March 2026

Watching

The TransAmerica Bike Route – The Full Movie by Mat Ryder. A condensed video (albeit three hours long) of the long series of Mat’s epic ride from coast to coast.

Washington Nationals Baseball – On the eve of Game 1 of the season, my cable provided announced that it will be carrying Nats games again. They’ve won 3 of their first 4 games but I have faith that they will lose at least 100 games this season.

Reading

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The story of the life-long friendship of Sam and Sadie, two video game developers. Sounds boring but it made best sellers lists for months for good reason. In an odd way, it reminded me of Normal People. Zevin really makes you care about these two, as well as their friends, lovers, family members, and business associates. In video games, you die until you re-start the game. Real life not so much.

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. The story of Smithy Ide, a middle-aged, obese drunkard who decides to ride his bike from East Providence RI to Los Angeles to claim the remains of his beloved, mentally ill sister. McLarty was a character actor back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. This is his debut novel that I first read in 2006. It’s quite good but extraordinarily depressing.

The Birth of the Erie Canal by Harvey Chalmers II. This is a brief history of the various concepts that evolved into the Erie Canal, the early 19th century moon shot that transformed the economies of New York and the rest of the United States and Canada. The original idea was to connect central New York to the Hudson River and Lake Ontario by cleaning up rivers and creeks. This idea would have limited cargo volume because the canal boats called bateaux would have had to be small enough to navigate the shallow waters. Eventually Gouverneur Morris promoted the concept of a waterway that would travel down an “inclined plane” from Lake Erie to the Hudson. Ultimately this was rejected for a level waterway with lift locks. The political pushing and pulling went on for over 25 years. Although the book was published in 1960 (when I was in Kindergarten), the author autographed my copy: “To John, I hope you enjoy the book.” I have no recollection of meeting him and wonder if “John” might be one of my upstate New York cousins.

How the Irish Built the Erie by Harvey Chalmers II. This 1964 history of the construction of the canal follows the efforts of Irishman J. J. McShane, the primary contractor tasked with building the canal. McShane with the significant help of his right hand, Pippa Post, used mostly Irish convicts from New York City as laborers on the project. The story is bogged down by detailed descriptions of various engineering methods, many improvised, to overcome the swamps and rocky hills that the canal traversed. Bitterly cold and snowy winters and malarial swamps made for additional challenges. Chalmers is a champion of Post, who earned the respect of the all-male workers with her multiple talents from cooking, providing makeshift shelters, supervising, and skill with two long knives she kept in scabbards under each arm to keep the workers in line.

Riding

I fell just short of 900 miles for the month reaching 889 miles on the last day. My longest ride, 52 miles. was to and from the Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland where I viewed cherry blossoms that were truly amazing. Last March I did several longer rides in preparation for my tour of the Natchez Trace. This year’s 52-miler damned near did me in.

My bikes took me some interesting places this month. On one day I ride to Capitol Hill to participate in a ride to protest the threatened removal of a cycletrack near the Washington Monument. The next day I rode back to the Hill to check out the purported best Italian sub in the area. It did not disappoint.

These folks make a fun worth riding 16 miles for .

I rode 363 miles on my CrossCheck, hoping to convince my body that this bike should remain in my stable. I have a new stem on order and if that doesn’t help with my various aches and pains, this bike will be donated to charity. The remaining 367 miles this month came on my trusty Mule. For the year, I have managed to ride 2,302 miles, a little over 100 miles less than last year.

The highlight of the month was the emergence of blooms and flowers. Cherry trees, weeping cherries, crocuses, daffodils, tulips, eastern red buds, forsythia. DC puts on quite a show in the springtime.

DC Again and Again

The ride to DC from my home is not hilly and there is very little auto traffic to deal with so I tend to pedal there often. Last Friday I rode to Friday Coffee Club which is held at ME Swings House of Caffeine at 17th and G Streets Northwest, about a half a block from Donny Dementia’s house and construction site. I don’t actually see the White House because Donny has blocked off Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park.

