Microtour

DC-Cobb Island

Why, hello there.

So this weekend I reunited with myself and so must blog about it in order for it to have really happened.

I rode my bike from DC to Cobb Island, MD, where my landlady lives. It was 67 miles down there yesterday and 60 miles home today, taking a more direct and yet more scenic route. When I set sail from my apartment with rear rack and one pannier (microtour, remember), I immediately thought, ah yes, this is the fullest expression of myself. Not to be too self-aggrandizing, but the transformation from pedestrian/occassional cyclist to bicycle tourist is similar to what I think Clark Kent experiences in the phone booth.

I left Cobb Island this morning at 6:30 and took a road through farmland with the morning dew hanging over it and I thought, "This is the thing from which all else flows." That is an epiphany that I have had before. I always want my life set up in such a way that I can get away for a tour, even a quick one. This means: having a bike in good repair, having a job with vacation time, and maintaining my health/fitness.

Highlights of the ride include:

-getting passed by a dork with a cotton t-shirt tucked into bib shorts and then reminding myself that I have all day to ride so there is no need to race with dorks

-passing a guy riding a rascal on the shoulder of the highway

-stopping for an apple and thinking that I was staring at deer yard art until the deer ran away

-40 miles on roads lined with honeysuckle and lilacs

-cheers from my landlady's neighbors when I arrived

Here are some pics:

At my apt in DC

I wasn't sure how I would get over the Potomac on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, but was delighted to get there and find a nice bike path with a plexiglass barrier that blocks the sound from the highway.

Hurray for bike infrastructure!

Osprey nest at Cobb Island. Platforms were put in to provide a place for the osprey to nest to prevent their extinction. Now they rule the place.

Goodnight, Cobb Island.

Good morning, Cobb Island.

There were chickens in the road!

I took this pic for my friend Brent, who is currently recovering from a bike accident. Last summer, inspired by one of these signs, he led a group of drunken fourth of july revelers in a protest calling for the end of road work.

The Potomac, taken from the middle of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the Washington Monument in the center.

Weekend Proper

It’s wonderful to have my evenings and weekends back. Nice to have the increase in free time coincide with the arrival of spring. We had 70 degree weather on Friday and the city turned into a beach. And then a full moon that night. Woke up this morning and decided to ride my bike 35 miles east to the Chesapeake Bay. Normally I don’t like out and back rides, but the turnaround point was worth making an exception. I walked in the water and climbed on the rocks and was feeling quite Elisabethan and snapped a few photos.

Except for the 10 miles leading up to and away from the water, the ride was pretty gross. Model homes, town homes, idiot drivers, strip malls most of the way. Central Avenue/MD 214 looked like a nice country road on the map, but I had failed to acknowledge that those aren’t nice country roads that bring hundreds of thousands of people into DC from surrounding areas for work every day.

About ten miles outside of the city on my way home, I was at a stop light, waiting on the left side of the right turn only lane so that cars could get by. A car pulled up on my right and the driver said, “Why would you do that? Why do you ride on the road? Why do you put your life in the hands of others? Don’t you know people around here don’t know how to drive? I don’t want to hear about you on the news. Get on the sidewalk.”

I was so tired at this point in my ride, all I could think about in forming my response was how to get this man to stop yelling at me. I knew he was making a right turn and wouldn’t be following me, so I just said, “Okay.” Then of course I spent the next ten miles thinking of better ways that I could have responded to him.

I could have told him that I had to ride on that highway because I wanted to see the water. Even though DC is full of bike trails, those trails are also full of strollers and dogs and those trails don’t go to the water. I could have told him this ride is the nicest thing I’ve done all week. I could have told him that I had mapped out this ride months ago and have been waiting to have the time to do it. I could have explained how riding a bike on a sidewalk is stupid and more dangerous. I could have explained how it is important for bikes to be out on the road and visible so that drivers get used to sharing the road. I could have told him to get out of his car and onto a bike. I could have said a lot of things, but I just said, “Okay.” I was tired, the light was about to change, and he was an old crotch who wouldn’t have listened to anything I might have said.

All in all, it was nice to get some miles in. Probably won’t do this ride again. Sadly, the idea of having a car to get out of the city to ride my bike is seeming less ridiculous and actually sort of appealing. I won’t do it. Luckily, bikes are allowed on the metro so my strategy for future rides may be to take a train to the end of a line and start there.

We would hyphenate: Garbanzo-Beaner

If I could marry a legume, it would have to be the chickpea.



Lo siento, lentil. I know we’ve had some good times and we go so far back, but I read somewhere that you inhibit iron absorption and once I started to think about it I realized that you do in fact create in me a need to take frequent rests. Although I’m happy to help another overcome his/her/its inhibitions, an inhibition that messes with my absorption of iron is something that I simply cannot, must not, tolerate.

To my dear chickpea, I regret that my profession of love for you required such an explanation regarding the lentil. Let us move on shall we?

Friends: This is my cry for help.

None of you will talk to me/email me because I told you I am studying. And I am studying, but I can’t study all the time. No one wants to distract and that’s very considerate, but do you really want me sitting alone in my apartment considering matrimony to a legume? They won't even let the gays get married! One positive thing that has come out of my solitary confinement is that I’ve thought of some good jokes:

Joke Number 1:
Q: Melba, why are you taking the Nebraska bar exam?
A: Because that’s where all the good bars are.

Joke Number 2:
Q: What does Snoop Dogg call the bar exam?
A: The bizarre exam.

Overheard in Dupont

"I could never live in Idaho or anywhere else in the midwest."

"It's a fixed gear so that means it's really hardcore."

CIRAC

In preparation for the bar exam, I must practice writing very formulaic essays. State your Conclusion, identify the Issues, state the Rule, Apply the rule to the facts, repeat your Conclusion.

Example:

We will all be okay. At issue is whether things will turn out okay given that shit is generally so fucked up. In general, things turn out okay as long as we stay cool and calm and treat each other gently. In the case at hand, we are doing lots of yoga, riding our bikes, keeping things in perspective, surrounding ourselves with chill people, and treating people as we like to be treated. These things keep us calm and result in the gentle treatment of others. We will all be okay.

Back together again

Sometimes I get so tired of being so good all the time. So last night I made myself a stiff drink (which I couldn't finish), put on some tunes and decided to get into what I was saving as a treat for myself after the bar exam.

I had shipped my Jamis out here when I was home for christmas and was going to wait until after the bar to put it together.





It didn't take too long at all. I futzed with the brakes until I gave up and went to bed. But then I woke up with new resolve this morning and finished it up in ten minutes. Isn't that funny? That happens with work and studying. Something can be so difficult at night, but then it's a crystal clear jiffy in the morning.



The sight of two of my bikes 69ing makes me so happy. Now I just need the rain to stop so I can go for a spin.

Style Section: What she ate

I was craving homecooking today, so I thought I would re-create an old childhood favorite. Chips and cheese! This is a more modern version, because it uses hint-o-lime tostitos, which haven’t always been around, if you can believe it. It’s also a fancier version because I used real cheddar cheese. The recipe is so versatile because if you are feeling fancy and motivated, you can shred the cheese yourself. If you are feeling fancy but not motivated, you can just slice the cheese. If you are feeling trashy, you can use american cheese. If you are feeling forlorn, you can just gnaw on the block of cheese and forgo the chips.