The day started like any other. I walked outside to get my bike out of the shed. The combination on the lock didn’t open the lock. So I tried it again. And again. And again. I checked the combination that I carry in my wallet. I was using the right one. I went inside to get me a hammer. In my military high school we popped locks using the butt end of a rifle. So I smacked it several times with the hammer. I did some minor damage to the shed door but the lock held.
I waited until 8 and went to the hardware store. They sold me a bolt cutter that went through the lock like bud-dah.
Off I went on Big Nellie. I took the long way since i was already 90 minutes late for work, Coming down the Mount Vernon Trail north of the stone bridge I came upon a big snapping turtle. They are pretty common around here. This one was just moseying along the trial. I took a couple of pictures and rode on.
Guard Turtle
A short distance up the trail I spotted an orange traffic cone with a sign on it. It marked the site where a snapping turtle had laid her eggs.
Under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge what looked to be an entire elementary school was out doing physical fitness adtivities. Must have been a school field day.
North of Old Town I spotted the remains of a large prehistoric fish. Something had eviscerated it. Ewww.
For the next two miles I passed clusters of running/jogging/walking people wearing similar shirts. As I made my way north of the Humpback Bridge, three motorcycles approached me on the trail with their blue lights flashing. Behind them was a group of army people jogging with a flag and a torch. It was the Special Olympics torch run.
At lunchtime i went for a two-mile walk. I didn’t seen any turtles or dead fish or school kids or torches. It was pretty disappointing.
The ride home featured the always loathed dead legs. I’ve ridden about 180 miles since Saturday and my legs are not happy. I kept pedalling along, mostly because it would suck to tip over and spend the night on my side along the trail. Just south of the Morningside bald eagle nest, I spotted yet another turtle on the side of the trail. This one was actively digging into the dirt with its hind legs. It was laying its eggs! Pretty cool.
Momma at Work
When I got home I decided to put some new pedals, Speedplay Frogs, on Little Nellie so that I could ride it to work tomorrow. My thinking was that riding an upright bike as opposed to a recumbent would give my legs a breather. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the pedals off. And the headset was loose. So I guess I’ll ride Big Nellie to Friday Coffee Club and take LIttle Nellie to the bike shop on Saturday.
It was a difficult month. My back woes came back with a vengence. And I had a stomach bug on top of that. By the second half of the month, my body finally got back toward normal.
I managed to crank out 746 1/2 miles in May. 419.5 of that was just riding to and from work 14 times. The rest was a hodgepodge of rides mostly for the heck of it. The longest ride of the month was last weekend when I rode to a get together in Meridian Hill Park in DC by way of a northern suburb. That ride was 64 1/2 miles.
Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, logged the most mileage with 576. The Mule, my Specialized Sequoia, and Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, had 170 1/2 miles bewteen them.
I attribute my back recovery to new medications (I am off of all meds as of today) and riding Big Nellie.
I also started to experiment with clipless pedals. I like them a lot but I have come to understand that switching back and forth between clipless and clips-and-straps pedals is a bad idea.
For the year I have logged 2,788 miles. About 40 percent on Big Nellie and the Mule and the rest on LIttle Nellie. I’ve ridden to work 55 times.
Last Sunday I rode to Meridian HIll Park to hang out with my friend Florencia. Flor and I met on the Fifty States Ride on a day that was epically hot and humid. She rode like she had a tailwind the entire way. She was particularly strong on hills and I had absolutely no hope of keeping up with her.
These days, Flor spends much more time working than riding. So last Sunday she asked me to go for a not-too-hard ride to get her biking legs back. BIke ride? Moi?
We planned to meet up at noon. I decided that the least difficult route with the fewest hills and stop lights and cars would be a ride up Rock Creek Park as far as she felt comfortable. I knew from riding this route last week that it was about 15 miles from Garrett Park, Maryland to Flor’s neghborhood so I thought 30 flat-ish miles would be the maximum distance she would want to do.
