Tag: biking

What fools these bicyclists be – 50 States 2024

Saturday was the Washington Area Bicyclists Association’s annual big fundraising event: the 50 States Ride. The ride is a triumph of marketing over sanity. Participants pay $80 to ride 60 hilly miles in the heat and humidity (when it’s not raining), all within the eight wards of the District of Columbia. Did I mention that the streets are open to traffic? We’re havin’ fun now!

This year was the 21st running of the 50 States and my 16th time participating. I’ve been riding WABA events with Chris, Michael, and Kevin for several years now. Remarkably they have not grown tired of my company. A couple of years ago Chris invited Sara with whom he worked. The five of us form the core members of the posse. (Domitille, a sixth recent member, had to miss this year’s ride due to injury. We hope to have her back in the fold for WABA’s Cider Ride in November.) Our posse members invite others to join us. This year Chris invited Isabon, Sara invited Jenna and Richard, Kevin invited Neena. Isabon brought her father, Wolfgang. Monica, who rode the last couple of rides with us, decided to volunteer at a pit stop but sent along Constance and Mac.

The course changes every year. Lately it has gone clockwise around the city. The course is tweaked to show off new bicycle infrastructure, sponsors’ projects, and changes to the cityscape. Having done this ride since 2006, I can attest to the fact that DC today is vastly different than it was 18 years ago.

Funny. It looks flat on this map.

The dozen of us lit out from the start in the Edgewood neighborhood smack dab in the middle of DC. We timed our departure to avoid other groups whom the ride organizers send out at intervals with ride marshals. We don’t mean to be antisocial but when you get over 20 people of different skill levels riding together in the city the congestion can get stressful. There were a few miles where we were bunched up with other groups but by and large we were successful riding as an independent unit. As is often the case, we adopted a couple of course marshals, Micah and Stephen, along the way. At the rest stop around 45 miles into the ride I was greeted by an old friend. John is the father of one of my son’s best friends from high school. He was riding the event for the first time and looked considerably fresher than me.

Two Johns at the Wegman’s pit stop in Northwest.

Michael decided to ride the entire ride on bikeshare bikes. Every so often he’d veer off course to trade in his bike for another. I think he gets some sort of points from the bikeshare folks and avoids rental charges. He managed to obtain electric assist bikes for the hillier sections. We hate Michael.

Chris told me that his GPS file indicated there are 11 significant climbs along the route. I counted 45, a triumph of misery over digital mapping science. The worst climb goes one steep mile from MacArthur Boulevard to Macomb Street in the northwest section of the city. After a brief downhill, this monstrosity is followed by a second, soul-sucking half-mile climb up Cathedral Heights. Six miles later we descended into Rock Creek Park only to climb right back out for a mile. Dang.

Instead of using the digital file, I use the paper cue sheet. Actually, it’s a 18-page booklet containing nearly 270 cues. This virtually ensures that I will make a wrong turn. This year I set a PR, making four wrong turns. (Actually one was semi-intentional as I saw three of our riders obeying the GPS audio instruction and turning a block early and going off route. I followed them in order to lead them back to the course.) Ironically, earlier in the ride after we crossed over the Washington Channel, a course marshal made a wrong turn entering East Potomac Park. I ignored the error and stayed on route. The Mule abides.

The clockwise course seemed somehow hillier than in prior years. I struggled for most of the ride even though The Mule had a new, lower climbing gear thanks to Beth at Bikes at Vienna. It may have just been the heat (mid-80s) and humidity at work or perhaps the fact that I’m old, decrepit, and grumpy.

By 58 miles I had had enough. We could have gone straight to the finish but the course meandered through the campus of The Catholic University, along the super nice cycletrack on Irving Avenue Northwest, and past the bizarre looking McMillan Sand Filtration site which is being developed into a mixed used community by one of the event sponsors. After McMillan we had a tedious one-mile ride in heavy traffic to loop back to the finish.

After the ride, the posse hung out at the after party which, owing to our slow riding pace, was all but over. Still we ate some sammies and hydrated our weary bodies. (I went all Stanley Kowalski and had a Stella.) I guess the ride was a success because several posse members expressed an interest in doing the (considerably easier) 60-mile Cider Ride in November. Well done, y’all.

Most of the posse after the ride. Clockwise from left: Richard, Chris, Me, Sara, Michael, Constance, Mac, Jenna, Micah, Kevin, Neena.

Many thanks to all the volunteers and WABA staff for all their hard work on this event. Special thanks to Mike and Lisa who convert their home in Tacoma into a very welcoming pit stop every year. And to Patti Heck who stood at the corner of Alaska Avenue and Geranium Street Northwest to take photos (links above) of riders as she has done for many years now.

Gassed and Windblown

With the prospect of several days of rain ahead, I decided to drive over to Easton, Maryland to do a ride on level ground. The ride would include cool grave yards, colonial era towns, a ferry, and corn and soy fields. Most importantly there would be no hills.

There being no hills, I opted for The Tank, my Surly Crosscheck. This bike is heavy and, despite a recent modification to its gearing, is best used on this kind of terrain.

