2/9/12

Ride Home 2/9: A 1996 Keanu Reeves Flick

My bicycle trip home started with a longish walk down a hill. I happened to be wearing a tuxedo. Not so much happened as completely by design. I had coordinated my final button by bike tuxedo delivery and while I was able to deliver on the tuxedo, I wasn't able to deliver on the bike. Luckily, the abode of the very charitable Rachel (the proud owner of something like 67 sharrows buttons, more or less) wasn't too far from my office, so I hoofed it.
I enjoy walking. Like, a lot. But it's not nearly as pleasant as bicycling. And it takes considerably longer. And you can't "coast" downhill. You try to coast and you just fall down. I mean, theoretically. I never tried.
Meeting Rachel, friend of the blog, was a great pleasure. Here she is with her button:
"Thanks," I say to her.
Apparently, Rachel and I pass eachother on the 15th street cycletrack all the time. Yet another person to say hello to. Soon, I'll know everyone in this town who even thinks about bicycling, much less dares to ride one. This was the final tuxedo ride, at least for charitable purposes.
From Rachel's, it was an uphill walk through Glover Park. This is Stoddert School. There's supposed to be a Bikeshare station there, but it isn't installed yet.
Where's the bikeshare station?
Instead of some CaBis, I saw the following:
I wonder what kind of music they play.
And this:
"O R they?" says Max. 
Lost wedding bands! (Drive Shaft?) Yellow stethoscopes! Even the detritus of Glover Park is twee.
I walked Calvert across Wisconsin and then to the Guy Mason CaBi station. There were ample bikes. From Observatory, I took the sidewalk down Massachusetts, since I knew I couldn't keep the CaBi at a speed that I would find conducive to merging in with car traffic. Figured better not to chance it. I'm very considerate. You're welcome, drivers.
I was a little bit worried that I would get jumped by #occupy since CPAC is in town and I was wearing a tuxedo. But then I remembered that no conservative (Tom Bowden excepted) would ever use a bicycle for transportation, so I relaxed a little. Phew.
I stuck to the sidewalk until maybe California and then it was back to normal. From there on, it was pretty much the same ride I do all the time, except by CaBi, which was a bit slower. I wish it had a 4.
Very few bikes along Q and none on 11th until New York. At New York, I fell in behind a guy who didn't seem comfortable or willing to take the lane and we rode awkwardly too close to the parked cars and gave barely enough room to allow drivers to whiz past us too closely. By the time I got near E, I decided that I should turn and take E and search for a dock to re-up. I was nearing 30 minutes, or at least so I thought and I knew that there was at least one station by Judiciary Square, so I aimed for that.
Along E, I might have passed a driver who might or might not have been trying to parallel park. Way to make a dude on a CaBi hustle.
Redocked and ready to go, it was a short jaunt up the rest of E and through the chaos that is Columbus Circle. DCMud did something on Columbus Circle and declined to mention bike lanes, but I'm pretty sure that they'll eventually be installed. Maybe.
I didn't get dockblocked at 15th and Independence, so that was cool. Though, there were only 3 spaces left. Hill East loves its Bikeshare.

3 comments:

  1. I've been reading your posts and generally like your blog. But conservatives do indeed commute by bike! I do 12 miles each way, in somewhat hilly terrain in a Baltimore suburb. To my financial industry job. Ha.
    Mock indignancy aside, great stuff!
    Be well and commute safe.
    -Dave

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  2. Uh oh, Dave, looks like I really stepped in it. Don't want to alienate the my key base: people who commute by bike, regardless of political affiliation. Thanks for reading!
    I am slightly worried that more finance-industry conservatives will start biking, therefore developing powerful legs and lungs to use in anti-Obama canvassing efforts and start spending what was gas money on Romney bumper stickers for cars that now sit in their garages all day. I fear I've already written too much...

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    1. I've long thought about starting a blog called Tales From The Conservatively Affiliated Sharrows for those like me who live in solar powered farm houses, bicycle commute, drive a Prius, manage their carbon footprint, eat a vegan diet, prefer no-kill mouse traps.....oh. wait. Maybe next time I should not select my political affiliation based on Websters New World dictionary. New bumper sticker idea...Conservative: You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

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