Ride Home 11/26: Obtuse Caboose

Back down New Mexico and through Glover Park and Georgetown. It's been more than a year since this was my regular route home and it's funny what the lapse in time will do to your attitude about riding through a neighborhood. I was much more free riding down hill and much more, um, slow, riding up the hill (the one by the Russian Embassy) and the rhythm of the ride was one I knew also like one anew. There were very few cars about. I guess the war on them is finally yielding dividends. (P.S.- Don't tell drivers)

Definitely something wrong with my rear cogs. I think they might have gotten bent a little in a manner that totally doesn't have anything to do with my falling down a lot when riding through the woods yesterday. I'll give them a closer look tomorrow because maybe it's not that.

One of the more disconcerting things you can see a driver do is take a shot of something when driving. I'll assume it was an energy drink.

If you're ever riding through Georgetown, southbound, you should go out of your way to ride down 34th street and its surprisingly narrow but adequate bike lane. And then, if something miraculous happens, you could tell everyone about the Miracle on 34th street (a movie, I believe, about how Santa Claus was on the 1980 Olympic hockey team) and then be like "no, 34th Street NW. In DC" because maybe you just like to remind people that there's more to the world than what happens in New York. Because what happens in New York, doesn't stay in New York. And what happens in DC, zzzzzzzzzz (oh, I'm sorry. I dozed off there for a second. Nothing happens in DC.)nExcept for certain 37th most popular DC bike bloggers getting interviewed by certain reporters for certain local public radio stations for certain radio programs. That happens in DC, and it happened today near the start of the L Street Cycle Track. So, if you like banalities about cycling (and if you're reading this, you've kind of outed yourself) and you like those banalities to come from nasally voices, then you might want to listen to Metro Connection this week. On the off chance your reading this, it was great talking with you, Jacob! I really enjoyed your "gotcha" journalism and your biased liberal media ways. I plan to record the program and unskew it at my leisure.

Afterward, I rode down L. No UPS trucks or FedEx trucks or USPS trucks, but two Metro Access vans. I feel really awkward complaining about Metro Access vans. But I feel pretty awkward pretty much doing anything.

Is there a name for it when you take the lane to block traffic to allow the cyclist in front of you to move around a Metro Access van (or any other kind of van) when exiting the cycle track? It's like sherpa-ing, but sherpas go in front, right? I'm not a sherpa expert, also known as a sherpert. Rainbow sherpert is my favorite.

11th street to E. On E I rode behind a woman wearing a reflective orange vest and a helmet and she had a side mirror on her handlebars, so clearly she was concerned, generally speaking, about safety and yet there were no lights on her bike. LIGHTS AT NIGHT! Come on, dude.

I happened to notice the Sharrows button of the rider in front of me at E and 4th and if you're sporting a Sharrows button, I'm going to talk to you, whether you want me to or not. Turns out it was Adam, friend of the blog, Best Buddies rider, and, so I learned tonight, a Mainer. We talked Thanksgiving and pizza and school and we rode our bikes around past Union Station and to Stanton Park and beyond before he went straight on 11th and I turned left at the park. I encourage everyone to run into someone they know on the way home. And if you don't think this is likely because you don't know a lot of people who ride bikes, just convince people you do know to ride their bikes. Solutions!