A Kinky Saturday

Alright get your heads out of the gutter.

After the scary, scary thunderstorms that hit Friday evening and night, we here in the DC area were left with the kind of day that Spinal Tap fans would call an 11.  Just perfect. 75 degrees, low humidity, comfortable breezes, bright blue skies with wispy clouds dabbled about.

After riding something like 170 miles over the course of the last five days, it was for what Dave Davies of the Kinks sang about back in 1969: lazing on a sunny afternoon.

After reading the newspapers, I did about 6 miles of biking to various shops in my neighborhood. The first couple of miles was to and from the local hardware store.  Village Hardware is tucked into a small shopping center in Fort Hunt. It thrives because people hate going to Home Depot. (Coincidentally, it's owned by a cyclist who I see every morning on the Mount Vernon Trail.)  Village Hardware sells shelled bird seed treated with cayenne pepper.  Squirrels don't like it and it doesn't leave a big mess on the lawn.  So, even though its pretty expensive, I use it. Oh, and I forgot to mention that woodpeckers and goldfinches love the stuff.  I get a free nature show every morning at breakfast as the birds chow down on the seeds outside my kitchen window.  

Getting back to the bicycling part of our program, I returned home with a 25-pound bag of bird seed in one pannier and two light bulbs in the other. It sounds like this would make the bike ungainly but bikes are little engineering miracles. I had no trouble getting home.

After dropping off the seed and putting a bulb in an overhead fixture, I took off for my bank which is embedded in a supermarket on US 1.  You'd be hard pressed to design a more hostile environment for bicycles than US 1. There are parallel separated lanes that provide access to the stores lining the highway so Big Nellie and I used them instead of the main roadway to get to and from the bank.  On the way back I rode to a big box store to get stuff to replace the gross shower curtain and curtain rod in my bathroom.  (I use the downstairs bathroom because the upstairs has been taken over by the ladies of the house and their mass quantities of incomprehensible personal beauty, cleansing, and hygiene products.)

After installing the shower stuff, I went to work on Little Nellie whose shifting has been problematic.  After only ten minutes I think I had everything sorted out so I went for a 1 1/2 mile ride around the neighborhood to make sure.

For the next six hours I sat on my ass reading magazines on my deck. It's the closest thing I can do to sleeping in a hammock - since I don't have a hammock.

Late in my lazing, I realized that the Moonlight Memorial Monuments ride started in just 3 hours. I sent out reminders to bicycling friends on Facebook and Twitter, ate dinner, and drove to DC.

Despite being poorly promoted due to computer problems, about 50 people (a guess) showed up and, as night fell, left in two waves under a full moon to tour the famous sights along the mall and Potomac River.  Hoping to meet up with Friday Coffee Club member, I intended to leave with the second group, led by Larry Black, the organizer of the event. Somehow a small group of us missed Larry's departure and were left to navigate our way using a cue sheet. Our group was anchored by Greg and Peggy on a Hase tandem bike that was half recumbent and half conventional.  We left without the FCC rider who decided not to come after all and headed down to Pennsylvania Avenue where we rode straight toward the beautifully illuminated Capitol.  The ride wound its way across Capitol Hill, down the mall and over to the White House. Then we went to the WWII and Lincoln Memorials.

Somewhere along the way, Jeff Dahloff, pulled up along side me. Jeff's a very experienced urban bike warrior and has endured my company on many a bike ride. Welcome aboard, Jeff.
 
I had somehow become the leader of the small group that had missed Larry's departure. I did my best to call out all the buildings as we passed.  The Commerce Department nearly put our group to sleep but the bollards near the White House got everyone refocused.  We even rolled by Swings House of Java, site of the world famous Friday Coffee Club meetings.  My group ooh'ed and aah'ed.

I took a wrong turn at the Lincoln Memorial and we had to do some back tracking, but we were back on course without much ado. We ran with the tour buses along Ohio Drive, then made a break for East Potomac Park. On the way to Hains Point, Jeff and I got to talking and found a rhythm.  We weren't going all that fast, but the folks behind us were apparently eating chips and dip as they rode. A ride organizer zoomed up to us and asked us to slow down and to stop and wait for the group to catch up at the next stop sign. No problemo. 

About this time a group of really drunk people on the grass next to the road noticed us coming and came out to run along side us and cheer us on.  They yelled something like "BWAA LOOK, HA. Damn!" It's hard to run without spilling a drink.We were by them pretty quickly.

At the stop sign, we met up with Larry's group, now 1 1/2 miles behind us on the ride. Larry's group had somehow gotten lost on Capitol Hill.  As we commiserated with them, the first group that had left 15 minutes ahead of us pulled up.  After comparing notes we all rode off.   My group headed to the Jefferson Memorial. I think the other two groups headed down to Hains Point. After a photo op at the Jefferson, we headed back into East Potomac Park briefly, following the cue sheet back  to the starting point and the ride's end.  As we left East Potomac Park, we passed the other two groups clustered on an island in the middle of the road. 

We rode back to the start only to find that the cluster of bikes had become an informal finish line. So many of the riders had biked to the start that they decided to head for home from East Potomac Park. My little group did the entire ride. We were impressed with ourselves. Chuffed even. Larry showed up with a few riders and we all went out for a post-ride drink at Capitol City Brewing Company, two blocks from the start.

The Moonlight Memorial Monuments ride is only 15 miles, but it is one of my favorites. It's very low key affair.  My group was very chatty and we all had fun watching Greg and Peggy cruising along on their frankentandem. 

I got home at 1:30.  The weather is perfect again today.   I think I'll get out and go for a ride.