Great DC Ride

Good afternoon all!

As many of you know, I am not a morning person! But, today was a welcome exception. After hanging out with Amanda last night, Patrick and I made a great ride around the DC area this morning.

It is something that I have wanted to do for years. Every time I drove into the city I would see bike riders traversing the Key bridge and riding through Georgetown. Having a dream of being a bike messenger, seeing riders zig zag through traffic in the city always makes me smile. Well, today it was my turn.

Patrick and I started from his apartment in Crystal City. We went to the West, away from the city. The bike/running path system in and around the DC area is great. Patrick had an excellent map of all the paths and their distances. We made a critical mistake by leaving the map behind, however. The trails are quite intertwined and we lost our way on one or two occasions.

On the whole, we managed to follow the Custis trail around the metro area. We ended up riding parallel to 66 into Rosslyn. Once in Rosslyn, we crossed the Key bridge back into Georgetown. It really was quite fun to finally be the guy riding across the bridge and not the guy watching. As many of you know, I am not particularly fond of bridges ("Charleston, SC, Hello!" --Larry King). But, perched atop the bridge we were able to see Georgetown University to the left and the Kennedy Center to the right. Once in Georgetown we weaved with and against traffic and had a blast. Of course, safety was our top priority!

From Georgetown we rode to the White House. Another goal was to ride down Pennsylvania Ave (the closed portion directly in front of the WH!). ACCOMPLISHED. It wasn't that crowded so we had a good view of 1600 and didn't end up in too many tourist photographs.

1:58 and a huge smile. I am a happy camper. I have talked about riding with Patrick in the city for almost a year and I am glad that I finally did it. If he enjoyed himself as much as I did, we'll do it again soon!