Skyscapes and Tailwinds

Today was quite a day for bike commuting. The ride in featured a tailwind and an awesome sky at sunrise.  These spectacular early morning skyscapes make riding in the fall and spring very special.  They are compensation for the fact that dressing for the commute is often a time consuming affair.  My living room is cluttered with a wide variety of gloves, skull caps, neck gaiters, and such. I often have to bring different outer wear depending on the forecast.

The sunrise was so pretty I had to stop, but the evening sky was impressive in its own right. During the afternoon a weather front moved through the area.  Usually these thing are gradual affairs but today's have a sharp edge to it. And embedded in it were some thunderheads, one of which was parked above the Lincoln Memorial as I rode on the opposite side of the Potomac River along the Mount Vernon Trail.

I knew that eventually these clouds would unload buckets of rain on me, but it never happened. Oh, it did rain a bit, particularly during the last six miles of my commute but the rain was light and the air was still warm so it was really quite pleasant.

I swore I heard a voice say, "Noah!"

Charlton Heston, phone home

DCA was still operating

The Wilson Bridge and the Storm

And to top it off, the weather front turned the wind direction around so that I had a two-tailwind commute.  I'd say that makes for a pretty decent start to the work week and a nice way to celebrate 120 bike commutes in 2012..