Author: Rootchopper

Incoming!!!

I woke up at 5:30. Actually my bladder woke up at 5:30. My brain was still asleep. It was a fierce fight for anatomical dominance but my bladder won.  My trip to the end of the driveway was invigorating. Not because of my bladder. It was in the 20s and the wind was blowing.  Maybe I should get wind resistant jammies. I briefly considered driving to work, but then I thought, “Why not freeze my noo noos off instead?”  And so I rode Big Nellie into the frigid morning.
Despite the big fairing on the front of Big Nellie, I was having quite a rough time getting any speed going.  I hit the hill on Park Terrace Drive going only about 10 miles per hour.  In a few seconds, I was doing 32 and ducking behind the fairing to preserve the flesh around my eyes.  Tears were shed involuntarily. Dang.
Onto the Mount Vernon Trail without a stop to cross the Parkway. Ithink I will call this maneuver “Pulling a Moses.” How nice of people to provide a gap in traffic. The Dyke Marsh boardwalk was free of rime, too, so things were going swimmingly.
I didn’t blog about my ride yesterday but it was notable for two wildlife sightings. Along the river near Dyke Marsh a tree was absolutely filled with red winged blackbirds. They were making the trilling sound that reminds me so much of my days as a kid playing in and around Dead Man’s Pond.  (Sounds a bit like something Luke Skywalker would say, no?) Sadly, the pond was filled in by developers long ago. When I got to the northern side of Belle Haven Park, I spotted a bald eagle about 200 feet up in the air flying from the river across the trail toward the Beltway/US1 mixing bowl.
Yesterday’s flashback was provided so that I could place today’s wildlife sighting in context. As usual, I was hoping to spot a bald eagle in the Belle Haven nest.  Instead, I spotted one about 30-50 feet high gliding straight toward me over the trail.  All I could think of was, “It would suck to be a mouse right now.” Just before getting to me, the eagle flapped its wings, turned and gained altitude as it headed for the nest. Double dang.
I slogged into the headwind through Old Town. The beaver dam is starting to get built up again. I wonder if this isn’t the work of the National Park Service official beaver dam disrupter or just a very stubborn beaver. The water level is almost up to the trail again so I suspect the disruptor will be back soon. Damn. (So to speak.)
The rest of the ride in was work. As usual, once I cleared the airport, I had nothing to block the headwind. The bike seemed unusually sluggish. On the way home I learned that my front fender was dragging on the side of my front tire. I must have been really sleepy this morning because I didn’t hear it rubbing even with the fairing to amplify the sound. Once I freed the tire, I could enjoy the tailwind all the way home.
And so I completed my 30th bike commute of 2013.  Normally I don’t hit 30 until sometime in March. Tomorrow I am driving in. The forecast is calling for afternoon snow showers and a wintry mix for the evening rush. Not gonna happen on two wheels.

El Gran Errando – Sums It Up

Part of the rules of the Errandonnee Challenge is that you have to submit a control card.  Here’s goes mine:

Errand No. 1

Errand No. 2

Errand No. 3

Errand No. 4

Errand No. 5

Errand No. 6

Errand No. 7

Errand No. 8

Errand No. 9

Errand No. 10

Errand No. 11

Errand No. 12

  • Date: February 19
  • Category: Wild Card (7-11 in Hollin Hall) (7th category, 1st time, 2nd night time errand)
  • Miles: 1.0 (Actually 29 but I can’t really count my commuting miles)
  • Total Miles: 107
  • Observation: When a raccoon crosses your path, it must be your lucky day. Buy a lottery ticket or two.
  • Photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rootchopper/8491047904/in/photostream

Final Observation: I honestly can’t believe I did this. It just goes to show you what throwing in the towel at the start can do when you are El Gran Errando.

For ease of use, here are the pix .

The End of an Errand

The ride to work today was a gift.  A tailwind made it a literal and figurative breeze. Little Nellie was my hoss du jour, because of the threat of rain for the evening rush. About two miles from home a raccoon sauntered out in front of me. It was a big one. It could have been a normal sized raccoon with its fur fluffed up against the cold. Or maybe it was a momma full of babies. In any case, it made it to the middle of the street and stopped. It turned its head to check me out, the, as if it were saying “D’oh!” turned around and scampered back the way it had come. Actually, it was more like a waddle than a scamper. Maybe it had too much scampi at the garbage buffet.