I have put about 1,000 miles on my 2009 Honda Accord this year. The last time I bought gas it cost me about $3.70 per gallon. My wife, who drives considerably more, has been telling me about finding gas for under $3.00. With a fuel gauge indicating I had a tad less than 1/8th of a tank, I headed out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in search of cheap fuel. No problem. My gas tank holds 19 1/2 gallons.

By the time I reached the Bay Bridge, I had gone about 50 miles. My fuel gauge indicated that my tank was empty but, as we all know, the needle on the fuel gauge always goes below empty before the tank is truly empty, right?

I made it over the Bay Bridge and started scouting out a gas bargain. I passed a dozen gas stations, all of which had prices in the high $2.90s. With the needle in the empty, red zone, I continued on. Some basic math indicated that I should have plenty of fuel left. As the highway turned toward Easton, I passed a gas station that was partially obscured by some box trucks. No worries, I’ll just go to the next one.

There wasn’t another station for over 20 miles.

With the station in sight on the opposite side of the divided highway, I was about to change lanes to turn toward it when my car said, “Not today”. The engine sputtered once then cut out. Did you know that cars lose speed remarkably quickly when they run out of fuel. A total car bonk! The traffic behind me not so much.

I looked to the right and saw that there was no shoulder, only a drainage ditch. Eek.

Luckily the turn for the gas station was at a signalized intersection with right and left turn lanes. I guided the car into the right turn lane and rolled to a depressing stop.

With my emergency flashers on, I decide to hoof it to the station. I emptied one of my three water bottles to use as a gas container and started out. Cars were lining up at the red light. A white SUV rolled up and the driver asked me if I was okay. I explained my situation and he asked, “Would you like a gas can?”

Yeah, buddy.

He turned onto the road to the right, stopped, and pulled a small gas can out of the back of his hatchback. I thanked him profusely and told him I’d be back in a few minutes. After a long wait to cross the highway at the light, I made it to the gas station, bought about 2 gallons of fuel and headed back to my car.

On the way back, a passenger in a different car waiting at the red light leaned out the window and said something like “I hope your day gets better.” Despite the hassle of running out of gas, I realized at that moment that I wasn’t the least bit upset. After all, I had been driving for 52 years and this was the first time I had run out of gas.

My car, and my bike on a rack on the rear, thankfully, had not been rear ended. I decanted the gas into the gas tank then drove to the side street to return the can. The SUV was nowhere to be found. I stood around holding the orange/red gas can high so that perhaps my Good Samaritan would see me. No luck. In the end I drove off to Easton with an empty gas can and some heartfelt gratitude.

Once in Easton I saw a sign for $2.85 gas. Yes! When I got to the pump, I saw that it was a special rate for Royal Farms club members. I being a Royal Farms philistine paid $2.97. When karma meets irony, you pay the man, Shirley.

As for the ride, it was a tad shorter than planned. I stitched the ride together from the excellent brochure from Talbot County (of which Easton is the county seat). The brochure shows six rides of between 26 and 38 miles. Color coded maps and cue sheets are included. And one master map shows all six rides. I started on the blue route, switched to the brown route, then planned to finish on the green route.

The first 15 miles on the blue route featured a strong tailwind out of the east. I zoomed from Easton to Saint Michaels with ease. After meandering in Saint Michaels for a while, I headed east into the wind, crossing the Tred Avon River on the Bellevue-Oxford ferry. From Oxford I continued east, switching to the brown route, a tour of interesting old graveyards. Along the way, I watched farmers in their big corn harvesting machines taking in the last crop of the season. The machines look like massive green barber shears on wheels.

At Dover Road I turned to join the green route, a tour of more farms, mostly soy and corn. Somehow I managed to miss a turn and ended up on a highway that would cross the Choptank River. I checked the Google and realized that crossing the river would add about several windy miles to my ride.

Having already ridden about 20 miles into a strong headwind, I decided to pack it in and reversed course back to Easton, going off route in the interest of exploring some backroads. It was a good decision. Forty one windy miles was enough for me on this day.

I highly recommend the brochure. If you are looking to get away from the city and want some easy, low-stress riding, Talbot County is a good choice. The ferry ride is my favorite, but make sure to check the ferry schedule. Also, bring cash for the $7 one-way fare.

Saint Michaels
When there are no cars waiting, bicyclists and pedestrians can summon the Bellevue-Oxford ferry with this signal
The Tank on the Talbot
New pavement, pine needles, no traffic. Works for me.
The rail trail in Easton.

Going long for sunflowers

Two of the highlights of summer in the DC are the Lotus and Water Lily Festival at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and the sunflower blooms in the exurbs. I went to Kenilworth three times this summer. It’s a little over 20 miles from home. The only downside to going there is the fact that the flower ponds have no shade. The flowers are pretty but the heat and humidity are intense. No complaints from me though. Pick a lotus blossom and stare and your brain goes to a quiet place.

One problem with these two events is that they occur at nearly the same time. Fields of sunflowers can be found in many places but McKees-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Maryland is pretty easy to access by bike. Easy, that is, if you don’t mind riding a long way.

