Category: #bikedc

There’s the rub and other things

Deep tissue massage

As my tour launch date approaches, I have been increasingly concerned about my various physical problems. The tension in my neck muscles and, more importantly, the limited range of motion in my neck have been making just moving around a literal pain in the neck. I have also become increasingly bent over, an affliction I have been attributing to my lumbar spinal stenosis.

On the recommendation of Casey, a friend from Friday Coffee Club, I booked an appointment with a message therapist for a deep tissue massage. I figured one of three things could happen. Worse case scenario: my neck and back get much worse and I end up at a surgeon’s office. Neutral outcome: as with all the other various kinds of massages I’ve had, the massage feels good but not much changes. Best case scenario: I actually feel considerably better.

(What comes next is an over simplification of the message session. I am an anatomy ignoramus and I know even less about the specifics of message techniques.)

The appointment started with a long interview about my activity and my physical woes, focusing on my neck. I also mentioned my spinal stenosis issue. Just before the hands-on part of the session, the therapist pointed out that I had obvious tightness in my psoas muscles. (The psoas muscles are an important connection between the upper and lower body. They are notoriously difficult to loosen.) I was sitting on the massage table but instead of being upright, my torso was at a 45 degree angle to my thighs. I hadn’t even noticed.

In fact, that’s my default setting; bent over as I watch TV, read, drive, and use my phone. By riding my bike tens of thousands of miles in the last few years, I’ve managed to managed to train my muscles to assume the riding position when I’m off the bike. Once you’re bent over, bent over is the norm. In fact, I can’t straighten up. I’m locked in.

We began with massaging my tight neck muscles. This involved finding knots in my muscles and pressing on them (a technique called pinning) then slowing stretching the muscle, breathing in during the stretch and exhaling on release. The therapist worked on my neck, my shoulders, my head, and my jaw. Back and forth and all around. I’ll admit some of this was pretty painful. With each pressing of a knot, the pain lessened until it was gone and the muscle was freed up.

After that the therapist worked on loosening my pectoral muscles, the ones across my chest. Riding a bike causes these muscles to be tight, pulling my upper body over when I stand. Some of this involved simply pulling on my chest muscles to the outside. The therapist also worked on knots around the edge of my scapula, a bone that sits on the outside of the chest cavity in back.

There was also a last adjustment to my psoas muscle. One leg straight. The other bent and drawn upward, just as I had been doing on my back. She pressed another point somewhere above the hip. Then the other side.

At the end of the session, I stood up. Straight. Without the slightest bit of tension pulling my shoulders forward. My lower back felt completely free of tension as well.

After the session I went to the drugstore. I parked over a block away and walked to and from the store without a cane. No problem at all. No pain. No tightness in my lower back.

I’ll be damned if the massage didn’t work.

The therapist told me I’d be sore for a few days. Day two was the worst. My neck and lower back were aching after a 50-mile ride. Today is day three and my neck feels fine. My back soreness went away. The range of motion in my neck is still a bit limited but the pain is all but gone. More importantly, I know that the stretching I had been doing will be much more effective if I pin the tight muscle down when I stretch it. As for my lower back, the onset of discomfort seems to be taking significantly longer, a very welcome development.

I’m going to go back for another session after my tour. In the meantime, I’ve added pinning to my neck stretches. Also, I have two stretches for my pectoral muscles that are pretty easy to do. The scapula stretching requires a tennis ball and a sock (to keep the ball from falling as I work with it). I haven’t tried that but I have a massage gizmo that can do the same thing. So far all the stretches for the psoas muscles seem to require the body of a contortionist. (Lunge, raise your arm, lean back. Fall over.)

Other news

I decided to change my rear tire. I removed the Schwable Marathon with about 6,000 miles and replaced it with an comparably old Schwalbe Marathon Plus. The latter last several thousand more miles and are extremely resistant to punctures. I will notice more rolling resistance but that’s the price you pay for not having to deal with flats every 1,000 miles. (Knock wood.) The beefier tire should serve me well on the rough roads of eastern Kentucky.

When changing the tire, I used a new tire lever that I recently picked up at Bikes at Vienna. The tire and rim combinations make for difficult installation, frequently resulting in loss of skin on my thumbs. Although the copy in the link says this lever is designed for narrow tires, it worked fine on my 700×35 Marathon Plus tire. My thumbs are grateful.