The trip also allowed me to check out Big Nellie’s new headset. (This is the mechanism that connects the handlebars and stem to the fork. Without a functioning headset a bicycle can’t function. Long story short, the steering felt a little loose at first but I soon adapted to it and had no troubles with it. Thanks to Carl, the mechanic at Spokes Etc, in Belle View Shopping Center for the repair.)
After a stop to buy sunscreen I rode north on the Mount Vernon Trail. As I expected on a perfect weather Sunday, the trail was packed, With some patience I made it into the city without hitting anyone or cussing anyone out. I took the 15th Street cycletrack north past Meridian Hill Park and found Flor’s place after only one wrong turn. Along the way I was twice quizzed about my bike by passers by.
“Is it more comfortable?”
“Did you make it?”
“Does it help your back?”
“Can I buy one online?”
(Answers: Yes, No. Yes. Yes.)
After a brief wait, Flor appeared. She seemed like she was lacking her usual spark. You would be too if you worked on your feet yesterday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. We decided to ride to the Rock Creek trestle and re-asses my route plans depending on how Flor felt.
Flor led us through a traffic mess at the Zoo. Then we rode on the pitiful Rock Creek trail until we passed Pierce Mill. We then picked up Beach Drive which was closed to car traffic intermittently for the next several miles. The water washed over rocks in the creek. The breeze made a rustling sound in the green, green canopy of leaves above us. Through the canopy above we could see a beautiful blue, blue sky with puffy clouds floating this way and that. Flor and I pedaled the curving road at 12 to 14 miles per hour chatting the whole way through the park. I defy you to find better biking conditions than this.
We stopped at the trestle for a couple of pictures. Flor gave the green light for some more miles and we headed north to Garrett Park. Once in Maryland the traffic restrictions no longer apply. We dealt with quite a bit more cars than I did last week. Flor rides in the city everyday so she didn’t care.
Flor on the Trestle
I mentioned a nice little restaurant in Garrett Park in case Flor wanted to stop for a bite to eat but she seemed uninterested. Once we reached Garrett Park Road we turned around and headed back south. I had misplaced my camera prior to the ride. Normally, I take shots of the people I ride with while I am riding. I decided to try taking pictures on the fly with my new iPhone instead. It was impossible to tell if I actually had Flor in the frame so I took a four. They all came out fine. Credit to the subject.
Flor Miraculously Managed to Stay in Frame.
A deer appeared at the side of the road. Another one five miles farther along. We talked on and off. During the “on” we discussed everything under the sun (computer dating, job searching, living near the zoo, Rolfing, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) except cycling. During the “off” we were lost in the stupefying beauty of the park.
We climbed Park Road to get back to Flor’s place. Flor’s legs were pretty tired but she looked pretty happy. I think the ride did her good. I hope she can walk tomorrow.
My ride home involved bombing down 18th Street. It was a bit like a Giant Slalom event. Cars, buses, pedestrians, cyclists all seem to appear out of nowhere. I switched over to 16th Street which ends at Lafayette Park across from the White House. Tourists milled about. I rode straight through a bunch of participants in the Post Hunt, an annual scavenger hunt put on by the Washington Post. I am pretty sure the answer to one of the hunt’s questions was not “Old dude on a recumbent.”
I took the cycle track on 15th Street. It was video game. Pedestrians popped off the sidewalk into my path over and over. Two Mennonite women stood in the track. One spotted me and shoved the other one to the sidewalk. Clearly, she will get bonus points on the day of reckoning when she goes to that great cycletrack in the sky. At Constitution Avenue, an airport shuttle van nearly took me out as its driver rushed to make a left turn across my path. Lucky for the driver I left my bicycle death ray at home.
The Mount Vernon Trail was still packed. It didn’t slow me down. My legs were pretty tired. I hadn’t eated anything in seven hours and I could feel a bonk coming on.
Never let ’em see you bonk.
I didn’t.
