Thursday, July 7, 2011

Critical Mass 2nd Ride

Emily, Jason and I met once again at Dupont Circle for another CM ride. I thoroughly enjoyed the last time and was excited to do it again. Feeling like a pro this time, I waited for people to arrive and as soon as the circling began around the fountain, I leaped up to join in.
We recognized a few people including the guy above who seemed to be extremely well equipped for such a short ride. I did find out later from his videos that he was delivering the wheel and not hauling it about in case of an emergency. We circled the fountain a few times and then were off again.
Cycling downtown and shadows of Emily and I.
Appreciating the art along the way and heading towards the Capitol. We circled the roundabout a few times as we did on the last ride and I wondered if we were taking the same route, but no, we went in another direction.
We passed The Nationals baseball stadium and then rode towards The Waterfront, bells and horns announcing our arrival. I really need to get something noisy for the next ride, my vocal chords were wearing out. There is a trapeze school down here with a superb motto on the building, '
A little later we found ourselves on Pennsylvania Ave and the three of us decided that we needed lubricating so we stopped at Wisdom, a bar which is one of our C urbexing group's favorite haunts. The rest of the group continued on their way. A couple of beers later we trundled through the city again, this time passing Emily's workplace, so a visit seemed a good idea.
 It was great seeing where she worked and there was a wonderful cityscape view from her floor. I was also impressed with the coat hooks hanging on the wall. Jason's pulling one of the pegs down to show how it works.
We eventually got back to Dupont after having visited all 4 quadrants of the city and estimated that we'd covered about 16 or 17 miles. It didn't feel like it, DC is so easy to cycle through as long as you don't get intimidated by cars passing or don't mind cutting across lanes. I've become used to cycling here now and don't get fazed but it must be said that DC drivers are very cycle conscious and don't seem to mind cyclists zipping back and forth. We've never been honked at.
Jason sent a link showing some videos of the evenings ride taken by Jerry, the guy at the top with all the equipment. I come into the frame on the 11th second wearing a black t-shirt on a green road bike. Thanks Jerry for making these videos public.
So it ended up being another late but fun night and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

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