Going longer

In the last nine days, I’ve done 323 miles with rides of 42, 50, 52, and 53 miles and a day off. The 52-miler was yesterday. I could have easily gone farther. Every year I get to late April and think, I’ve lost it. Every May, I find it.

I haven’t picked a launch date yet.

April flowers bring…

Nothing says Spring quite like the beauty of flowers and blossoms on a warm, sunny day. Right? That was the idea when the minds at the Washington Area Bicyclists Association (WABA) thought up the Bloom Ride, 20-mile meander through the lovely trails and lanes of Arlington, Virginia. Here’s the elevator pitch: Happy bicyclists enjoy sunshine and warm breezes as they pedal past endless tulips, azaleas, and other colorful flora.

Sadly, WABA doesn’t have an elevator so they could only hope for the best. What we got for today’s ride was cool mid-50s temperatures with intermittent light rain. Whoopee!

Oh, and thanks to global warming, our early spring was exceptionally warm, meaning that the tulips and azaleas did their blooming thing about a week ago. Our floral booby prizes were soggy roses and wisteria. And beds of dirt and mulch. I don’t suppose calling this the Wet Mulch Ride would have brought in much in the way of donations though.

We met up at the recently renovated Franklin Square Park in downtown DC. This park is an absolute gem. It must be jammed at lunchtime during the week.

Chris showed up. Then Monica. We waited for Domitille and Timothee but, alas, Domitille was felled by Covid and decided not to come and infect us. Well played, mademoiselle.

Before leaving, we made the rounds of the various soggy tents under which WABA employees and volunteers ignored the gloomy weather and cheerfully saw to our various needs: food, bike repairs, stickers, fake tattoos and more. Under one such tent was Erika whom I hadn’t seen in ten years. Big hugs and smiles. I mentioned how I remember her little girl Charlotte when she was around five-years-old. Erika laughed, looked to her left, and nodded at the pretty teenager peering out from under the hood of a rain jacket. Charlotte! Ack! She’s taller than mom! I’m so old. (By the way, Erika hasn’t aged a day. Sucks, doesn’t it?)

Erika and me at the start.

After Charlotte put a temporary tattoo on my cheek, I joined Chris and Monica and we began the ride. We took the 15th Street cycletrack down past the Tidal Basin (cherry blossoms peaked weeks ago) then over the river to the Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial on the Mount Vernon Trail. (They have memorials for every thing. It’s a shame they took down the Navy-Tailhook Memorial.) Fun fact: the Memorial is on Columbia Island which is actually in DC.

The Memorial is surrounded by a circle of tulips. It’s really stunning. Or was. Last month. Today it was surrounded by a circle of lovely brown mulch.

Under the Parkway, through the scenic parking lot we rode. Once in Lady Bird Johnson Park we came upon a cute site: a Canada goose was sheltering a scrum of goslings under its hind feathers. The goslings were all shivering and pecking at one another.

Goslings under goose

We rode across a wooden bridge into Virginia and along the roadway around the scenic Pentagon Parking lot. We left the acres of glistening concrete to follow Washington Boulevard past the site of the 9-11 attack. Then we rode onto Columbia Pike and along the sidewalk past Arlington Cemetery. Are we depressed yet?

After a brief return to the Columbia Pike traffic sewer we turned on a side street and began to wend our way on neighborhood paths and quiet streets past lovely small homes that would cost $1 million less in any sane real estate market. The homes were nestled in endless azalea and flower gardens. All past bloom, of course. I used to run through this area back when I lived in Arlington and had cartilage in my left knee. Even past peak in the rain it’s a gorgeous place to be.

We rode through Columbia Gardens Cemetery and stopped for a selfie. Afterwards we realized we were standing in front of the gravestone of Senator Robert Byrd, God’s gift to West Virginia. He served in the Senate for over 51 years. We continued through North Arlington and made our way down the Bluemont Junction Trail past the site of a house that exploded over a month ago. No lie.

Monica, Chris, and me obstructing the view of Robert Byrd’s gravestone.

The Bluemont Junction Trail took us to the Washington and Old Dominion Trail. We left that trail to ride through Bon Air Park which has a lovely rose garden – not bad – and the most amazing hill of azaleas -no blossoms. Sad face.