Thanks to Flor for another excellent ride. (We’ve never had a bad one.) We have to do some more this summer. 50 States will be here before you know it. (Then she can once again leave me in the dust on Kansas Avenue.)
Readers of this blog are well aware that one of my favorite peoples in all of #bikedc is Rachel “Don’t Call Me Bob” Cannon. First she was an anthropology grad student. As her frequent tweets clearly demonstrated that didn’t work out. (She really grew to hate spending hours reading academic bafflegab.) So she switched to Museum Studies. (If anybody wants to give her a massive grant for academic persistence, she’d happily accept, I am sure.) In addition to these nerdly persuits, Rachel also does such things as giving bike and Seqway tours of DC, installing bike racks all over town, selling books at a terrific used book store, and interning as a snail classification expert at the Smithsonian. She also plays lute and bassoon in a Renaissance Emo band. (Actually, she does play an instrument but with all this activity I just can’t remember what it is.) And as if she wasn’t busy enough she also volunteered at cycling events around town. (She was rewarded for her good citizenship by being run over by a driver during last Decembers Cider Ride. She has recovered from her injuries.)
In addition to cycling and a warped sense of humor, Rachel and I have another thing in common: we both have a weakness for apple fritters. Apple fritters are pastries with a bazillion calories that people should never, ever eat.
BWA HA HA!
A co-worker at my old job called them Sugar Encrusted Pastry Bombs. That pretty much sums it up.
Rachel recently took an internship at the Hammer Museum in tiny and remote Haines Alaska. Yes, it’s a museum dedicated to hammers. She started a blog about it an, in one entry, was bemoaning the high cost of food. It seems there is a limited supply of everything except salmon. (You can probably get a good deal on moose or caribou meat but you won’t see me asking for a bite.) I’m not a big fan o’salmon but even if I was I imagine there is only so much salmon that you can eat in one summer.
So I got to thinking. Why not send her a fritter? The fritters we both like are sold at M. E. Swing’s coffee house, home of Friday Coffee Club. Unfortunately, I got this idea at 11 a.m. on Friday, long after Swing’s had probably run out. I did a web search for bakeries near my office in Rosslyn, Virginia. I found one about a half mile away.
Over lunch I hoofed it up the hill and found BeanGood. And sure enough they had fritters. Big ass fritters. Nearly the size of a Frisbee. Frisbee Fritters!!! These babies could send even the most hardened fritterholic into insulin shock. I bought two.
I wrapped them in a plastic bag, put them in a Priority Mail flat rate box cushioned within by some wadded up newspaper and mailed the box to the museum.
It was Memorial Day weekend. It was going to Alaska. I figured it would et there sometime in late June.
It got there (available for pick up at 10:45 a.m.) in two business days. Dang!
A day later Rachel got the box.
I’d have paid good money to see her expression when she opened it.
This will have to do.
(I hope she doesn’t mind that I clipped this picture from her Twitter account.)
Best of all, they are edible! Woot!
Enjoy the feast, Rachel. I know I speak for a whole bunch of people back here in DC when I say “We miss you.”
I began my day with a flat. The Mule was in the shed when I spotted the squishy rear tire. Being an adaptable sort of guy, I quickly sized up the situation: fix the flat or take Little Nellie to work. Little Nellie won.
I haven’t ridden Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, with its little wheels because I have been protecting my back. Little wheels and a stiff frame mean my back takes a beating on this bike. Little wheels also mean that it is quite a lot of fun to ride. Fun won over back concerns.
Except for a short ride on The Mule yesterday, I have been riding Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, exclusively for the last two weeks. My arms, butt, and legs were not ready for riding Little Nellie so the ride in took about 10 minutes longer than expected.
During the day, Carl, the mechanic at my local bike shop, called. He said that the problem with the steering on Big Nellie was a cracked headset. This made me mad. I almost called the manufacturer. You’d think a headset would last longer than a mere 36,000 miles.
