Ride Home 9/7: Country Lime Dancing

I have this plan which I hope will solve the helmet debate, such as it is, once and for all and it might involve something that might result in my being investigated by Diplomatic Security. The steps go as follows: 1. Determine the country whose people are the most sensible and acturial. I'm thinking either Norway or Switzerland. 2. Call their embassy in Washington DC. 3. Ask if any of its employees commutes to work by bicycle and then ask if that or those people wear a helmet while doing so. Because if someone from a really sensible place situated in the same milieu has weighed the costs and benefits and decided one way or the other, well, that would seem like something worth considering. (In truth, this wasn't the first plan I arrived at while I was thinking about this issue on my way home. My other one included through a helmet into a river to see if it sinks or if it's a witch. Good ideas all around yesterday.) Though I suppose this plan could backfire when a very sensible diplomatic from a very sensible country tells me that he take ths bus to work and would never bike.  Or even worse, drives a black BMW.

I took Massachusetts to Wisconsin and rode downhill through Glover Park and Georgetown. There's more than enough room for bikes on the stretch of Wisconsin from Garfield to Reservoir- it's after Reservoir where things get a little tighter, though if you're willing to ride in the door zone (great name for a door store) for a couple of blocks and aside from almost getting side-swiped by a city bus, things were peachy. I decided to ride to the very bottom of the hill and I was even tempted to ride my bike directly into the fountains at the new waterfront park. I did not do this.

Why have I stopped writing with such frequency about other bicyclists I see? I can't tell you, Maybe they aren't doing as many outlandish things or maybe they don't seem as distinctive, there being so many more of them of late, or maybe their outlandishness and distinctiveness wash over me without leaving much of an impression.

I saw a car with the Virginia license plate M LOPEZ. The lady inside didn't look like Mario Lopez which leads to me ask: WHY ARE YOU DRIVING SLATER'S CAR? Among the highlights of Mr. Lopez's career, my favorite would be his role as host on Pet Star. This was on Virginia Avenue, which I took to 23rd, which I took to C in an attempt to meet up with the Official Wife after work. Our timing was off and I decided to meet her at home and I crossed Constitution Avenue at 22nd and rode down the path/sidewalk that parallels it. It wasn't too crowded, though there were a fair number of other bicyclists, mostly heading in the other direction, presumably towards Arlington and points beyond.

There were three guys filming a music video (I presume) with one guy rapping, one guy filming and one guy I'm not sure what-ing. The emcee spat hot fire from the center of the path and rather than interrupt their filming, I took the Brompton on to the grass, off-road style. I managed to stay upright and I got back onto the path maybe 30 yards down and now I might be in the background of a rap video, so if you're watching MTV (lol) and see a guy with medium length dreads and a black baseball cap rapping in front of the Washington Monument looks for another guy on a bright blue clown bicycle (that's a clown bike, bro) riding in the background and that'd be me.

Most people take pictures of the Washington Monument from this spot, but I took pictures of what you could see if you looked in other directions.

And that's why people pretty much only take pictures of the Washington Monument from here.

Jefferson Drive, the street that separates the Mall from the museums, is really quite a lovely place for a bike ride. I'm so gushy about the Mall lately. I guess after a year of riding back and forth on virtually the same route every day, you really start to prize difference over predictability. Sometimes I wonder if this blog falls too readily in the usual ruts with the same preoccupations and banalities. So, in the spirit of mixing it up a little:

Kenny Rogers on a horse.

Up the House side of Capitol Hill, down East Capitol, around the park and a quick left on A Street. This last part of my route seems to be full of Maryland drivers speeding back home. It's a bit draconian of a solution, but we might want to build a wall on DC's borders. (Some historians posit that the real reason the communists built the Berlin Wall was to keep Maryland drivers out of East Berlin.) Bad drivers aren't bad people, but being a bad driver is bad enough.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. If anyone wants to ride around town Sunday morning, let me know. I mean, if you're interested in riding with me, not just if you're going to go ride by yourself. I'm not your mom- you don't need to tell me.