Next we took the Custis Trail back toward DC. We rode past Erika and Charlotte’s house. Dad Geoff and son Henry were no doubt somewhere inside like sane people. We forged ahead to the Ballston neighborhood where we arrived at a pit stop at Conte’s Bicycle shop. Last year I was surprised to see my friends Mike and Jesse volunteering here but this year they stayed dry. Instead, Sara, whom normally rides with us, was volunteering in the rain. She is the most energetic, enthusiastic person you’d ever want to meet. She gave us massive hugs. It was great to see her.

Sara and Monica

Buoyed by Sara’s energy, we began the ride back to DC through more lovely neighborhoods. We made our way around Fort Myer where Orville Wright crashed his flying machine, resulting in the death of Thomas Selfridge, the first passenger killed in powered flight. On the eastern side of the fort we entered the grounds of the Netherlands Carillon, near the Iwo Jima Memorial. (I once heard a young radio newscaster refer to this as the “Statue “of the Two Jimas”. I suspect she ultimately found employment in another line of work.)

After taking in some mulch where some lovely tulips once blossomed, we followed a path around Arlington Cemetery and then across the Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. We slalomed through tourists past with the Reflecting Pool on our left and a flag football tournament on our right. One of the teams displayed a banner that said “ZU”. This is a tribute to a Mesopotamian bird god or a the fraternity Signa Delta Rho. Go figure.

After inadvertently crossing Constitution Avenue against a DO NOT WALK sign, I survived to arrive at the Flower Library at the Tidal Basin. They had no flowers, but their wet dirt was interesting.

We returned to the start, soggy and hungry, where dined on lunch boxes from Potbelly. The sandwiches really hit the spot. After our snarf and chat, I headed home, 15 more soggy miles. I pulled into the driveway with another 50-miler under my belt. Little Nellie was rode hard and put away wet as my mother-in-law likes to say.

After a big cup of hot tea, I put on some sweatpants, curled up on the couch, and took a nap. Free as a bird. Home and dry.

Despite the rain, it was a fun day. It was great to see Erika and Charlotte and encounter the Sara hug machine.

The posse will re-assemble in full force in September for WABA’s 50 States Ride. Stay tuned, y’all.

Thanks to all the WABA folks and volunteers for working in the cold rain all day.

Down a pint

With warming weather, I am starting to bump up my mileage. On April 28 I managed 52 miles on Big Nellie. I chose the hilly route to Falls Church to buy some Halt pepper spray at a bike shop. It was closed. Derp.

I continued west to Vienna to see if Bikes at Vienna sold any. Nope. I did get to chat with the ever- loquacious Beth. She was dying to get her hands on Bike Nellie for service work, but that will have to wait until I wear out the chain later this year. She mention that she had a recent chat with Lawyer Mike, a loyal customer who is a regular at Friday Coffee Club. Mike bought an electric assist Hase Pino tandem. The front is a recumbent, the real conventional. Mike’s son is developly disabled so the bike allows them to go on weekend excursions. The son is the stoker, which means he sits up front on the recumbent half of the bike. Mike is the captain in back. It’s an amazing design and works great for them.

I had intended on continuing west of the W&OD trail to check out a new bridge over Wiehle Avenue in Reston but Beth told me it isn’t installed yet. So I headed back east. Not a half mile later Mike and his son passed me going west. (They stopped at Bikes at Vienna on their way to a milkshake place in Reston.) I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen someone I know on a bike in the last year.

Temperatures were unseasonably warm but I made it home in decent shape, making sure to take a swig of pickle juice to ward off leg cramps.

I did an easier 30-mile ride the next day, again on Big Nellie. I finished the month on Tuesday with a day off the bike and a blood donation at the Bloodmobile parked at the hospital down the street. Back at home, I set up my tent to make sure I remembered how to do it. I slept in it overnight. It rained. I stayed dry. I slept very deeply in three roughly two-hour stages. I guess the blood donation factored into that.

The weather on May 1 was perfect so I got on The Mule and headed out for what turned out to be a 52-mile ride from my house to Bethesda, Maryland and back. After emerging from the new tunnel under the Humpback Bridge on the Mount Vernon Trail, I noticed a couple of people standing around checking out some Canada geese. Among the adult geese were a handful of yellow-green goslings busily snarfing up grass. The first goslings of the year are always a welcome sight.

First goslings of 2023

I continued onward up the Capital Crescent Trail, stopping in Bethesda to snack on a few cookies I brought then I headed back, down Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. The temperature was in the 80s but the shade in Rock Creek Park took the edge off the heat. Seeing all the green made me all but forget that stick season is barely over.