We discussed whether I wanted to spend a ton of money on a “better” headset. I thought about it and told him to put a headset of the same quality as the one on the bike. If it fails in 36,000 miles, I’ll consider an upgrade.
The ride home was a muggy slog. I beat a line of nasty thunderstorms home by about 45 minutes. All the way I was wishing that I had put Speedplay Frogs on Little Nellie. That will have to wait until they come in the mail.
Once home, I wiped off The Mule’s rear tire and took it off. I pulled the tube from the wheel and inflated it until it was supesized. No leak anywhere. This same thing happened to the rear wheel on Big Nellie a few weeks ago. Not finding anything sticking through the tire itself, I put everything back together and pumped up the tire. Maybe the valve is bad. I’ll know in the morning.
I missed Bike to Work Day (BTWD) this year. Instead I drove 8 hours in a rainstorm to go to my son’s college graduation. (The graduation was great. The rain not so much.) I signed up for BTWD anyway because I bike to work most other days (like today). Lucky for me I could still pick up the 2014 BTWD t-shirt at the Arlington County Commuter Store across the street from work. I now have red, light blue, dark blue, white, orange, light green, dark green and white BTWD t-shirts in addition to this coral one. (I missed out on the year with the purple shirt.)
Most of my BTWD t-shirts are stretched beyond wearability. I still wear them though because I need to maintain my reputation as a fashion disaster. My red one is currently doing service as a shop rag.
On the way home from work I saw a two geese waddling across the trail underneath the railroad bridge. Between them were some fuzzy green goslings. In front of them two mallards were waddling with a bunch of ducklings stumbling along behind them. These are the first goslings and ducklings of 2014 on the Mount Vernon Trail.
Later a big black snake slithered across the trail.
Near the Belle Haven nest, an osprey fought to maintain his perch in the face of a gusting wind.
Next up, in Belle Haven park, I spotted a big dead fish on the side of the trail.
Another half mile later, a pair of migrating touring cyclists were heading north.
I love commuting when I don’t have to deal with layers of clothing.
I was out the door and headed toward Alexandria for a visit to my finger doctor. I had surgery to remove a cyst and a bone spur on my right middle finger. Thanks to the motorists of the DMV I was able to assure the doctor that my middle finger is now fully operational. He was pleased with the result and said in a few months all the swelling and numbness would be completely gone. I was good to go.
The finger doctor was only one of several on my medical to-do list. He was a professional and easy to deal with but I am glad I now have him in my rear view mirror.
The next few medical visits were supposed to be: MRI for my back tomorrow. Back doctor on Monday. Eye doctor on Tuesday.
It looks like I may now wiff on all three.
The eye doctor had to be rescheduled to August because the calendar on my stupid iPhone did not sync up with my work laptop. So I scheduled a meeting involving 3 consulatants from out of state for the same time.
The back doctor appointment is contingent on getting the MRI.
I arrived home to find a copy of my insurance company’s approval for the MRI. I was dated May 7. It was a copy of a fax. They cc’ed my primary care physician and my back doctor. I checked my home voice mail. The radiology center called to tell me that they haven’t received authorization so they canceled my appointment for tomorrow. So my MRI and my Monday doctor appointment will get rescheduled. This is the second time I’ve rescheduled because of clerical problems.
I’d be really pissed about this except for the fact that for the last two days my back has been almost painfree. Pain in my left hip and left knee at 5 in the morning are a reminder that all is still not well. It may be that the NSAIDs and muscle relaxants are helping. I am certain that riding my recumbent is a postive factor as well. Something about the mechanics of riding a bike while pushing my lower back into the mesh seat back seems to relax my lower back.
So I may still be dealing with this back thing until after Memorial Day. Then I can go back to the skin doctor and the dentist.
As for the ride home, it was hot and muggy so the Mount Vernon Trail was not very crowded. (I call this Flor weather. My friend Flor lives for it. Pretty much everyone else I know hates it.) Nothing beats ridng home in hot weather. I was going to drive to work so that I could go to the MRI place tomorrow, but now I’m going to have to ride instead.