The sunflower fields are a little over 40 miles from my house. What better way to see if I still got it. I haven’t ridden over 75 miles in a day in over a year. My tour fiasco this summer combined with my upcoming birthday (don’t ask) has eroded my self confidence.

I took The Mule to Bikes at Vienna the other day. It needed some serious TLC. Because of staff illnesses and the usual summer repair surge, they are backed up big time. No worries. I have other bikes.

Gulp.

Recently I have ridden Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent. Recumbents are normally ideal for people with bad backs. Despite the fact that I have put 51,000 miles on this bike, I have lately been experiencing nerve pain after riding it.

That leaves me with Little Nellie, my wee Bike Friday, and the Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. The former is tough on my lower back on long rides. The latter has been such bad news for my neck that I have all but ignored the bike for three months.

No guts, no glory. I decided to ride The Tank. Three days ago, I took it for a 40-mile ride, an out and back affair on the paved Washington and Old Dominion trail. The trail from Vienna to Leesburg transitions from suburbs to towns to fields of data centers to somewhat wooded areas. Northern Virginia farms used to grow bites; now they grow bytes. I had 19 deer and two bunny sightings during my ride. When I finished my neck and back felt fine.

The next day I rode The Tank another 40 miles. This time I rode to Friday Coffee Club. After that I rode to northeast DC to scout out the parking situation for September’s 50 States Ride. (It’ll be my 16th. The posse is looking good!) After a stop at home, I did an errand run to the local pharmacy. Once again my back and neck felt fine afterward.

Yesterday, after sleeping only about three hours then procrastinating all morning, I took off for the sunflowers. I rode the Mount Vernon Trail to Georgetown where I picked up the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath. After three miles I climbed up a steepish hill to MacArthur Boulevard. This road goes straight to Great Falls, Maryland with just one hill along the way.

In Great Falls I switched back to the towpath for about 13 miles. I saw egrets and herons and deer along the way. After crossing Seneca Creek I took an unpaved path through the woods to River Road. River Road is a hilly, two-lane road that is a favorite of speeding drivers. The hill west from Seneca Creek is steep and long, not the kind of thing The Tank is good at. We made it to the top after which I heard a creepy skidding noise behind me. An SUV driver had slammed on its brakes and slid on the glazed asphalt. A few seconds later he stomped on the gas and blew by me with engine groaning.

A couple of miles later I came to the parking lot for the sunflower field. (There are more than one but I’d already ridden 40 miles. No need to go further.) Having left my cane at home, I used The Tank as support for my short walk to the field. The flowers nearest the parking lot were short and dried out. I continued to the far side of the field along the electric fence which has been added since my last visit. I stopped when I saw what I came for. Peak bloom. Dang.

Time to head back. I retraced my route knowing that I had not eaten enough (just a few cookies) since breakfast. Despite being nearly flat, the towpath can be a grind. No gliding , just grinding. This is what the Tank was designed to do.

At Great Falls, I realized that I was flirting with a serious bonk. Time get serious. I switched back to MacArthur, thankful for the smooth asphalt. With about 20 miles to go, I switched back to the towpath for a few miles. This section of the towpath is the bumpiest part and my arms started to grow weary of absorbing the shock. The palms of my hands started to blister, the result of wearing five-year old gloves. Dumb.

The ride back on the MVT was business as usual. Arriving at home, you could put a fork in me. I was done.

Once again, my neck and back were fine. Go figure.

Today I did an easy 30-mile recovery ride. I only felt tired near the end.

I don’t know what I am happier about doing 81 miles, my first time over 80 miles in over a year, or riding The Tank without pain for the first time in two years.

Totally worth the effort.

The towpath. Not a bad way to get around.

A great blue heron waiting on dinner in the canal.

Widewater, a section of the canal 12 miles from Georgetown.

June 2024 – Dog Days Came Early

It’s the last day of June. Time to assess.

It is a rare thing when one of your very best days on a bike comes a day after one of your worst but that’s what happened to me this month. The ride from Draper to Whytheville was a gawdawful slog. The ride from Whytheville to Damascus was joyful. Go figure.

Multiple dog attacks over the course of two days completely ruined my interest in continuing my tour this year. When people who know the scene tell you to carry bear spray, it’s time to stop which is what I did. Since then I’ve been looking through journals on Cycleblaze.com and Crazyguyonabike.com to see if I had overreacted. Nope.

Only a couple of bike tourists made it through “dog alley” between the Kentucky border and Berea, Kentucky unscathed. Two were bitten. Two were knocked off their bikes.

I filled out a survey about the US Bicycle Route System a couple of days ago. I commented repeatedly that my route US Bike Route 76, in Kentucky is downright dangerous because of the dog situation. It’s a shame because, despite the brutal climbs from Charlottesville to Berea, the USBR 76 is worthwhile.