I was hoping for more wild life on the way in. There was the usual heap of geese and ducks and a great blue heron all scrunched up out in the river. No raptors or exotics. (I am soooo spoiled.)

I am starting to get the Rosslyn Circle of Certain Doom down to a science. Just assume that, when the light turns red, three cars will run the red to turn onto Key Bridge. Then proceed. You see car drivers never flaunt the laws like bike riders. Never ever.

The ride home was started by a jaw dropping moment.  It was light out. Not, almost-sunset light out, but honest to bejebus light out. And it stayed that way all the way to Belle Haven Park.  Even beyond there was enough sunlight left over that the headlights of the cars on the Parkway were tolerable.

By the time I arrived at the stone bridge 2 miles from home it was dark. I was running my Stella headlight on “high”. I headed for the 7-11 near home and stopped to do my last errand of the Errandonnee. Since it was my wild card, I thought it would be appropriate to buy a couple of lottery tickets. And so I did. Since it was in the dark, I also knocked off my second ride at night.

Errand 12: Wild Card

Now that the Errandonnee is in the books, El Gran Errando will retire knowing that this challenge was muy bueno.

Make Him Stop: Errand Number 11

Last year during the Utilitaire Challenge, I rode The Mule on a fiercely windy day to get me a roast beef sandwich called a Gary’s Lunchbox at Sherwood Hall Gourmet.  The wind won and I ended up ramming into the back of a parked car.

Errand 11: Little Nellie Get Lunch

This year, same conditions, same sandwich, different bike. Little Nellie got the call and handled the wind gusts without incident. I procured my sammich and received a reward, a wonderful tailwind that carried me home with no troubles.

The sammich was most excellent. Lesson learned: when life throws you a headwind, turn around, dummy!

Miles: 1

Cumulative miles: good heavens, we must be pushing 75 by now

Category: Lunch

Remaining errands: 1, but must be done in the dark. Oooh…suspense and intrique await. (Probably not.)

Lazy Saturdays Don’t Stop El Gran Errando!

Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent uses a Sigma bike computer. I bought the Sigma because it has a long cable wire, which is necessary for the long reach between the handlebar and the little front wheel. The particular version I have attaches to the handlebar mount using an o-ring. My 0-ring broke earlier this week causing me to use my spare o-ring. You might think it’s a bit anal to have a spare o-ring but iit took some trial and error to figured our what size to get (45). It’s a hassle I didn’t want to repeat. Besides o-rings weight next to nothing. (Of course, following this logic, I carry an appalling amount of crap on my bike rides.)

Little Nellie at Hollin Hall

Errand 9: O Rings and SIgma Computer

The hardware store is in the same shopping center as my pharmacy. It’s a 2 /12 mile round trip.  I learned that blue jeans make for pretty comfortable cycling in 38 degree weather. I wouldn’t want to ride a century in them but for short trips like this, they are every bit as comfortable as biking clothes.

I nearly ran out of ground coffee this morning so I rode to the Safeway from the hardware store. The Safeway is about a block away in the same shopping center as the hardware store. Note that the bike parking at this Safeway is pathetic.

Errand 10: Little Nellie at the Safeway

The ride home was a breeze. I spent the next ten minutes re-setting my odometer. It has 31,606 miles on it so I didn’t want to lose track of those miles. I neglected to right down the wheel size I was using so I looked it up on Sheldon Brown’s website. He’s awfully helpful for someone who died several years ago.

So that makes errrands number 9 and 10, in the Other type of store and Grocery store categories.  There’s only a few days left.  I have two rides to go. One has to be at night. I’ve done Work, Personal Care, Grocery, Lunch, Other store, and Bike store.  I need to do one more category to get the requisitve seven, but since there is a wild card category I can pretty much ride anywhere to qualify.

Even if I don’t dot all the ‘i”s and cross all the “t”s in the Challenge, it’s been fun to keep track of how many errands I run on my bike.  It’s pretty much the norm for me. You should try it.

