Ride In 11/28: Pictures of Baby Koalas

I was off work this morning and initially I hadn't planned to ride in, but then I remembered that I had a folding bicycle and a relatively easy ride to a Metro station, so I bookended two rides around a Metro trip. This allowed me to ride a little and also not muss myself up too much or have to change clothes and maybe even save some travel time in the trip between home and work. So, I set off towards Union Station to pick up the train (not literally- trains are heavy and unlike a certain Kryptonian, I am not more powerful than a speeding, or idling, locomotive. You have won, Kryptonian.) and off I went along the usual way I go to work now that the Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track is temporarily out of commission.

Very little bike traffic on the streets at 11:30. Still plenty of car traffic, especially between Stanton Park and Union Station. That stretch of road needs paving.

Here's the place where trucks illegally park on First NE. And here's a useful comment by Xavier.

There is no access point for cars to use First NE. In fact, I'm pretty sure there are signs that still indicate the road is one-way. So, I wonder if that double yellow line should even be there. I think this "problem" (it's not really a problem. Just a sort of confusing) could be solved by expediting the installation of the bollard section of the First Street cycle track from Columbus Circle to K Street. I write this wistfully and on the off-chance that the installers of cycle tracks (who I assume are magical leprechauns) are reading. I think at that point, we can just turn First back into a one-way street.

On the train, a man asked me how many minutes it takes me to "make" the bicycle again. "Minutes?" I accidentally scoffed with the handmade anglophilic hauteur that comes free with the purchase of a Bromtpon, "It takes only a couple of seconds." He asked if the bike was heavy and after I rolled it over to allow him to left it, we both agreed that it's sort of heavy. Not as heavy as a locomotive, but still, a little heavy. Otherwise, the train trip was uneventful.

I was very glad that the escalator at Tenleytown was working. At least the long one was. I rode down Wisconsin, turned right onto Nebraska and ended up behind two guys in neon yellow shirts, with the words STREET TEAM written across their backs. Not sure what kind of STREET TEAM they were, but one was on a CaBi and the other had a bicycle trailer that had bike pumps bungeed to the top of a plastic, lidded bin.

Nebraska Avenue was easy, Ward Circle was easy, and working a half day from the office was relatively easy. Huzzah for ease.