T-shirt. Shorts. Water. Recumbent. Go!
P.S. On the way to work, I watched as a guy on a water board went flying as he hit the wake of the tow boat that was pulling him.
It has been a busy couple of days. Sunday brought lovely weather. So I went for a 45-mile bike ride. That was followed up by a one-hour mow the lawn festival. Then Mrs. Rootchopper, our daughter, and I drove into DC to see Elbow play at the 9:30 club. Just as they did a couple of years ago they put on a fantastic show. And just as two years ago, Ed (@dailyrandonneur) and Mary (@coffeeneur) were there, except this time they were not standing next to me. They were on the opposite side of the stage. It was fun trying to spot them in the crowd. I figured I’d just look for Ed’s (um, how do I put this kindly) dome. Apparently the Domehead society was in attendacne because there must have been 20 men with shaved or bald heads. I stuck to my strategy and, using Twitter for communication, managed to exchanged some waves.
Speaking of waves, the Elbow lead singer got the crowd to wave their hands rhythmically over their heads during several songs. It turns out this was excellent therapy for my back problems. Considering the fact that I was on my feet on concrete from 7 to 11:30 this revelation came as welcome relief.
I hit the hay after midnight. My left knee and hip woke me at 5 a.m. This is going to be a long, painful day.
After another hour or so of trying to sleep, I got up and found that I was in not-half-bad shape. I did my back exercises, a few yoga poses, and some waving of my hands over my head. When I was done, my back, hip and knee felt fine.
I rode Big Nellie to work and felt no ill effects of Sunday’s exercions. On the way I saw Nancy “Two Sheds” Duley and Tony from Alexandria along the way. Waves.
The ride home featured 80+ degree temperatures. What the heck is that all about? Wait’ll I tell my wovel.
The ride home also featured a calvalcade of annoying and dangerous cyclists and drivers. The fun began went a car blogged the curb cut at the Lynn Street connection to the Mount Vernon Trail. This is the very Intersection of Doom that poses so much danger to cyclists and pedestrians. I yelled at the driver to move back as I passed him.
The fun continued on the trail. Every mile or so somebody decided to pass me as bike and pedestrian traffic approached from the opposite direction. Doesn’t it occur to these idiots that the reason I am waiting behind the bikes and walkers is so that I could pass them safely. On multiple occassions the bike passing me ended up swerving back to the right to avoid on-coming bikes. Kevin the @byclclebug on Twitter suggested that these aggressive riders were trying to set some sort of record on Strava. They are going to get someone hurt. I won’t lose a lot of sleep if they hurt themselves.
As the MVT goes around the power plant it crosses a cantilevered bridge that is enclosed in a wire mesh fence. There are two bling turns to negotiate. As I approached the first turn, I rang my bell and hit my brakes. An on-coming bike tried to cut the blind corner and had to swerve to avoid hitting me. Set your Strava record somewhere else, a-hole. He very nearly crashed into the fence after his swerve. Too bad he missed.
In Old Town Alexandria I spotted a rarity: an Alexandria cop had pulled a car over. Finally!
Near Belle Haven Park, a motorcycle was lying on its side between the MVT and the George Washington Memorial Highway. It had a small trunk on the back. The lid of the trunk was in the grass a few feet beyond the bike. I hope the bike wasn’t involved in a crash.
Further south on the MVT, a boy of about sixth grade age served toward me as he approached. His mother called at him to pull over. Two near misses in one day.
South of Old Town a mother and child were riding bikes in my direction,
It’s BIke to Work Week. I can’t wait until some of these people get back in their cars. I need the elbow room.
What a beautiful day. The weather that is. My back not so much.
After dawdling over the newspaper and eating some a muscle relaxant and an NSAID, I decided to go for a short, gentle bike ride on Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent.
I loosely planned to check out some bald eagle nests along the Mount Vernon Trail, maybe grab some lunch in Old Town Alexandria and head back home.
