Category: Errandonnee

And They’re Off – Errandonnee 1 and 2

Last night I slept with Meryl Streep. My wife, daughter and I were watching DVDs. I made it through St. Vincent (excellent if depressing) and the first 15 minutes of August Osage County, then I was alone. The latter movie is populated by incredibly depressing characters, a bit like Thanksgiving at my parents house in 1991.  Meryl Streep was really a depressing pill popper with cancer. The movie was an actors dream. Look at me ACT!!!! Watch me sleep. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning. Alone. On the couch.

After three more hours of sleep in my bed, I woke up to my new Saturday morning ritual of physical therapy, yoga, and meditation. Basically, I am coming to the conclusion that I should pick one because doing all three is a bore fest.

I waited for the sun to warm things up a bit. Road conditions in Mount Vernon were pretty sketchy yesterday so I decided to forgo riding into Old Town. What could I do down near my place? Snow was on the ground. There is an Errandonnee category called “You carried what on a bike?” I put two and two together and:

IMG_20150307_121017

Off I rode on The Mule to Fort Hunt Park about three miles from home. I got there only to find that I couldn’t open my bike lock. Arg. I thought it was an old lock and it never occured to me that it was my newer lock which, of course, uses a different key.

I rode home and grabbed a cable lock and rode back to the park. By this point I had wasted about an hour and was hungry. I decided to give the snowshoeing a go anyway.

Joy. Love it. I found a path into the woods. I forded a wee creek. I went down a steep embankment. I clambered up a short hill. The temperature rose into the 40s. I made my way baIMG_20150307_141412ck to the bike ambling this way and that through the park.

I strapped the snowshoes to my bike and headed home. Realizing that I was now starving I headed to Sherwood Gourmet about three quarters of a mile from home for a sammich.

Along the way I made another discovery. All winter I have been riding in my old Lake mountain bike shoes and some fleece lined overboots. This combination is a pain to get on and off. Today, I used my hiking boots instead. I didn’t think they’d fit in my toe clips but they fit perfectly.

Errand No. 1: Saturday, March 7

Category: You Carried WHAT on Your Bike?

Miles: 11

Observation: Snowshoeing is addictive. Almost makes me sorry winter is going. Wait. That’s crazy talk.

Errand No. 2: Saturday, March 7

Category: Personal Care (I was hungry!!!!)

Miles: 1 1/2

Observation: I am officially a regular at Sherwood Gourmet. Gary’s Lunchbox sammich, kettle chips, tall Diet Pepsi.

Allez! Allez! Errandonnee!

For most bicyclists, winter is endured. Sure some of us adapt to the cold and the slippery conditions; others hibernate waiting for the first sign of spring. It seems silly to say this today because as I type this it’s snowing pretty hard here in the DMV. No worries because the first sign of spring is here. Today is the first day of the 2015 Errandonnee.

It’s pretty simple. Over the next 12 days, run 12 errands on your bike. Document them. And send the list in to Mary, Queen of Errands. If you complete the Errandonnee, you can get an Errandonee patch to proudly display.

I’m not much of a patch person, but the idea of the Errandonee is in my wheel house. I run errands on my bike all the time. So here are a few I will likely do:

Ride to work (twice)

Go to the bank

Ride to get lunch or coffee with friends (twice)

I have to come up with seven more. This may not be so easy since I have already used up a couple of errands (drug store, hardware store) in the last few days. I will figure something out.

The point is that now you have a little excuse to get out there on your bike. To ease out of winter and into spring.

Allez! Allez!

Errandonnee + Amis = Amisdonnee!

The weatherman was calling for temperatures in the high 50s. There was just one thing to do. Go for a long ride. Justin, John and Ryan were going to ride a 60-mile loop from DC to Alexandria to Prince Georges County to DC. I was going to join them but between my bad back, my late return from picking up my daughter at BWI and a profound sense of sloth, I opted out.

Instead I headed out to run some errands as part of the 2014 Errandonnee Challenge. After doing some yoga and mastering the day’s crossword puzzles, I hopped on The Mule and headed to Old Town for some exciting banking action. Not knowing if the Mount Vernon Trail was ice free I took side streets all the way to Alexandria. The hills that I encountered did not much bother my back which is still beset with random nerve pains.