On my return, I crossed the Potomac River on the 14th Street Bridge. The ramp connects to the Mount Vernon Trail pretty much exactly were I saw the goslings. This time there were 20 of the fuzzy little critters being tended to by a pair of adult geese. As I stopped to enjoy the goings on, Miles, another Friday Coffee Clubber, came by on his electric-assist Brompton. What’s with these encounters? Miles was on his way home from work and he sped off south on the trail.

More goslings later on the day

After some gosling zen, I headed south as well. About four miles later I came upon a horrific scene on the adjacent George Washington Memorial Parkway. A crash had just occurred. (Miles passed the site before the crash and I arrived just after it.) A BMW was speeding north on the Parkway. The driver passed two cars in the right lane. The driver of the van had entered the Parkway from a perpendicular side street. Eye witnesses said the BMW was going “about 100 miles and hour”. It hit the van and sent the van airborne for what witnesses said seemed like three seconds before it landed on its roof on the Parkway. The BMW ended up upright in the wide median between the north and southbound lanes.

Insane crash aftermath

The force of the impact destroyed the front end of the van, sending parts, including the entire engine, off into the grass on my side of the roadway.

The engine and assorted other debris

The elderly driver of the van had been removed from the vehicle by passersby and was being attended to. He was in rough shape, but was conscious. A school-aged boy who had crawled out of the van was sitting on the grass about 20 yards away, surrounded by some super nice folks. He didn’t have a mark on him and seemed remarkably calm. (He complained to the ambulance crew that his back was sore but there were no surface injuries visible.)

It is amazing to me that no one was killed. (As far as I know, that is; the elderly driver, the boy’s grandfather, is in critical condition.)

The rest of the ride home was blessedly without incident.

Thursday I rode The Mule to a big box hardware store for some home repair supplies. I wanted to take it easy but the store was on top of a big hill so climbing was involved. After shopping, I went for an exploratory ride through Kingstowne and the Fort Belvoir areas The Kingstowne part of the trip was intended to avoid a brutal hill on the direct route to Fort Belvoir. The roundabout route I took cut the one big hill into three manageable ones.

It was hot and muggy during the ride. I drank all my fluids. At home I hit the floor to do my physical therapy exercises. When I went to stand up, the back of my left leg seized up with a humungous, very painful cramp. After it calmed down, I went straight to the kitchen for a shot of PJ.

Today I rode to and from Friday Coffee Club on only four hours of sleep. The weather was fantastic: 70 degrees and breezy. The pollen, however, was not. I had three coughing fits brought on by pollen coating the back of my throat. I used albuterol to calm my lungs and managed to ride home without incident. PJ was imbibed.

I was going to attend to a home repair project but the weather was perfect for napping on the deck and so I did.

Tomorrow I plan on riding 50 miles in the cold rain.

April Go He Won’t – Yet

T. S. Eliot wasn’t entirely wrong about April. Although I must admit April in the mid-Atlantic is decidedly less cruel than it is in New England or upstate New York where I spent my first 29 Aprils.

Reading

Chip Wars by Chris Miller. This book had been recommended by multiple friends. They were right. It’s pretty amazing. It’s the story of the semiconductor industry. Sounds boring, right? The technological aspects are fascinating, but the geopolitics of the chip industry are mind-blowing. Miller tells the story artfully from the very first transistor to the chips that power artificial intelligence.

Watching

The big watching event was the eclipse. We drove to my in-laws’ place in northern Indiana. From there, we drove back roads to Portland, Indiana near the Ohio state line. We were in the zone of totality. Our battle plan worked like a charm with considerable help from the weather gods.

Yeah, I watched the NCAA women’s final. but, for me, April is all about baseball. Nationals fans are a bit like Jim Carrey’s character in Dumb and Dumber: so you’re telling me there’s still a chance! For baseball fans, July is the cruelest month because by mid-summer your team’s flaws become undeniable. For now, the Nats are within a game of .500 and the young talent is starting to show real promise.

I rode to two baseball games at Nats Park. It was a bit chilly but I drank some beer. The games were fun. The ride was funner.

Riding

I took a week off for the first time in years and managed to ride 22 days for a total of 707.5 miles. For the most part, the weather was pretty good. I brought Big Nellie out of the basement and rode it 322.5 miles. Little Nellie chipped in 229 miles. The Mule contributed 156 miles. The Tank took the month off as I tried with fitful success to get rid of the nagging neck pain I’ve been dealing with for months.