The Hapless Hispanisto

Weatherman was using the s word this morning so Little Nellie got that call. It could have been an unwise decision since there was frost on the cars parked in front of my house.  Once I got to the Mount Vernon Trail all the bridges were coated in rime.  As both faithful readers of this blog know, Little Nellie is not particularly good at riding on slippery stuff.  I was uber careful and made it over the scary bits without incident.
The sunrise was pretty intense this morning. I think the temperature popped up a few degrees because I went from chilly at the start of the ride to sweaty by the half way point.  Speaking of halfway points, as I approached the power plant, I intersected with none other than Nancy Duley.  Normally we pass each other in opposite directions but since I left early to get to Friday Coffee Club I got a bonus. Nancy was riding alone because the evil and heartless Mr. Nancy Duley rode off without her. Nancy and I rode together to the airport. All the way, Nancy was cussing the Mr. up something fierce!!  (Okay, just kidding. Don’t want to start a divorce after they spent all that money on new doors for the house.)
Nancy has an awesome bike.  The frame is a custom Holland frame from 1993 (the same age as The Mule). It’s got nifty looking fenders and a trekking style handlebar. Nancy must be tempted to just keep on riding every morning.  Since she has a job and a mortgage (and new doors!) she turned around at the airport and headed for home. (Or so she said.  She could have continued on to Fredericksburg as far as I know.)
Coffee Club was hopping.  It’s my first FCC meeting in four weeks. It was especially nice to see the early birds, Mary, Lisa, Crystal and Adam, who normally are gone by the time I arrive. Froggie, a.k.a. the Bad Penny, was in from Norfolk.  And John, the dirt engineer, appeared, but left his beard at home. It was an effective disguise.
He reports that he is hard at work on the 2nd Annual Hoppy 100.
DSCN2043
It’s always fun to meet new folks at FCC and Ricky and Colin were this week’s noobs.  Welcome.
As is so often the case, the highlight of FCC is getting to play a bit with Hugo.  Hugo’s around 8 months old and words cannot do justice to his cuteness.
hugo
On the ride to Rosslyn, Little Nellie had to stop and take in the strange wooden beasts in front of the Kennedy Center.  I do not have an art gene, but I am guessing that some creative type person thought it would be spiffy to put a herd of wooden elk in front of the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy’s were known elk lovers. They had elk races at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport until an elk got drunk and ran off a bridge and drowned. You could look it up.
DSCN2046
If the morning was cool-ish the afternoon and evening were warm-ish. It was 61 degrees at lunchtime. I celebrated by walking several blocks to a sandwich stop.  On the way back to the office, a sky blue Porsche blew through a yield sign at a crosswalk that I was about to enter. The driver was on his cell phone. I slapped the rear panel of his car as he went by. He didn’t look or care. Some day Mr. Sky Blue Porsche will be spending oodles of money on a defense attorney after he hits a pedestrian. How much money? Obviously, if you have to ask you can’t afford it.
I relate the Porsche story partly because of what happened in Old Town on the way home.
The trip home was characterized by two things. First, I wore shorts. In February. Lordy, it felt good. Second, a weather front was approaching. There was a clear line of ominous clouds coming, When I started for home, I had a headwind. By the time I reached the airport, the wind was gusting from behind. They should make a rule that requires that the best tailwind of the week happens on Friday evenings,
On my way along North Union Street in Old Town, I spotted a woman runner on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. She was heading south like me. As we reached a parking garage, an exiting car came inches from hitting her. She and the driver exchanged words. She told the driver that it was okay since the sight lines are terrible.  Mighty magnanimous of her after the driver nearly killed her.
As far as errandonnee activity, I diverted 2 1/2 miles from my commute for FCC so I get a Coffee run as errand number 8 (I think). My total errandonneering mileage is well over 60 miles. I hope to do two some more errands this weekend.
Mary, the Mother of all Errandeurs, suggested that I change my errandonneuring moniker from El Errandonisto Grande to El Gran Errando.  Since EGE is a better set of initials than EEG, which makes it look like I have serious neurological problems, I am switching to El Gran Errando.
Life would have been much easier if I had taken Spanish instead of French in high school.
“C’est la vie,” say the old folks. It goes to show you never can tell.

Oops, let their be lights!

I neglected to mention that last night’s after dark, in the rain errrandonnee to the grocery store was lit by my Light and Motion Stella light. This baby does a great job. I’ve had this one for three years. It’sjust a single LED but it works on the darkness of the Mount Vernon Trail. The newer version is even brighter (I’m told). It charges reasonably quickly. (It does not use one of those fancy pants USB chargers.)
One thing I don’t like about the light is that the wire that connects the battery to the light doesn’t detach from the light. I don’t like detaching the light from my helmet twice a day so I end up with a rat tail. Lately I’ve been wrapping the wire around the blinky light that is attached to the rear of my helmet.
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Light and Motion product.

Robineering

The weatherman warned that there might be snow this evening. Or their might not. I want his job.