Getting started hurt. A slight hill near home hurt. Then I loosened up and Big Nellie and I were cruising. My first stop was the nest in Fort Hunt Park. I spotted it from the MVT. In a few days as the trees leaf out, it will be very hard to find. There were no eagles about so I took a picture and then made a note of the landmarks nearby so that I can find the nest again.
Bald Eagle Nest in Fort Hunt Park
I started up again. Ow. Once underway the pain subsided. I took the trail with all its curves and bridges and ups and downs all the way to the Morningside nest. The new bridges on the trail along this stretch are a terrific improvement over the cheap ones they replaced.
At the Morningside nest I struck up a conversation with a photographer. It turns out that she is the same photographer that told me where the Fort Hunt Park nest is last summer. She’s a real bald eagle addict. She told me that both the Fort Hunt and the Morningside nests have eaglets. Three other nests, one along Spout Run in North Arlington, one south of Mount Vernon on Ferry Landing Road and the one at the Belle Haven country club, have been abandoned by bald eagles. The Belle Haven nest has been taken over by ospreys. She was going to Alaska for a cruise this summer. I mentioned that she’d be seeing a ton of bald eagles on her trip. She mentioned that she will be stopping in Haines. I told her to stop at the museum and say high to Rachel, one of my #bikedc friends who will be working there this summer.
After our talk, I headed north to Old Town. The traffic on the trail was pretty busy. The usual asshat MAMILs (middle aged men in lycra) were indulging their athletic fantasies by riding way too fast. One woman walker yelled at a close passing cyclist to slow down. He had it coming.
Under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge two little boys were showing off their bicycling skills for their moms. The rode their itty bitty two wheelers in tight circles, all the while having a blast.
I rode through Old Town. Not yet hungry I decided to ride over to Del Ray to see if any food looked good. All the restaurants along Mount Vernon Boulevard had people eating outdoors. I was tempted by a couple of Mexican places but rode on.
I kept heading north through Arlandria, Crystal City, and Long Bridge Park, past the vast Pentagon parking lots and into DC across the Memorial Bridge. The tourists were out in droves. I resisted the urge to run them over.
On a whim I made my way to Carpe Diem, the little used bookstore that Rachel had been working in. I had a specific book in mind but,alas, it was too old and obscure.
Next up was a side trip to Mount Vernon Square to check out the building that collapsed the other day. Only a few years ago, the streets of this neighborhood were lined with two and three story buildings. Now, most of them are gone, replaced by modern mixed use buildings. The streets were alive with young adults milling about. The collapsed building and the ones next to it looked utterly out of place among all the new buildings, one of which housed a “gentleman’s club.”
Collapsed Building in DC
Having satisfied my curiosity I worked my way back to Virginia. During my time in DC I saw literally dozens of women walking the streets carry yoga mats. You could make a decent living selling yoga mats around here.
Once in Virginia I turned south on the MVT. Normally on such a nice day, the trail is packed with runners, bladers, cyclists, and walkers. Today it was crowded but not enough to slow me down. South of the airport I saw a women on skates heading toward me. These weren’t rollerblades or traditional roller skates. Instead they had big skateboard style wheels, four to a skate. Must be a new thing.
Many of the cyclists were riding CaBi bikeshare bikes. In Old Town and for the next couple of miles I got stuck behind three groups of Bike and Roll customers riding their rental bikes south. The first two clusters of renta-riders had about ten people in them. Under the Wilson Bridge I encountered a line of close to 20 bikes. They were going slowly and Big Nellie (and my back) were feeling fine so I passed them in one go. This never happens, by the way.
Long Line of Rental Bikes under the WWB
The last three miles were a bit of a slog. I think my muscle relaxant was wearing off, but I made it home without any pain. The walk into the house reminded me of my back woes. I look like an 80-year old with osteoporosis.
So my little jaunt lasted 39 miles. Success through chemistry.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 