I did two long rides of 53 and 52 miles on Big Nellie. The last one in near 90-degree heat.

I’m more than 300 miles below last year’s pace despite having an extra calendar day. I sit at 2,981 miles which projects to 9,017 miles for the year. I need to get my fanny in gear if I hope to make 10,000 miles. I expect to take several days off in May for a family event so 10K will be a challenge.

I spent a good deal of time doing tour prep. Of course, I keep thinking of things to add to my load, meaning I will be sending home a package after the first week like always. Yesterday I acquired a dog whistle, pepper spray, sunscreen, and a small can of shaving cream. Today, I set up my tent in the backyard. As usual, I forgot a few steps but even so the whole thing took only ten minutes. After that I compared my stock of spare tires to the ones on The Mule. I checked my records and the rear Schwalbe Marathon tire has 6,000 miles on it. I should get me another 1,000 miles or two before replacing it. The front tire, a Schwalbe Mondial, is in even better shape.

I also found a kit to overhaul my Top Peak Road Morph pump, a pump that has proven to be barely adequate over the years. It took forever to get the pump apart and when I did I dropped a tiny spring that went somewhere far far away. I also discovered that the replacement o-ring was the wrong size. Clearly, the bike gods were telling me to buy a new pump so I ordered a Lezyne high volume mini floor pump. Beth at Bikes at Vienna recommended Lezyne pumps. There is one video online that slams the design (if you’re not careful you can pull the valve out of the tire!) but it’s hard to imagine it can be any worse than my Road Morph. Time will tell.

I am down to two items yet to be acquired: a small bottle of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap (it always comes in handy) and a tiny metal valve adapter so that I can use a gas station air pump in a pinch. So tomorrow I will celebrate May Day by doing one last shopping trip.

Giving

This month I made my semi-annual donation to World Central Kitchen in the days after their team in Gaza was killed by the Israeli military.

I also made a donation to Warmshowers.org. If you donate now, you will be entered into a lottery for a new touring bike. Sounds good to me.

Finally, I gave blood this morning for the second time this year. They asked if I wanted to give a double red donation but, with a tour looming, I decided to go with a unit of whole blood.

Tour Prep Continued – Dogs

With the start of my tour about three weeks away, I continue to stress out about the aggressive dog situation in Kentucky and Missouri. Last night I watched some YouTube videos about dealing with dogs while riding. Many of them suggest slowing down. (My reaction: AYFKM!) Often the dog will sense victory and back off. They say that you cannot outrun a dog. (This is poppycock. I’ve outrun several.) If the dog doesn’t disengage, dismount, keeping your bike between you and the dog. (This is insanity. I was out for a ride in my home town when a hyper-aggressive dog made a run for me. The dog blocked my way so I dismounted. It was a standoff for the better part of 30 minutes. Needless to say, I was terrified.) My friend Charmaine often stops and just calmly talks to the dog. It works for her somehow. A third idea is to throw small objects like roadside rocks or gravel at the dog. No need to hit the animal. Or even better you can fake like your throwing something. The dog will disengage. (This makes sense to me.)

Letter carriers use Halt or some other pepper spray product. I had a small can of Halt on a mount attached to the handlebars of Big Nellie on three bike tours in the mid 2000s. I never used it but it provided peace of mind. Halt is preferred to other products because it comes out as a stream not a mist, meaning it’s less likely to end up getting blow into your eyes. Amazingly, I found the can the other day and it still works. I can’t seem to find the mount though.

I was once attacked by a huge, aggressive dog in Belle Haven Park on the Mount Vernon Trail near my home. I was riding Big Nellie and didn’t have pepper spray. Seeing the dog’s teeth at eye level was pretty scary. I ended up going off the trail and crashing. The dog declared victory and went back to its master. I called the police. They came in minutes.

A few weeks ago, I bought a small air horn. It’s intended use is to alert bears to your presence while hiking. Yesterday I was discussing dogs with Beth at Bikes at Vienna. They don’t sell Halt but she showed me a similar, considerably larger horn that the shops sells. She also told me about a customer who rode a recumbent trike across the country and used a dog whistle of some sort. This is makes all kinds of sense to me. Since you can put it on a lanyard and hang it around your neck, it means you can have easy access without letting go of the handlebars. (My friend Reba uses a referee’s whistle instead of a bike bell.) I am riding to a local CVS to get one today.