On Sunday I rode to Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill to participate in a rolling protest organized by Hill Family Biking. It seems that without warning Donny’s henchmen had decided to tear out the 15th Street Cycletrack (which I use to ride to Friday Coffee Club) from Constitution Avenue to the 14th Street Bridge. This cycletrack is a two-way bike lane that is protected from auto traffic. It crosses the National Mall at the Washington Monument, continues to the Tidal Basin, and ends on the rear of the Jefferson Memorial. Since the famous cherry trees are at peak bloom today, the destruction of the cycletrack would have been incredibly ill timed. Data shows that the cycletrack has significantly reduced bike crashes as well as vehicle crashes. The administration claims that tearing the cycletrack out would improve transportation in the city..

The protest was led by ride marshals who took us on two laps around the park before heading west past the Capitol to the Mall, where we stopped at the base of the Washington Monument. Speeches were speeked. Conveniently, the president’s motorcade came by while we were there and we treated him to vigorous boos and jeers.

On my way to the ride, I ran into Kevin who is a long-standing member of the 50 States and Cider Ride posses, at the Jefferson Memorial. At Lincoln Park I met up with Robin, a Friday Coffee Club regular. I broke off from Robin during the laps around the park when I thought I saw Beth. Since we were riding in a big crowd it took a half mile before I confirmed that it was her. Beth used to work on my bikes when she was at Bikes at Vienna. She built the wheels that I used on The Mule to ride across the country in 2018. Although she has lived in the DC area for over ten years she is only now becoming familiar with DC itself. (She has an open invitation to join the posse for the 50 States.) One of the ride marshals was Jeanne, who, by day, is a realtor on the Hill. One of her selling points is the fact the Capitol Hill is a walkable, bikeable small city within a city.

After the speeches, Beth took off to explore the entire length of the cycletrack which continues north (except for where Trump’s East Wing construction debacle interrupts it) for a mile or so through the city. Thousands of people use this piece of infrastructure to get around town safely.

Yesterday I rode to DC again to check out the cherry blossoms in East Potomac Park. The trees which line Ohio Drive through the park were in fine form.

Today I rode back to DC to check out the Tidal Basin cherry trees. After I walked around the Basin, I rode to the east side of Capitol Hill to try out what is purported to be the best Italian sub in the area at Mangialardo’s on Pennsylvania Avenue. I rode over to Lincoln Park to dine under the cherry trees there. I am happy to report that Mangialardo’s makes one awesome Italian sub. I have to go back soon. Oink. I rode the cycletrack to get around the Tidal Basin. There were literally thousands of tourists and blossom-distracted drivers to contend with. How did the city ever get by without it?

Back at the ranch my tired body was happy to hang in my recliner and watched the first game of the Washington Nationals season. They beat the Cubs in Chicago 10-4. Alas, this is likely to be the high point for the team as the next 161 games will almost certainly put their many weaknesses on display. I also learned that after firing most of its sports department (and nearly every columnist I read) the Washington Post has hired a beat writer to cover the Nationals. Too little, too late. After over 40 years, on April 1, I will no longer be a subscriber.

Martin and the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin

I think this is what’s left of the East Wing of the White House on the golf course in East Potomac Park

A couple of weeks ago I did a meandering ride through the city. Along the way I stopped on Florida Avenue Northeast to check out the ghost bike that commemorates the death of Dave Salovesh on Good Friday 2019. The protected bike lane was not there when he was hit by a driver.

The removal of the 15th Street Cycletrack is on hold thanks to a legal challenge from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Unexpected Views

I rode my CrossCheck today to Long Bridge Park, located about 12 miles north of home. Long Bridge Park is situated aside the main rail line that crosses the Potomac River to link DC with points south. The rail crossing currently is being expanded which will eliminate a major pinch point for Amtrak, commuter rail, and freight traffic. Next to the new Long Rail Bridge will be a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge.

This morning I saw a picture of a line of cherry trees in bloom in the park on social media so naturally I had to go see it for myself. I arrived to see that none of the trees in question were in bloom. The Internet lied! (Who knew?) I continued past the trees to the northern end of the park where I saw something unexpected.