Just to be safe Little Nellie got the call today. I can say for certain after riding her 20 miles today that the tweak to the saddle position is a rousing success. And the repair to my shifter cable likewise.

The ride in was nothing to write home about.  And since I am at home as I write this ther wouldn’t be any point to doing so if I did.  Cruising along between the Humpback Bridge and the Memorial Bridge I spotted two robins bopping along the side of the Mount Vernon Trail. They didn’t have their bright orange breast feathers yet but they were definintely robins.

There were a bunch of soldiers doing what must be a required fitness task. They put on massive back packs and walk along the trail. I can tell they are being timed because they look down at their watches and because there’s another soldier timing them at what looked like the finish line just north of the 14th Street bridge.  One of the soldiers was actually running with his pack on. All I could think of is, “Dude, your body’s going to remember this in about 20 years.”

The ride in was dry with a head wind. The ride home was in a spitting rain.  The tailwind made it tolerable. Once the sun went down it was exceptionally hard to see as the light from my helmet lamp and the cars on the parkway were reflecting off of all the water.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Rather than race around trying to get flowers for Mrs. Rootchopper, I diverted to the Safeway and picked some up. (Here’s hoping the Mrs. does read my blog.)  It took me five minutes to pick them out and buy them. It took ten minutes of walking around in the rain beforehand trying to find something to lock LIttle Nellie to.  I ended up just locking the rear wheel to the frame near some shopping carts.  Sadly, this is all too familiar in Mount Vernon. Fairfax County is way behind on accommodating biked as transportation.

For those of you who are into the errandoneering challenge, I scored two rides today. 1 bike commute of 29 miles (errand number 6) and one trip to the grocery store (errand number 7) in the dark (a one-half mile diversion off my bike commute).  So that gives me 1 of 2 night time rides.

Happy Ash Valentines Eve.

Image

El Errando Grande Is Faked Out

Warm air is here. It’s April!!! Well, actually,no. Never mind.
As you can see, I got all excited about the warmish air forecasted for today. I didn’t bother with overboots and I used a vest and Smartwool arm warmers instead of my jacket. I was a tad underdressed, but I didn’t care.
Big Nellie didn’t either although she managed to delay our departure with a broken o-ring. Big Nellie has delusions that she’s a space shuttle. The o-ring in this case actually attaches the bike computer to the handlebar so it’s not a critical item. One just doesn’t want to have a droopy computer. It just isn’t done. Fortunately, I thought ahead and bought a spare that was underneath the dollar bill in my repair kit. (The dollar bill is for use as a tire boot not as a medium of exchange.)
Off I rode, a bit chilled but psyched about the day. On Union Street in Old Town Alexandria I passed Nancy Duley who was waving her arms like a deranged person. Hi, Nancy.
Veloworker Extraordinaire Nancy Duley
Veloworker Extraordinaire Nancy Duley
The Mount Vernon Trail was rather busy this day. Lots of other people decided to go ape and ride to work. One runner was boogying down the path in shorts.  Nice legs.
At the beaver dam, a National Park Service Beaver Disrupter was hard at work knocking down the dam. The pond behind it was starting to spill over on the playing fields and the MVT.
The rest of the ride in was splendid. Nobody ran me over in Rosslyn which is always nice.
The ride home was light, as opposed to dark, not heavy. My ride home is always heavy. He ain’t heavy, he’s my panniers.
At the beaver dam, the NPSBD had achieved his goal; the pond had mostly drained. When the water in a pond recedes it leaves behind what scientists call muck. Muck smells like rotting plants. For once, I was happy it was not warm out. I can’t imagine how bad it would have smelled on a 90 degree day.
I reluctantly turned on my headlight shortly the muck. We’re only a few weeks away from ditching the lights for good. Yay!
Today was my 25th bike commute of the year. And my fifth errand.  I rode 29.5 miles. I observed things with my eyes and nose. Vive El Errrando Grande!!!

Early to bed, Early to RIse,.., Ben Franklin Was an Idiot

I woke up at 4:45 a.m. so that I good drive my daughter to meet a bus that would whisk her away to the Big Apple. Her school chorus is spending the week singing all over the city.  Good luck with that. The drop off was at her school in Woodley Park in DC. So instead of driving all the way back to Mount Vernon I went to the office. I arrived at work at 6 a.m.

Suffice it to say, I was a zombie by lunch time.  I came home after semi-productive day – with the emphasis on semi.  Tomorrow I will be back in the saddle for bike commute number 25 of 2013.