I finished the tour with something like 835 miles under my pedals. After taking a day off, I rode 17 days in a row around home. During these period I tweaked my saddle and handlebar height to good effect on both The Mule and The Tank. Yesterday in high heat and humidity I rode up one of the steepest, nastiest hills in the area and didn’t die. (The last 100 yards were most unpleasant but I made it without stopping.)

With a nearly rain-free month, I cracked the 1,000-mile threshold at the end of the month, reaching 1,089 miles. For the year I’ve reached 4,991 miles, on pace for a shade over 10,000 miles, despite taking two weeks off. I have no designs on another bike tour this year (although the Natchez Trace is tempting.)

Maybe the best thing that’s happened this month is the big reduction in neck and back pain I have experienced. I was pretty miserable all fall and winter, but a visit to a massage therapist in May and a series of daily PT exercises have paid huge dividends. I am standing up straighter. I have most of the range of motion in my neck back (although the saddle tweaks aren’t helping in this regard.) And I can walk about 50 percent farther without experiencing pain in my lower back.

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.

Leaping into a New Year – January 2024

Riding

The month started out a bit slow and stayed that way. I think I ate more cookies than miles. By the end of the month, I found hills to be a bit more challenging. Ugh.

I rode 634.5 miles for the month. This was my lowest mileage month in two years. I did 90 miles on Little Nellie, 307.5 miles on The Tank (my CrossCheck), and 237 miles indoors on Big Nellie. (I convert time to miles based on 10.5 miles per hour.) The Mule took the month off.

My long ride of the month was only 35.5 miles and this was split up into three rides. I rode 30-miles round trip to Friday Coffee Club with a detour to a hardware store on the way home. I followed that up with 5.5 miles on two short rides running errands to the office supply store and a different hardware store.

I ran a ton of errands by bike this month. The errands help me get motivated to ride outdoors on cold days. I have noticed that the daylight is lasting much longer now. I did lose about a week of outdoor riding because of two light, but messy snow events.

My indoor riding has helped me get some reading done (see below). I am currently halfway through David Copperfield which is turning out to be not quite the slog I had anticipated.

Watching

The Big Dig – I began listening to this nine-hour podcast from WGBH News last month. It tells the story of the biggest urban highway project in the country in which Boston’s infamous elevated Central Artery was buried and a new tunnel to Logan Airport was built. I learned only after listening to seven episodes that a video version is available on WGBH’s YouTube page. If you are into transportation, construction, infrastructure, urban planning, and such, you really should listen to this. The entire ordeal reminded me of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal as described in books by David McCullough.

Loki Season 2 – Oddly well acted mess of CGI and multidimensional nonsense. There’s this sacred timeline and it’s spawning branches but the time loom can’t control them so the time lines will break and everyone who lives on them will die. Or something like that. YMMV.

Echo – Another mediocre Marvel miniseries centered on Maya, a Choctaw, deaf, amputee, who is a badass fighter, of course. Promos make it look as though Daredevil has a big role in this but he’s in it for all of a minute. Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner, is in it for a few seconds.

Armaggedon – A Netflix Ricky Gervais stand up movie. Crude. Funny in parts.

The Enemy Below – Robert Mitchum, U. S. warship captain, faces off with Curt Jurgens, U-boat captain, in WWII. I saw it as a kid and loved it. Star Trek ripped it off. Das Boot did it 1,000 times better. Still entertaining though.

Barbie – An absolutely fantastic opening sequence but otherwise meh. I am a big Greta Gerwig fan but let’s just say I wasn’t the target audience for this one.

Two NFL “Championship” games – I watched the Super Bowl semifinals so that I may look somewhat knowledgeable at our friends’ annual Super Bowl get together on the 12th. I need to bone up on my Taylor Swift songs though.

Reading

Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski. What better way to spend the time before spring training than reading 350 pages of stories about baseball. IYKYK. There all all kinds of oddball anecdotes in this book but sadly it leaves out my two favorites from the Washington Nationals. Juan Soto hit his first home run five days before he was called up officially to the majors. Weirder still was how Michael Morse hit a grand slam without a bat in his hands. As Joe Garagiola said, “Baseball is a funny game.”

Prequel by Rachel Maddow. Americans, acting as agents of Hitler’s regime, carried out a long campaign to keep the US out of WWII and, even, to try to violently overthrow the US government. Sound familiar? If you listened to Maddow’s podcast Ultra you pretty much know this story. This book fleshes out many of the details that could not fit into Ultra. Among other things, the plotters used the free mailing privileges of a number of sitting Congress people to distribute Nazi propaganda. Suffice it to say, the connections to recent events is obvious.

Blood Memory by David Duncan and Ken Burns. The companion book to Burns’s American Buffalo documentary on PBS. Both the book and the film are excellent. The book and film describe the slaughter of tens of millions of buffaloes and the efforts to bring the buffalo back from the edge of extinction. Just seeing one of these creatures up close is an intense experience. I can barely imagine seeing them as far as the eye can see.

Eat, Poop, Die – How Animals Make Our World by Joe Roman. Birds do it. Bees do it. Whales do it. It turns out poop (and pee) is a wonderful thing.

