After work biking

Yesterday Andrew and I tried to go for a ride after work. We loaded the bikes onto the car rack, drove up to the Vienna Community Center (the W&OD trail goes right by there), and started on our way. After about a mile and a half, Andrew’s gear thingy broke (the control on the handle-bars). His bike was stuck in gear, though he was able to bike back to the car. So we went a total of 3 miles, round trip, and then brought his bike to the bike shop. It will be there for about a week. Sigh.

So, today I decided to go on a ride by myself. This is usually Andrew’s cello lesson night, so I would have been alone in the house anyway, so it seemed like a good night. Unfortunately, his lesson was cancelled, but I decided to go anyway. Maybe I’m crazy. It was 92° with a heat index of 100°. No matter.

Benefits of going out at 5:30 PM when its 92° with a 100° heat index:

• Few other crazy people on the trail
• Maybe it was my imagination, but cars actually stopped more often at crossings than usual

The down-side of going out at 5:30 PM when its 92 ° with a 100° heat index:

• A high proportion of the other crazy people on the trail seem to be brainless cyclists of the not-warning-when-passing sort
• Children. When we go out on weekends, there are generally few children, and those that are on the trail are supervised. Tonight there was a group of 10-year-old (or so) boys. They started by zooming past me (to their credit, they gave me a warning), but then stayed at about 30-50 feet in front of me putzing about. I finally got tired of them, and pedalled for all I was worth to get ahead of them…of course, even though I had signalled with my bell, one of the kids decided to start hot-dogging it at that point. ARGH!
• 100° heat index, of course

Total miles: 3 miles Tuesday, 9 miles Wednesday

Tags: bike

Brainless Cyclists

Every public trail has them. They try to look like professional cyclists. They wear brightly colored jerseys and black cycling shorts, just like the professional and hard-core cyclists. They train hard like professionals. They bike fast, even on the steep grades, like professionals. But they are not professionals. In fact, professionals probably dislike these imposters as much as the non-professionals. Let’s call them brainless cyclists, or bcs for short.

What exactly makes them brainless? There are a couple things.

BCs are the cyclists who feel entitled to go 20 mph (or their normal riding speed) no matter the conditions on the trail. There are a hundred pedestrians on the trail? No matter, I’ll just weave between them like an idiot. The cyclist ahead of me is passing a pedestrian? No matter, I’ll just brush past them within an inch…maybe two. There’s a sign ahead saying that the trail narrows, so cyclists please dismount before crossing? Screw that, it doesn’t apply to me. Never mind that there is barely room for a single pedestrian; I’ll just be there for a moment, so they’ll hardly notice me.

Perhaps worse, BCs are also the cyclists who don’t feel like the rules of courtesy on trails apply to them. The foremost courtesy on the trail is to give a audible warning when you are about to pass someone. Andrew and I have bells on our bikes that we ring. Many other cyclists just say, “On your left”, or simply “left” or “passing”. The reason for this should be clear — if you’re passing someone, you don’t want to startle them, causing them to veer one way or the other. It is equally important to warn other cyclists as it is to warn pedestrians. The BCs, however, don’t see it that way. It’s too much effort for them to say “left” when they are passing, or perhaps it’s beneath them. I’m not sure which.

To these assholes on the trail I say, find another damn place to ride your bike. Find a nice quiet country road where you can be alone. As for those of us on the public trails, we don’t want you here.

Tags: rant

Biking to Alexandria

Andrew and I decided to take the bikes out to Alexandria today. This has typically been one of our favorite rides, since it takes us along the Potomac and then down into Alexandria for a yummy lunch and fun shops. And, we did enjoy the scenery, mostly enjoyed lunch (though our waiter at Bertucci’s did not bring us rolls, even after Andrew asked), and went a little nuts at A Likely Story because they were having a “Christmas in July” sale with 20% off all books and 30% off non-books. However, there were a lot of @sshole cyclists on the trail today, for some reason, and the bike trip make me pretty cranky. (Hoping to post a rant soon.)

Just as we got to the river, we saw this kayak with a very happy puppy:

We stopped at the Navy and Marine Memorial along the trail, and I took these two pictures:
   

Total miles: 11.3 miles

Tags: bike

Movies in the Morning/12 Angry Men

The Cinema Arts Theatre, up the road from our house, is doing a special series of films over the next several weeks — Movies in the Morning. They are playing classic movies following four themes (I can only remember Hepburn/Grant and courtroom off the top of my head). The movies all start between 10 and 10:30 AM, cost only $5, and there are $1 snacks available at the concession stand.

Andrew and I biked up this morning to catch 12 Angry Men. I had seen at least part of it a few years ago when it played on AMC or TMC, but it was a lot of fun to see it in the theater. There were a few technical problems with the film, and it shut down a couple times, but I wonder how many good copies are left in circulation.

We’ll certainly be back next weekend, though I’m not sure which movie we’ll see — there are a couple that look good to me.

Total biking miles: 6 miles

[ IMDB link to 12 Angry Men]

Tags: reviews

Bikin’ to Ballston

Andrew and I might be insane, but we decided to say “screw it” to the 90% humidity today and hopped on our bikes. We ended up riding on the W & OD trail south from Vienna to the Custis Trail and then off to Ballston in Arlington. It turned out to only be about 10 miles, so this might be a trip we could do round-trip next time, with a movie at the mall as a rest-stop. This time, though, we took the Metro back to Vienna from Ballston. It was a fun ride — of course it’s generally fun to go someplace we haven’t been before, and this time the ride wasn’t too strenuous (thankfully, since it was hot and humid…mostly humid).

