Inauguration

I was woken up at 7:30am by a friend in Japan watching live streaming video of millions of people gathering less than a mile from my house. After a hearty breakfast and eight layers of clothing, I grabbed a thermos of tea and a bottle of water and headed out in to the madness of DC.


The town seemed relatively calm for being so crowded and I made my way up Massachusetts Ave to the bike valet at 16th & K where I would be parking bikes for the next four and a half hours.

The valet went really smooth thanks to WABA and all the volunteers, we had to ad-lib an overflow bike valet when we filled up around bike 996. I counted as high as 1148 before I left at 3.30pm


Afterwards, I spent some time biking around photographing and taking video of the aftermath of the parade. The atmosphere was surreal, somewhere between mardi gras and wasteland. I couldn't help but think of 28 days as I floated through the city, buses blocking streets, trash blowing in the wind, and people milling about in the streets, ignoring crosswalks and the constant alarm of police sirens. Take a look for yourself.

Two Challenges for the New Year

Make a resolution, stick with it for a few weeks, and then the new habits fade into a pile of well intentioned scraps. Instead of following through with those this year, I'm issuing myself two challenges for 2009 and encouraging everyone else to do the same. The second one just came to me, so here they are before I get any more bright ideas.

Challenge #1

Bike 2,000 miles this year. Given the adverse weather conditions, it's a challenge that is slightly more daunting than if I were still in California, but I'm hoping that the good weather and number of bike related events in DC will keep me on two wheels and average of 39 miles per week. I'm going to keep track and try to post results month by month here on the blog.

Challenge #2

Volunteer at least 100 hours of my time this year. I've been involved in volunteer nights for WABA, and I've been talking about Phonenix bikes. It's time to shoot for the moon! It's just under 2 hours per week, and if I can sacrifice a few weekends here and there, I think it isn't such an impossibility! I guess I should keep track of that too!

Internet Evil

Here's something for those of you that are not suffering financially in these times and may want to waste a TON of cash. Please keep the following site away from anyone with Social Security checks, or your loved ones!

Swoopo is EVIL!

Winter

It's no longer 65 degrees. DC is settling in to the cold, and I've been biking a bit less. I haven't completely abandoned it, but it's a little harder to get motivated when it's 32 degrees outside. That being said, I went for a 15 mile ride yesterday up to Tenleytown and came back from Woodley Park via the Rock Creek Trail. My lights aren't as bright as some, but when you're blinded by car headlights, its pretty hard to follow the narrow path you're on. It was fun, but a little nerve racking.





I picked up a Shogun 300 today from freecycle with the intention of fixing it up for friends to use when they come to visit. I'm debating doing a fixed gear or single-speed conversion. We'll see how well that goes...

65°F in December!

It was so nice on monday that I had to get out and go for a quick 17 mile ride around the District.  Headed out west towrds East Potomac Park, got a littl lost on the way looking for access to the bridge from L'Enfant Plaza Rd SW

Found the bridge and headed over to East Potomac Park to watch some planes take off from Regan

The park is a really nice one way loop going clockwise. Mostly empty during the day

Briefly stopped to appreciate the view of the monument

and continued on up the path to Georgetown, over the Key Bridge, and back down the bike paths, crossing at Arlington Memorial Bridge. It was a nice ride, but the first time is always the roughest. I might skip the part that took me through SW over to Maine st. not so bike friendly there.

WABA Holiday Party

Went to the WABA Holiday party, which I helped decorate for last week at the volunteer night.   We got there around 7:30 and it was crowded and hot, but there was still beer, wine, cheese, and wraps, so we got to eat, drink, and meet a few new people as well as see some I'd met from previous weeks.  I bumped in to a new friend that had bought a $5 raffle ticket for the drawing at 8pm.  At the last minute I dashed out and dropped $5 on a ticket, thinking it would go to a good cause.  The first drawing was for a WABA t-shirt, which was cool, the second was for a 1 year membership, which I won!  The third was for a rad WABA Bike Jersey.  So we got some free stuff, talked to some good people, and I won a membership.  Happy Holidays!  Pics are here on the WABA Flickr Pool.  and a few others here.

Taking the W&OD back home to DC

I got the great idea in my head last week to bike home from falls church, va.  I knew there were bke trails that went most of the way, but I ended up with a longer ride than I had planned.  I got on the trail, knowing it was called the W&OD (Washington & Old Dominion) and started cranking away, keeping up a nice pace.  What I didn't realize was that I went off course about a mile and a half into the ride.  When I arrived at mile 5, I knew I had messed up, but I had come downhill for the past four miles and wasn't ready to track back.  I knew I was still heading east, so I forged on.  Shirlington Rd is NOT fun to bike on, and when I hit Glebe Rd, I knew I was a bit hosed. 

 Luckily there was a motel on the corner that had Arlington Bike Maps.  I quickly got my bearings and forged on, realizing that I'd have to take a small detour around Regan National Airport.  The ride ended up being about 15 miles, and my toes were mighty cold.  It started snowing right as I began to pass the airport, and I almomst got blown off the  George Mason Memorial Bridge.  But not so bad for getting lost.

Just yesterday I attempted to make the trip again, this time following the correct path.  It's a nice ride, and took me less than an hour to get home.  The sun was out and I only needed one layer underneath my windbreaker.  

I think next time though, I'll try to cross the Potomac a little farther south, at the Arlington Memorial Bridge to avoid all the traffic on Virginia Ave, and the unfortunate wrong way merge into Constitution.  

Here's the two maps superimposed on each other so you can get an idea of how far out of my way I went.  The top route is the proper way.