Medical

Lumbar Spinal Stenosis – My lower back woes continue. They are getting worse incrementally in spite of me doing a physical therapy session nearly every day. I decided to take up walking for a couple of weeks. It’s uncomfortable and slow. Using a cane is a must. I managed to top out at 3 1/2 miles one day last week. I read today that Merrick Garland, the U. S. Attorney General, is having spinal decompression surgery to address his similar problem. It will be interesting to see which doctor he uses and how he makes out. Personally, I don’t know how much longer and I put up with this.

Neck woes – Somewhere back in December or November I screwed up my neck. It feels like I have whiplash. I think I brought this on with a combination of fiddling with the handlebar height on The Tank and doing side planks as part of my stenosis routine.

I get sharp pains that shoot up into my head when I turn my head. I can feel the tightness in my lateral neck muscles with my fingers. It even affects my bite. I was seriously considering going to my doctor for some advice or maybe an x-ray (to ROC – rule out cancer) just to be safe. On a whim I pulled Yoga for Cyclists off the shelf and looked up neck stretches.

Basically the stretches involve moving your head to the each side as well as the 45-degree forward position. My neck is so screwed up that I actually had to gently guide my head back into a neutral position between stretches. I am happy to report that after just one session of stretches my neck felt much better.

I learned a couple of things. Neck stretching should only be done to the sides and front. (This is contrary to the stretches in Richard Hittleman’s classic yoga book.) Rotating your head back makes things worse. I augmented the book’s stretches with corresponding head twists (assisted by a gentle guiding hand). I can now comfortably turn my head while riding which is kind of important when you’re trying to avoid big metal things.

And Finally…

Done

A Shorts Story

A few days ago a cold, snowy week gave way to temperatures above 40 degrees. I decided to brave the snowy trails and bike lanes and ride to DC to drop off some books at a used book shop. What normally would have taken 90 minutes each way took 115 because there were so many places where snow and ice made my route unrideable. Having made it about ten miles riding and walking, I decided to take a chance on some snow and slush on the trail that connects the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington to the Mount Vernon Trail. I made it about 100 yards before encountering more snow and ice. I decided to hell with it and rode over it. Bad idea. I went down on my side, fortunately landing in a pile of powder on the side of the trail. This is why I don’t like winter riding. Had I landed on a hard surface I’d have been in a world of hurt. I picked myself up and continued on my way, making sure to avoid another crash. I made it back home without any further calamities.

Today is January 26. I rode The Tank to Friday Coffee Club, leaving just before dawn. The temperature was around 60F. I wore shorts. Yeah baby! It is amazing how much nicer bike riding is in shorts as opposed to long pants. On the way I encountered dense fog and somewhat cooler temperatures along the Potomac River.

The Washington Monument from Gravelly Point Park across from DC

Our band of merry bike riders enjoyed their coffee outdoors today. A week ago it snowed and, for all I know, nobody went to Coffee Club.

After a couple of hours of discussing our various medical woes and discussing other pressing issues of the day, I rode back toward home. The fog had lifted and the sun was burning off the rest of the clouds. The ride downriver was as good as it gets for January.

Today was a good day to put in some extra miles so I stopped at an Ace Hardware store in Old Town Alexandria. After a quick transaction, I was back on the bike riding further south to pick up some milk at the local grocery store. (So far, the only downer to the morning had been the near sour milk I had poured over my Wheat Chex before leaving home.)

Once at home I read the paper and grabbed some lunch before heading back out on the bike to buy some tax software at an office supply store. I dropped the software off at home and headed back out again to drop off my lawn mower blade to be sharpened at the neighborhood hardware store. While there I picked up 15 pounds of bird seed which fit nicely in my two large Ortlieb panniers.

Once back at the ranch I gave The Tank a look over to see how the salt and sand and brine was treating its chain. The chain had rust spots along the side plates so it was past due for some new lube. I took the bike onto the back patio operating theater and successfully made things right.

While I was working on the bike, the air conditioner kicked on. The inside temperature and humidity felt like June. It was a muggy 80F degrees outside when I finished my chores. Dang.

Riding 2023

When I was recovering from pulmonary embolisms in early 2018, my friend Katie B. sent me a t-shirt that said “Never Underestimate an Old Man with a Bicycle.” This year, during which I turned 68, proved her right.

I rode 11,532 miles this year, my second most ever. As usual, I put the most mileage, 4,630, on The Mule, my touring bike. The other three bikes shared the rest of the burden nearly evenly. This was quite a surprise because I had all but stopped riding Little Nellie, my small-wheeled folding travel bike. Riding it even for just a handful of miles just killed my back. So, as a last resort before selling it, I switched the bike from drop bars to more upright H-bars. The improvement was incredible. I ended up riding 2,155 miles on it.

The conversion and a ton of other work including new hand-made wheels for The Mule and Little Nellie were done by the folks at Bikes at Vienna. I give my special thanks to Daniel, Tim, and Beth for keeping me rolling all year.