Once the banking was done I headed to Haute Dogs and Fries, a rather ambitious little hot dog place at the north end of Old Town. I had a Fenway Dog and an Haute Dog with some fries. It was most scrumptious. On the way out I checked my Twitter feed and saw that my friend Rachel (Don’t Call Me, Bob) Cannon was feeling lonely at her job at a nonprofit used bookstore in DC. Since I like Rachel and books and had nowhere else to be, I decided to be there. I happened to glance at the menu board on the way out and saw that they sold Whoopie Pies. I figured Rachel could use a little Whoopie in her day and procured one.I chose the red velvet pie over the Guinness pie because a Guinness Whoopie Pie would make me hurl. (I am a thoughtful gift giver.)

Once the Whoopie Pie was safely stowed in my handlebar bag, I was off and riding. The Mount Vernon Trail is notorious for being congested on nice days and today was no exception. Once onto the 14th Street Bridge I had a brief reprieve before riding into thick swarms of tourists. Maybe that should be swarms of thick tourists, but either way there were a lot of them.

I made it to 17th and K Street in DC and could not find the bookstore. After a few tweets to Rachel and some Google mapping I found it. I tied up The Mule next to Rachel’s new green Surly Disc Trucker, a touring bike to die for. I had bike envy. Rachel bought the Surly after being run over by a car in Prince Georges County last December. It’s nice to see that some good came out of what was probably a horrible experience.

As readers of this blog know, I think Rachel is pretty darn cool. She’s a grad student, snail wrangler, DC bike tour leader, bike rack installer, book store clerk, kitty saver, and erstwhile sitcom star all in one. We talked a blue streak for about an hour. We solved global warming, the Ukranian and Venezuelan Crises, and acute Nutella addiction syndrome.

Errandonee #4: Rachel says, "I <3 Whoopie Pies"

Before I left I bought a book on her recommendation. I did a little browsing and saw that this store is one that I have to come back to with an empty pannier or two. In addition to books they sell CDs and DVDs. Even with the low prices, I could spend some serious money at this place. The store is called Carpe Librum. It is owned by a nonprofit called Turning the Page. Proceeds from sales go to benefit DC public school students and families. They accept donations of old books, CDs, and DVDs so I may actually take them some of mine in the future.

As I was leaving the bookstore, I checked my Twitter feed and saw that Ted was riding at Hains Point along the Potomac River about a mile away. Hains Point is on the way to the 14th Street Bridge so I headed over to see if I could find Ted. Sure enough, I wasn’t there more than ten seconds when I saw him on the road ahead. We did two 3-mile loops down to the point together. The weather was pretty darn splendid.

After leaving Ted, I crossed the river and headed for home on the Mount Vernon Trail. It was even more congested than earlier but I had a nice tailwind and the views were hard to beat so I stayed on the trail. Once clear of Old Town the traffic on the trail thinned out. I saw a photographer at the Morningside bald eagle nest so I stopped to check things out. I didn’t see the nest but a man and a woman came running toward me. As they approached I realized the woman was Kate, a friend from my former job. She and I worked an Earth Day event one year. I have tried to get her into cycling but she prefers to huff and puff up hills on her own two feet. To each his own. We had a brief chat and went our separate ways.

My odometer registered 40 miles as I pulled into the driveway. 60 degrees, 40 miles, 3 friends and 3 errands. My work here is done.

Errandonnee Summary

Errandonnee #2

Category: Store other than a grocery store

Miles: 6

Observation: You do mobile banking your way, I’ll do it mine.

Errandonnee #3

Category: Lunch

Miles: 1

Observation: If you call hot dogs, Haute Dogs shouldn’t you Frenchiy the “dogs” to so you get Haute Chiens? Mais oui.

Errandonee # 4

Category: Library (cause a used books store is pretty close to being a library)

Miles: 9

Observation: If I lived close to Carpe Librum, it would make sense to just move in. What a find! Thanks, Rachel.

Some Flickr pix here.