Pretty red flowers on the trail in Falls Church:

And there were raspberries everywhere — almost ripe:

Total distance: 11 miles (my odometer said 10.89 miles, but I forgot to put my computer on for about the first 0.1 miles, so I’m rounding a bit)

Tags: bike

Back on the Bikes

Andrew and I finally got back on the bikes today. We’d been away for the past two weeks with, first, my Dad’s visit, and second, a nasty cold. It was good to get back on the trail! We biked from downtown Vienna up to Reston to catch the 11 AM showing of War of the Worlds. We also stumbled upon the Reston Festival, with arts and crafts booths set up in Reston Town Center, along with bands and food. Also there, was this huge McGruff the Crime-Dog® balloon:

Total miles: 14.2 miles

Tags: bike

Pope-Leighey House and Woodlawn Plantation

While Dad was in town, Andrew and I decided to take him to the Frank Lloyd Wright house near DC. Dad has always admired FLW’s designs, but has never seen one of the houses up close. The Pope-Leighey house is one of FLW’s Usonian houses — “modestly scaled”, affordable, and well-designed houses.

It was interesting to go there with Dad, who has been a carpenter his entire life — over 40 years. I’ve heard him lament many times about architects. The problem, it seems, is that while architects may be able to design buildings that look good, they frequently aren’t in touch with the more practical aspects of home building. It seems that FLW wasn’t much different. As we walked around the outside, there were several things that Dad pointed out as being impractical or just not a great idea. For example, the outside walls when down on top of the foundation. While it looked kind of cool, Dad mentioned that this is a good way to get water into the house, unless it’s sealed in some way (i.e. caulking), which had not been done on this house.

But overall, Dad really liked the house — he likes the way the FLW designed houses for their lot, and tried to use whatever was in the lot (like a hill or trees) to compliment his design with help of Eventscape.

Here’s a picture Dad by the side of the house, and one of the window by the children’s room. There weren’t many full-sized windows around, but the small row of windows seen in this picture ringed the entire house. From the outside, I wondered how there could possibly be enough light in the house, and yet this ring of small windows were more than sufficient.

Afterwards touring the Pope-Leighey house, we toured the Woodlawn Plantation. This was a plantation on land that George Washington gave to Martha’s granddaughter, Eleanor “Nelly” Custis Lewis, and her husband Major Lawrence. It was still a nice tour, with a knowledgeable tour guide and period furniture in the house (some of it original). As with the Pope-Leighey house, pictures were not allowed inside, but here are a couple of the house and grounds:

Tags: museums

Biking Weekend

Andrew and I managed to get out on the bikes both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. It was a perfect weekend for it, too. Last weekend, when we did the PPTC ride, it was near 90 degrees and HUMID. This weekend, it was in the lower 80s with low humidity. Yay for great biking weather.

On Saturday we took the bikes up to the Vienna Community Center, and hopped on the W & OD trail heading south/east. This brought us to one of our favorite destinations: Hole in the Wall Books in Falls Church.

Total (round-trip) miles: 12.24 miles.

On Sunday we drove up to where the W & OD trail intersects Hunter Mill Road. We took the path north/east this time, and went into Herndon. This is the furthest that either of us has been on the path (except, of course, for our honeymoon, when we started at the other end of the W & OD in Purcellville).

Total miles: 15.58 miles.

Total weekend miles: 27.82 miles. Yay us!!

Tags: bike

PPTC — My first ride

I made my first ride with the Potomac Pedalers this morning. It was a ride along the Fairfax County’s paved path along Ox Road (aka 123) from the Fairview Elementary School to the Lorton Valley shopping center.

Here we all are at the shopping center:

A few thoughts on this ride and riding in groups:

• I found it fun riding with the group because it felt safer — cars seemed to respect us as a group more than they do in ones or twos.
• It was a bit nerve-wracking riding with a group, though, because I was constantly worrying about watching the signals from the rider in front of me, wondering if I’m close enough/too close to the bike in front of me, wondering if the bike behind me is close enough/too close, worrying that I’m slowing people down.
• This ride was supposed to be 13 miles (at least that’s what the schedule said), and a “D” level ride, which should keep a pace of no more than 12 mph on flat terrain. However, it ended up being 15 miles and the pace was more like 13-15 mph. I was fine on the way out, but it was generally downhill. However, on the way back, I just couldn’t keep the pace up, so I grabbed Andrew and we had the “sweeper” go on without us.
• After Andrew and I broke off at our own pace, we were able to stop, go a bit slower for a while, and catch our breath. In fact, we stayed about the same distance behind the group once I caught my breath. We were also able to enjoy our surroundings a bit more — I even spotted a deer off the trail that we likely wouldn’t have seen if we had been busy worrying about the other riders.

Overall I’m not sure how I felt about the ride. I did enjoy being part of a group; however, I was very frustrated that I couldn’t keep up the pace on the second leg of the ride. However, when I found out that “D” rides were supposed to be kept at a bit slower pace, I’m more upset at the leader. I realize that the other riders had no trouble, but if the ride is advertised as a “D”, I expect a “D”. We’re thinking about another ride in two weeks, but, frankly, I’m just not sure…

Tags: bike, suckitude

Felicia at the Uncles

And she had a great time browsing the shelves.

We bought a lot of books, but the pile that Felicia and I bought will be shipped later, when a could other books arrive. So much for instant gratification.

Tags: build-a-bear, trip report