The year featured my 11th long-distance tour. I rode a 2,653-mile loop from DC to Bar Harbor to Erie, PA and back home. I did a bit of walking here and there but I did myself proud for the most part. There was one memorable hill in downstate New York. I took one look at the beast and I dismounted and started walking. It was laughably steep. I made it through an intense hour-long thunder storm in Ontario and a code purple air quality day in Erie, PA without harm. Oddly, the hardest part of the whole trip was pushing my loaded bike up and down the detour of the Paw Paw Tunnel on the C&O Canal. I used Warmshowers more on this trip than ever before. I had many great hosts but special recognition goes to Katie and Tom Huntington in Newcastle, Maine who put up with me for two nights, one going up the coast, the other down.

My longest mileage month was June, 1,702 miles, all of which was on tour. The shortest months were February and December at 730 and 749 miles, respectively.

I rode the 50 States and Cider Rides with a splendid group of folks. Special thanks to Michael, Chris, Monica, Sara, and Domitille who rode both with me. I also did the Great Pumpkin Ride solo (and picked up my umpteenth long-sleeve technical shirt in the process). I ended the event year by participating in the Ride for Your Life, which raised awareness about the scourge of traffic violence in the DC area. Kevin, Jacob, Bryan, Lili, Annette, and Nina joined the 50 States posse. Katja, Timothee, Miguel, and Lisa rode with us on the Cider Ride. Annette, Shira, Leslie, Jeanne, and Monica did the Ride for Your Life Event.

Six years over 10,000 miles. Dang.

After over two decades of membership, I upped my game and became a lifetime member of the Adventure Cycling Association. If I had known I’d have been bike touring for so many years, I would have saved myself a bunch of annual membership dues and become I lifetime member long ago. My loss is Adventure Cycling’s gain.

And as always, here’s where my bike odometers stood at the end of the year. Total mileage on all four is 176,944.

End of Year Odometer Readings: Clockwise from top left: Big Nellie, Little Nellie, The Mule, The Tank.

December 2023

Riding

This was a month to back off a bit. I managed to ride 749 miles or about 24 miles per day, less than half of my daily mileage on my summer tour. The cold weather makes riding my normal 30 miles feel like an ordeal. My outdoor rides ranged from 30 to 32 miles. I rode 110 miles on Big Nellie indoors. Most of the outdoor miles were on The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. I did ride The Mule a couple of days but Little Nellie took the month off.

I reached 11,000 miles for the year on December 9.

Riding The Tank has been a struggle this year. It seems slow and heavy and hard on my legs. Once I reached 28,000 miles on its odometer on December 22, I put it away for a few days. In addition to my dissatisfaction with the ride quality of this bike, I had been experiencing a marked increase in back pain accompanied by worrisome neck, shoulder, and arm aches. A two-mile stroll (with cane) through Georgetown last week left me with even more pain. And, despite doing all kinds of physical therapy exercises for months, my back was stooped like never before. I seemed destined to return to the dreaded medical merry-go-round.

On a whim, I compared the saddle height on The Tank to that on The Mule, my touring bike that fits like a glove. The Tank’s saddle was more than a half inch higher. I must have raised the saddle earlier in the year. Why? I have no idea.

Anyway, I lowered the seat by a half inch or so and went for a spin. Bingo. Suddenly the bike fit me nearly perfectly. My mechanics were much better; my speed jumped by ten percent or so with less effort. The handlebars were still a little higher than on The Mule so I paid a visit to my local bike store where I bought some thin, 2.5-millimeter, spacers. I used them to drop my bars 5 millimeters. Dang. Locked and loaded. I finished the year with three 30-mile rides. My back feels much better and my neck, shoulder, and arm pain are nearly gone. Thank god I didn’t go to the doctor. It would have been a total waste of time.

Watching

Minari – A Korean family buys a farm in Arkansas. Nominated for all sorts of awards. Korean cast was outstanding including a little boy played by Alan Kim. They overshadowed a stellar performance by Will Patton as a religious nut who is the family’s farmhand.

Top Gun – Maverick. Another movie we skipped a few years ago. I’m not a big Tom Cruise fan but he’s far better in this than in the earlier movie. The plot is predictable but the editing and sound and visuals make for a fine action movie.

Interstellar. A Christopher Nolan film I missed when it was released nine years ago. Matthew McConaughey at his best. The rest of the cast, other than McKenzie Foy as his daughter and Michael Caine as an aging scientist, left me a bit flat. The story is filled with sci fi bafflegab and impossibilities but it was still very entertaining.

Yogi Berra – It Ain’t Over. A documentary about Yankee catcher Yogi Berra. One of the most highly decorated athletes of the century. He was short and funny looking. And he was famously a malaprop machine. History treated him like a clown, but he was anything but. He earned more professional championship rings than any athlete in the 20th century, including Bill Russell. (Russ has nine NBA championships, two NCAA championships, and a gold medal. Don’t at me.) And virtually everyone who appears on screen says he was a phenomenally decent human being.

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. This movie took tons of awards including the Academy Award for Best Performance with a Butt Plug. Also, people with hot dog fingers, a sword fight with dildos, an all powerful everything bagel, and sentient rocks. How many hallucinogens did the filmmakers take when writing and directing this thing?

