane.

Ever notice how the ride back seems so much faster once you know where the roads go? I flew down the long hill on Mulligan and zoomed right across Pole Road without so much as recognizing it.

Mulligan/Jeff Todd will be finished soon. I have sent a note to Adventure Cycling so that they may consider adding it to their Atlantic Coast route.

I took a whole bunch of pix so you can see for yourself over on my Flickr page.