The construction crew had taken down all the trees on the north end of the park that had obscured the view of the river crossing. The new rail line will leave the park, cross the George Washington Parkway and the Potomac River before land fall in East Potomac Park on the DC side.

I turned for home and rode back south and picked up the Mount Vernon Trail at the southern end of Old Town Alexandria. The path lies immediately between the Parkway and the Potomac. I noticed on the grass between the trail and highway a large black shard of plastic autobody. I didn’t give it a second thought until I passed another large dark object in the grass. It was a huge beaver. Judging from the condition of the carcass and the small number of flies lighting it, I guessed the poor critter had been dead only a half hour or so. Apparently, the beaver had been hit by a black car while crossing the Parkway. Dan

March Madness

The weather finally took a turn for the better and I found myself riding 16 days in a row, mostly outdoors. I used the rides as a last attempt to get the CrossCheck set up to my liking. For eight months (since last July) I rode it only 108 miles, because my neck and upper back simply couldn’t tolerate it. I took measurements of The Mule, my trusty, fits-like-a-glove, steed, and tweaked the saddle position on the CrossCheck so that all the dimensions exactly matched The Mule. Or so I thought. I put the bikes side-by-side and noticed the handlebars on The Mule were rotated slightly backward but the bars on the CrossCheck were level. I rotated the CrossCheck’s bars. This seemed to help but the new position made it a bit awkward to squeeze the brake levers. I ordered a new stem in the hopes of fixing this issue. If it doesn’t work, I’ll surrender and donate the bike.

I shouldn’t complain after dealing with brutal winter weather, and riding indoors, for most of February. It was so warm the last couple of days that I could wear shorts and a t-shirt. Not having long pants and upper body layers makes a world of difference. Ahh. For a couple of days the thermometer broke 80 degrees F, setting back-to-back high temperature records. It was humid, too. So much so that Mrs. Rootchopper turned on the air conditioning at home. When I walked past the AC unit on my way into the house, I heard an unfamiliar SNAP! It turns out the cool air coming out of the vents in the house was recycled from the cooler days before the heat bump, the AC unit was not working. So, Mrs. R. called the AC repairman to check things out today. Then this happened…

Temperatures dropped 50 degrees since yesterday and we had an hour-long snowfall.

For some strange reason the repairman called to reschedule.

With the weather gone bung and dead legs, I spent most of my day in the basement shredding old tax documents. I have been meaning to do this for a long time. Lawyer Mike at Friday Coffee Club last week reminded me that any tax document older than seven years serves no purpose. My tax files went back, believe it or not, to 1979! I overheated my shredder multiple times.

The shredfest was one of the items on my To Do list for March. I have gotten into the habit of putting a monthly to do list on my phone. It helps if the items on the list are easy to do. For example, in February my do the income taxes task was broken down into download software, data entry, review return line by line, file return, calculate estimated taxes for 2026. I completed 15 of 16 tasks in February. March has 18 tasks. I’ve completed eight so far. I’ve started three others. I also add tasks as the need arises. (I generally don’t include recurring things on the list like Friday Coffee Club, lift weights, go for a bike ride.)

Baseball is back. I am enjoying the World Baseball Classic, a tournament of players from 16 countries. It’s what the All Star Game should be but isn’t. Opening day is about six weeks away.

I have not been reading about the Washington Nationals this spring because the Washington Post fired its sports reporters (and photographers and most of its other reporters). I loved shopping at small bookstores but many of my favorites closed because of competition from Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com. So why not wreck another one of my favorite things, Mr. Bezos? So far this spring there have been zero articles about the Nationals and only one spring training box score. Basically, the Post is a little more than a conduit for the wire services. Sorry, Jeff, we’re cancelling our subscription.

I’ll finish with a note of thanks to reader and former Friday Coffee Clubber John Fisher. John moved to California and recently has been cleaning out his box of unused bike stuff. He found an old Light and Motion integrated headlight and taillight. He sent it to me out of the blue. What a super nice thing to do, John. As for the rest of you readers, you can surprise me with cold hard cash. On the advice of Lucy van Pelt, I take tens and twenties.