Air. The story of how Nike, a running shoe company, signed Michael Jordan. It’s funny. Interesting. Great cast. Matt Damon is the new Tom Hanks. Viola Davis rocks. Jason Bateman is terrific. Ben Affleck is quite good as the head of Nike. And he directed.

Nyad. A very entertaining movie about a self absorbed jerk who swims from Cuba to Key West at the tender age of 64. As good as Annette Benning was as Diana Nyad, Jodie Foster was even better as her coach and friend. I am not a big fan of either actress but I’d be shocked if they don’t both get nominated for Academy Awards.

Big Adam Bikes – This is an Instagram daily journal of a young man who rode the TransAm this year. It’s funny and brings back a lot of memories. Adam Bigelow doesn’t leave out the tedium, the bad weather, and the dogs. And the headwinds – forget about that nonsense about getting tailies going west to east. You get a pretty good idea of what it’s like to ride from the Oregon coast to Yorktown.

The Crown – We watched the final six episodes over the course of three nights. How odd that of all the characters in the story, Camilla Parker-Bowles came across best. In the end, the Queen is humanized although I have to say of the four women who played Elizabeth over 68 episodes, I found Imelda Staunton the least appealing. (There’s a new actress who plays the not yet queen as a young woman. She looks remarkably like a young Claire Foy.)

Death on the Nile – I’m not a big Agatha Christie fan and this movie did nothing to change my mind. An impressive cast but not one memorable performance. Dull. If you’re going to watch a Kenneth Branagh film there are many others worth your time.

The Big Dig – This nine-hour podcast covers the biggest urban traffic project in US history. The Big Dig involved burying the Central Artery, an elevated highway built in the late 1940s. The highway design predated the interstate highway system. It was characterized by narrow lanes and more miles of on and off ramps than roadway miles. To get on the thing you had to drive like a maniac which may explain why Boston drivers are such Massholes. The Central Artery was a daily nightmare for drivers and it ruined the city, separating the North End and South Boston from the rest of the city. The Big Dig also included building a new tunnel to Logan Airport, a much needed addition. In the first episode I learned how an inner loop highway that cut through Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury was on the drawing boards. A grassroots effort stopped the project, but not before acres of Roxbury were levelled. (I drove a cab in Boston in the mid-seventies and always wondered why there were so many empty lots in Roxbury. Now I know why.) The same sort of thing happened in DC where I-66 would have cut the city in half if not for local opposition. The Big Dig took over 20 years to design and build and cost billions more than planned. Although the podcast doesn’t mention it, the Big Dig was not unlike another big dig, the Panama Canal, in terms of its complexity, cost, political intrigue, and length of time to completion.

Reading

The Path between the Seas. David McCullough’s award-winning account of the building of the Panama Canal. As with many of his tomes, the amount of information in this one boggles the mind. Not only was the canal an engineering feat that rivalled Project Apollo, the effort also included the early use of electricity for industrial purposes and pathbreaking epidemiological work. It cost over $300 million and tens of thousands of lives, mostly those of unskilled black workers from the West Indies.

A Truck Full of Money by Tracy Kidder. This is the story of Paul English, a working class kid in Boston who eventually made $120 million (hence the title) from the online travel company he founded called Kayak.com. The book oddly dovetails with two other Kidder books: Mountains beyond Mountains and Rough Sleepers and seems like a fitting companion to Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine.

Mornings on Horseback. After reading about Theodore Roosevelt’s involvement with the Panama Canal in the book above, I decided to read this biographical book, again by David McCullough, about TR’s upbringing. (The book ends well before he becomes president.) A chapter of the book deals with his three years of on and off adventures in North Dakota and eastern Montana. I rode through this area on my 2018 bike trip and was curious about his times there.

On the Street by Bill Cunningham. Cunningham was a fashion photographer of sorts for the New York Times and other publications. He chronicled the art of fashion, mostly as it appeared on the streets of New York and Paris over four decades from the 1970s to the 2000s. I often have wondered who wears those weird outfits you see in fashion magazines. The answer is New Yorkers and Parisians. Cunningham traveled the city on his beat up three-speed bicycle. His photos of people walking to work in Manhattan after a big snow storm brought back oh so many miserable winter days in Boston. The book made me all the more appreciative of amateur photographers Joe Flood and Mary Gersema, two friends of mine who have an fine eye for life in DC.

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose. This whodunit is the follow up to Prose’s The Maid. Molly the maid solves another murder in the hotel where she works. Molly’s a bid of an odd duck but she’s a good egg and has an eye and an ear for detail. After two months of nonfiction, this novel was a fun read to end the year on.

Top Ten for 2023

Once again it’s time to take stock in stuff that happened over the last 12 months. Here we go in no particular order.

