The DC Ride

I am surprised that I really loved Washington DC.

I think the thing that drew me - aside from all the AMERICA that is there - was the pedestrian opportunities.

R. and I purchased bicycles some time after AA was born. We are not biking enthusiast; I realized this while biking on my trip - real biking enthusiasts wear clothing made of synthetic "breathing" fabrics and the guys have fancy shirts with pouches in the back for stuff like bicycle pumps, peanuts and toilet paper. We do enjoy a brisk little ride now and then. In recent years, we have taken our bicycles with us on most vacations.

DC is a bicycler's paradise!

I could not figure out the Metro bus or rail lines (being from the South where we don't really cotton to public transportation . . . we even take a weary eye toward those HOV lanes). The hotel's shuttle was way too costly and I just didn't want to deal with a taxi (so many questions:

how much is this gonna cost?

"Haven't I already been around this block twice?

And how much should I tip... or do I have to tip?

What if I don't tip and I get this same driver on the way back?
Or what if he tells all his friends that I didn't tip so they all blackball me and I have to spend the night under the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge?!?)

so bicycling was the obvious choice for transportation. Besides - I do not believe I saw a single gas station the entire time I was in the DC area - not one! Here in Georgia, we have gas stations everywhere! I mean, what do folks around there do when they just have to have a Slim-Jim and some Nacho-Flavored Doritos?!?

I awoke early on Saturday eager to begin my quest, but no attendant was available at the bike rental outlet I had found the day before. I ended up watching "Mr. Bean's Holiday" (R. said she couldn't believe I would stay inside and watch a movie with so much to see!). Rowan Atkinson reminded me of myself a little too much what with all that self photography.

Anyway, I finally was able to get a bike (for about $10 more than I was hoping to pay) and hit the trail around 10:30 AM.

At the end of the riverwalk and the beginning of the bicycle path, I had seen a large map the previous day. I had traced the path to my destination - the National Mall - paying closest attention to the first portion of the trail.

When I finally started out on my journey on Saturday, I didn't stop and check the map again - didn't have time, I was on an adventure! Adventurers don't have time for trivial things like maps - besides- I had to get the bicycle back to the rental place by six o'clock!

I knew that I would first cross the Woodrow Wilson Memorial bridge from Maryland into Virginia. Then blah-blah-blah- cross another bridge back over the Potomac into DC...blah-blah-blah- HEY! there's the Washington Monument, I'll just ride to that.

Shortly after crossing the first bridge, I lost my path.

I naturally - and wrongly- assumed that there would be signs and maps all along the way; there were signs, but they didn't tell me what I wanted to know, they directed me to places that did not provide a clear point of reference for me.

I thought a couple of times that I had wandered into some of the neighborhoods the guys at the bike rental place had warned me to avoid.

I was only in Alexandria, the first leg of my trek, yet my adventure had taken on a somewhat ominous tone.

I soon regained my perspective - I was on an adventure and even now my surroundings in those quaint historic neighborhoods were rich with culture.

And like due North my two points of reference were always nearby - the Washington Monument and the Potomac river.

After leisurely passing through the streets and byways of Alexandria, I soon worked my way back to the trail. I had felt it necessary to spend some of that time praying so as not to get too worked up over my situation or the fact that I didn't take the time to read that map.

The Silver Comet Trail, part of Georgia's "Rails to Trails" program, has directional signage of some sort every few miles; on this path, I went through a long informational draught, I don't think I came across another map until I reached the vicinity of Arlington Cemetery. I did figure out that I was on the "Mt. Vernon Trail" - a destination that I knew lay a good ways beyond the National Mall. My hope was that the trail would pass through the DC area, so I kept pressing on.

Soon the once distant and hazy sight of the Capital Dome came into clearer view. . . I was on my way! I cast caution to the wind and really began to enjoy the brand new sights along the way: the Reagan National Airport and a park that lay just beyond the runway, an old manufacturing plant of some type that clung to the side of a steep hill right on the banks of the Potomac, there the trail became a boardwalk that jutted over or near the water's edge. There are several Bridges that pass back over the Potomac into DC, but this "Mt. Vernon Trail" I was on kept skirting them! A couple of times the trail teased me by winding me up steep hills with the promise of a bridge at the top - only to take me over a minor tributary to the Potomac and dump me back on this endless trail - still in the Commonwealth of Virginia!!

What a cruel taskmaster this once playful trail had become...but I digress.

My "true North" - the Washington Monument loomed vivid and large and just ahead of me - but always the other side of the river.

I stayed true to the trail - despite the fact that she seemed bent on breaking my heart.

One by one I missed, first one bridge then another. Finally I came to the cold realization that the Washington Monument was now behind me!