Dang I Forgot My Pontoons

Today's commute was a little different from my usual 29-mile round trip.  I drove my car to Brown's Honda in the Cherrydale section of North Arlington to get some maintenance done. I could have simply taken their courtesy van to the Metro and ridden to work with the masses.  Instead I folded up Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, dropped her in the trunk and used her to do my commute from the dealership. This ride took me on the Martha Custis Trail, down to the Mount Vernon Trail across from Georgetown. It was a beautiful Spring morning with trees and flowers in bloom, pleasant temperatures and sunny skies.

In fact, the whole commute was going swimmingly until it got kind of literal.

That's Little Nellie parked across the Mount Vernon Trail in the foreground. The Memorial Bridge is in the backgorund. In between is the Potomac River.  It is not supposed to be there.  Little Nellie is brave. Little Nellie is proud. Little Nellie is not stupid.  We took the high road (or grass) to the right.

Once we cleared the deluge we made our way into DC.  I cut under the 14th Street Bridge on Ohio Drive to avoid the car traffic on Independence Avenue.  Neither Little Nellie nor I are afraid, but we don't like waiting at traffic lights and dealing with late-for-work policy wonks driving their commute mobiles.

As we came onto Ohio Drive we once again encountered the deluge, this time under the 14th Street Bridge. We knew not to ride through this one when we saw police cars driving up on the sidewalk to the left.  After this, it was clear sailing (sorry) all the way to work. The evening commute was uneventful as the waters had receded.  The commute turned out to be 14 1/2 miles, pretty much half my normal commuting distance, not including portages.