  1. The Boy Comes Home – After four years, our son came home from Thailand for a visit. We rode bikes and went to baseball games and hung out. During his travels, he also managed to see West Virginia, Indiana, Chicago, Montana, New York City, and Romania. Go figure. It seems impossible that he is 32 and living on the other side of the world. If you ever want to learn to scuba dive in Thailand, he’s your man.
  2. Cold, Rain, Hills, Smoke, Mud – Bike Tour 2023 – I’ve never ridden in Maine but I’ve been to Oklahoma. Okay, I’ve never ridden in Oklahoma either, but the line worked for Hoyt Axton. After the southern half of the Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coast Route by riding from DC to Key West in 2017, I decided to finish the route by riding from DC to Bar Harbor, Maine. Rather than re-trace my steps down the coast, I made a big loop from DC to Bar Harbor to Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls to Erie, PA to Pittsburgh to DC. The first month was cold and wet and brutally hilly. I managed to avoid the smoke from Canadian wildfires until Erie, PA where I rode in Code Purple air with an N95 mask on. No problem. I rode in a foreign country for the first time, riding along the Niagara River in stormy Ontario. The final push on the C&O, which was supposed to be the easy part, featured slogging through miles and miles of thick mud and a brutal hike over a mountain to bypass the closed Paw Paw tunnel.
  3. Bike Events – I rode five bike events this year. The Washington Area Bicyclists Association changed the name of its May ride from the Spring Fling to the Bike How You Like Ride. I rode the Spring Fling a few years ago and it was brutal. I swore I wouldn’t do it again. Fool that I am, I learned the morning of the ride that the BHYLR was the same course. Oof. Somehow it was easier this time. In September, I rode the 50 States Ride for the 15th time with a splendid posse. The route took us all over DC clockwise for the first time but we still had to contend with a brutal climb through the Palisades to Cathedral Heights. In October, I rode the Great Pumpkin Ride in the Virginia Piedmont for the umpteenth time. This time I brought my own snacks and rode it solo nonstop. The weather was perfect and avoiding long lines at the pit stops cut my time by nearly two hours. In November, I rode the Cider Ride with most of my 50 States posse. On this year’s ride one member of the posse rode all 60 miles on little more than water, a slice of apple pie, and a stalk of celery. Incroyable! Later that month I rode the Bike for Your Life event. The point of the ride was to raise awareness of the problem of traffic violence in our area. We passed four ghost bikes (indicating where a driver killed a cyclist) before ending at the ghost bike of a five-year old girl.
  4. Big Nellie Hits 50,000 Miles – It’s been over 20 years but persistence paid off as Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, finally broke the 50,000 mile barrier. (This does not count the hundreds of miles ridden on the bike indoors during the winter months.)
  5. Little Nellie and The Tank Re-born – I had all but stopped riding Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, because of the intense lower back pain I experienced after even short rides. I decided to swap out the drop handlebars for more upright H bars. It made a world of difference and I ended up riding the bike over 2,000 miles this year. In late December I was ready to get rid of The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. Riding it gave me weeks of intense nerve pain in my back, arms, shoulders, and neck. Then I made seemingly minor adjustments to the seat and handlebar height. The bike now goes considerably faster with less effort and my nerve problems have all but disappeared. With a few twists of an allen key and some headset spacers, I saved a bike and avoided the medical merry-go-round for the winter.
  6. 50th High School Reunion – I attended my 50th high school reunion. My high school classmates are so old! During the trip, I visited with family and did a bike ride with my brother Jim on the new rail trail that runs from the Hudson River to the village of Voorheesville west of Albany. I also managed to check out the Walkway over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, the home of Franklin Roosevelt in Hyde Park, the graves of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park and of Chester A. Arthur near Albany, and my parents’ and my brother Mike’s graves. I also found the weathered tombstone of my great grandfather Sylvester.
  7. King Lear at Shakespeare Theater – My wife, daughter, and I saw a mind blowing performance of Patrick Page as King Lear, He stole the show when we saw him as Iago in Othello many years ago but his Lear was next level stuff. From the second he stepped onto the stage we were gobsmacked. It helped that we were in the second row.
  8. The Mule Gets Some TLC – I took The Mule into the bike doctor for a physical and found out that, among many other things, the rims had multiple cracks in them. The new rims were right as rain after my summer bike tour. Later in the year, after years of frustration over rear brake rubbing issues, I finally forked over the big bucks and had an expensive brake installed. It works great.
  9. Crowded House – My favorite band from the Antipodes was supposed to play DC in September 2022 but the drummer injured his back. I can relate. The concert was rescheduled for March and was worth the wait. Liam Finn, a band member, opened the night with a frenetic solo performance. The main event was terrific, marred only by two drunken idiots who sat in the row behind us and talked loudly through most of the songs.
  10. Museum of African American History – I finally got to see this amazing new Smithsonian museum. We spent hours in the place and only saw half the exhibits, mostly about slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights. I need to go back to see the rest, most of which is likely to be more upbeat.
  11. And one more for Nigel Tufnel: In January I became a lifetime member of the Adventure Cycling Association. Without ACA maps and advice, I’d never have done so much touring or had so much fun. I should have done this years ago (and saved 20 years worth of annual membership fees) but I didn’t think I’d ever do this much touring.