Ride In 2/8

Decided to mix up my route this morning and head down Pershing, which is a on-street bike route according to the new 2011 Arlington County Bike Map. Actually, I was inspired by the map to take this new route because I thought I could ride Pershing the whole way to Barton, turn right onto 10th (onto an off-street trail) and then ride parallel to Arlington Boulevard down to bike lane on Lynn to Key bridge. I would include the details on the bike map in this post, but for whatever reason, I can't seem to open the document as a PDF and thus can't figure out a way to copy the section of the map that I'm talking about, so here's a Google maps view.

View Larger Map

In any case, I must read bike maps about as well as I repair bikes because I ended up biking through a parking lot and then on a sidewalk between apartment buildings. I couldn't figure out where the dedicated off-street path was, so I eventually had to bike over some muddy (what was at one point) grass and then out onto what looked to me like an access road. They're reconstructing the Courthouse interchange, so that might have messed things up a little, but ultimately I'm pretty sure it was just me.
When I got down to Lynn, I was completely buffeted by the wind and regretting my decision to lengthen my ride in via the Capital Crescent Trail, which runs along the Potomac. It's normally pretty windy along there, even though there's some tree cover, so I went through the process of rationalization wherein I decide that I've got nothing prove and if I don't want to ride along a trail because it's windy, then that's my right and I'm just a commuter and I don't need to go out of my way to do anything special because damn it, I'm on a bike and I don't like wind. So, I decided not to take the trail, but in a fit of insane masochism (perhaps in a tribute to Trek's home state), I elect instead for the Col de Wisconsin Avenue, a longish uphill climb through the heart of the decadent materialist swath of late-imperial Washington, otherwise known as commercial Georgetown. It also has a CVS, where Stephanie and I once bought some lemonade to go with our Kitchen No. 1 takeout. How I love you, Kitchen No.1! But that's another blog post entirely.
The ride up Wisconsin wasn't so bad. A little headwind, but since there's no parking until 9:30, there's a de facto climbing lane between M and R. I also was pleased with myself because I outpaced blondetrophywifeinyogapants on her morning jog. I distracted myself on the climb by watching the guys at the bus stop furtively, but not too coyly, check out blondetrophywifeinyogapants. I then sang Bus Stop by the Hollies a little to myself. Then I got sorta mad about how badly Glee butchered the Zombie's truly fantastic She's Not There (ranked #291 on Rolling Stone's greatest 500 songs of all time). Then I was at work.