Other options include spraying the dog with water from your water bottle or spraying the dog with bug repellent (the stuff tastes nasty). This comes out as a mist and can backfire.

As a last resort you can yell at the dog. My 2019 and 2023 biking buddy Mark simply yelled “GO HOME!” and, according to Corey his wingman, the dog would stop chasing him. Others online suggest “GET OFF THE COUCH!”.

So I plan on a multi-tiered approach. Sound first. Rock throwing second. Pepper spray third.

If you have any additional suggestions, let me know in the comments.

There’s no crying in pickleball

My apologies to my readers who thought that yesterday’s post was about me. The phone app reblog function didn’t permit me an introduction. So today, I am reblogging a post from Mary, Ed’s wife. Having been in her shoes in the past, I must say she does a far more eloquent job of describing the situation than I could have done. For me the feelings of uselessness were the worst. You know the situation is bad when pickleball is source of solace.

You Can’t Play Pickleball By Yourself

A Folk Remedy Goes Mainstream

My wife’s family is from southern West Virginia we’re summers are hot and humid. According to my wife, her granny used to administer pickle juice to remedy heat-related muscle cramps.

A few months ago I was lying in bed when I was beset by the worst muscle cramps I’ve ever had. They extended from my butt to my ankles in both legs. And they lasted for over 15 minutes.

Seeing me in agony my wife ran and got me a banana. In between excruciating spasms o managed to eat it but the cramps continued. Next she brought out the heavy artillery. She gave me a shot glass worth of pickle juice. Damned if it didn’t work like a charm.

A couple of days ago, I rode to a local bike shop in search of electrolyte tablets for my bike tour. Next to tablets in the shelf in the store was this:

Organic! Extra Strength! Will I be banned from Olympic competition?

I bought two bottles.

As a trial, I drank some pickle juice from a jar in our refrigerator after yesterday’s ride. It tastes wretched but I’ll do anything to avoid mega cramps like I had last year.

Mid-April Bentabout

Yesterday I spread eight bags of mulch then went for a ride on Little Nellie. I lasted 16 1/2 miles before nasty weather nearby chased me indoors. I rode the equivalent of another 16 miles on Big Nellie in the basement.

Today the weather was perfect. I spread another 8 bags of mulch, ate lunch, and decided it was time to free Big Nellie from its winter perch on the resistance trainer in the cellar.

Big Nellie starts working on her 2024 tan.

I took the inland (away from the Potomac River) toward DC. Near the Pentagon, I discovered that a road reconstruction project was nearing completion. This included a new traffic circle and some new bike multiuse trails. After the traffic circle and the I-395 underpass there’s a second traffic circle. Here the new trail connects to a trail that goes under the GW Parkway and intersects the Mount Vernon Trail at the Humpback Bridge.

The new underpass at the Humpback Bridge. Note the sign says that there is a barrier ahead but the barrier is gone.

After using the underpass I looped up onto the bridge where I saw two bike tourists. They were gazing at the monuments across the river and DC and discussing something. I figured they were trying to find their way somewhere.

I rode on and crossed the Memorial Bridge. Near the Lincoln Memorial I noticed that the tourists had stopped on the trail behind me. I circled back and asked them if they needed help. They said they had just flown into Reagan (note: NOBODY in DC calls National Airport “Reagan”) and were riding to Pittsburgh. Been there. Done that. So I gave them encouragement and some directions then idiotically proceeded to go exactly the way they were going to get on the C&O Canal. (Why didn’t I just say “Follow me”? Derp.)

We rode more or less together along the river past the beach volleyball courts, under the TR Bridge, past the Kennedy Center and the Watergate when I decided to take them past the Swedish Embassy on the Georgetown waterfront. Just before the turn to the embassy we saw signs for the C&O Canal Milepost 0. I had never seen it! It was the perfect photo op.

Dallas tourists Raegan (sic) and Sue near the Lincoln Memorial.
Milepost 0

After the photo I directed them to the Water Street cycletrack. Go thata way. Do not stop until you get to Pittsburgh. (It’s really that easy!)

As for myself, I headed up Rock Creek Park to see the trees leaving out and check out dogwoods and azaleas and wisteria and more. After about ten miles I left the park and headed into Bethesda where I picked up the Capital Crescent Trail and zoomed back down to Georgetown and, eventually, home.

The ride ended up being 53 miles. It is my longest ride since the Cider Ride in early November. Thanks to Big Nellie’s comfy ride, I arrived home not the least bit sore.