D.C. You're A Heartbreaker

I spent four magical days in our Capital.

D.C. treated me very well. It's a great city to commute by bike in, and it felt nice to not be the only one out there riding.

Hey bud. Don't mind me attempting to stealthily snap pictures of you whilst riding.

Also, this guy must get teased by all the other D.C. commuters about his bike. It's like a regular bike.

Everyone else was on high-end Ridley, Scott, Cannondale, and Giant bikes. Parents pick up groceries all race-ready with full carbon everything. 

To whatever salesperson convinced them that racing bikes make good commuters, I applaud you heartily.

Who knows, maybe my brick-paved Cleveland heart is biased in favor of steel frames. Carbon may be well suited to infrastructure like this.

It was great. 

Unlike the bike lanes in PGH, I was never stranded in traffic like a duckling longing to rejoin with its brothers and sisters.

Even better than the bike lanes, we're the trails.

They spidered throughout the city like bike highways. No cars, just speeding Fred's on Super Six Evo's. They were really practical for getting around and only occasionally had hills.

(Capitol hill)

Seems like D.C. is pretty committed to making cycling a viable transportation option.

Even the Metro was in on the action.

Metro adventure! 

It dawned on me in a strange state of deja-vu that I was once here years ago with a group a friends.

Yikes.

Anyway.

So I become a Metro master.

The trains tried to mess with me a few times, but I saw through their lies.

Lies. Don't even. 

My D.C. stay would have been less masterful and much more chaotic if it weren't for my Warmshowers host Laurie, who deserves mentioning.

I contacted Laurie through Warmshowers (a network of people who will host touring cyclists) and she offered to put me up for all four days of my D.C. stay! This made my little davidlife much easier than jumping around town and coordinating with multiple hosts. Laurie is an amazing person who has done lots of traveling and loves to have interesting houseguests. And there is a special magic in the house that seems to draw previous guests back into the fold. We ate dinner together like a family. It was nice to have family.

That's Laurie in front next to her mom. Mom is the best.

Thanks Laurie. I would love to come back.

Speaking of family, I also got to meet up with this handsome guy. 

My best friend's dad (or best dad-friend?) is a fancy pants Washington D.C. science wizard, and we met up for dinner. I've known him most of my life. It was weird not seeing anyone I knew for two weeks. Thursday makes two weeks since I started.

I accomplished my goals of visiting two co-ops in town, which I'll write about later. But during my free time in town, I began to really realize the scope of what I'm intending to accomplish.

I mean, I rode my bike to Washington. What am I doing?

Should I keep going?

(Introspection)

I've had some really tough days mixed in with the good ones. And I've more than proven that I can handle myself.

But every mile I put in it gets a little easier. And besides, there's a little pot of green chilies at the end of the rainbow.

You should probably stop reading this.

More when I can.