There is a bike trail, appropriately called the Mount Vernon Bicycle Trail, that leads directly to the attraction. It was just four miles out of our way, and even though we were running late, we opted to go because we were so close. We had each had a bagel and some granola cereal for breakfast; to Mount Vernon, it was 16 miles. We wandered around, taking in the upper garden, the bowling green, the various outbuildings, and the view out over the Potomac (which was spectacular, even in the gathering clouds of early afternoon). We decided against the tour of the mansion itself, since the wait was about 30 minutes.
We got back on the trail around 1:30, and stopped when we got back to where we had originally found the trail to have a snack (Paydays, the best energy bar out there). We tooled along on the trail for quite a while, until we ran into some unexpected construction; the small detour was pretty well signed, but at one point we found ourselves dumped out onto Union Street with no real indication that the trail continued anywhere. A serendipitous turn down a side street plopped us right in front of a bike shop, where we got directions and a couple of new spare tubes. My mirror had broken at the same swivel point as the previous one, but was still relatively intact; there were no suitable replacements at this shop, though.So I stuck with the broken one, even though it wobbled and would not stay in one position for long, especially on the bumpy Mount Vernon trail.
Interestingly, the trail goes right by the Washington National Airport, where we stopped briefly to get a few pictures with airplanes taking off in the background. One interesting thing about this airport that you might not know if you are not around on the ground when planes take off is that the sounds of fireworks and/or gunfire are played frequently near the watery areas, presumably to keep birds away (so they don't get sucked in to aircraft engines). People keep looking up to see the fireworks, but there aren't any.
After a brief moment of confusion about how to get to the Arlington Memorial Bridge (which, BTW, locals just call "the Memorial Bridge" - if you call it by it's actual name, you just get puzzled looks), we made it to the Lincoln Memorial around 3:15pm. Nancy had been there before but I had not; I had been anticipating this visit for some time, and it was all I hoped for. On one side of the memorial, the entire Gettysburg Address is carved into the stone wall; on the other, his second inaugural address. The statue of Lincoln himself is a commanding and, to me, real presence. You could almost believe he was looking out across the mall.
Which we did, too; got a picture of the two of us with the Washington Memorial in the background. Nancy will be posting that soon.
It was a little difficult to find the Rock Creek Trail; and by the way, Dad, the maps you have are different from the ones we are using, hence the confusion when we spoke with Michele while traversing the area. The Rock Creek Trail suffers from a distinct lack of signage; it can be quite challenging to find the right route. I expected the kind of wide, smooth, painted asphalt multi-use trail we experienced in Georgia. Unfortunately, it was not very wide (just a couple feet in some places), not very smooth (frequent root intrusions causing bumps were the worst, but also many places of cracked and deteriorating asphalt), and made frequent unmarked branches which made us stop just to figure out which way to go. We must have talked to 20 people that way.
We called our friend Michele, one of our former neighbors in Georgia, who grew up in the area, for help. She was a tremendous help; she even went so far as to reserve a room for us at a hotel in Rockville, and at a pretty decent rate, too. AND, as if that weren't enough, it was RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the Rockville REI, our de facto sponsor. We were hoping to make it into town early enough to meet Michele's parents for dinner, since they live nearby; in order to make a little faster time, we abandoned the Rock Creek Trail and just rode up Beach, the street it parallels (which is MUCH smoother going), until we reached a street Michele told us we could take to get to the street the hotel was on. We got to the hotel OK, but it was far too late to join Michele's parents for dinner; so, we decided to take a rest day on Saturday, so we could spend some time with them, Gil and Claudette Amyot. They assured us that they would take us to the post office in Brookville so we could retrieve our general delivery packages in the morning.
Gil and Claudette are simply wonderful people; not only did they ferry us to the post office, they gave us a nice tour of the area in the process. After we got our packages, we headed to Panera for a nice, leisurely lunch, and then to their place. We had a wonderful time talking with them; Gil and Claudette got married in PARIS, in APRIL, while he was stationed there as an interpreter for the Army. They regaled us with their amazing stories; Gil was an extreme sports enthusiast before they were even called that - he parachuted from airplanes, went SCUBA diving, took an ice climbing seminar on Mount Hood from Tenzig Norgay; they've been to Egypt and all over Europe together, he to New Zealand and Australia; he has a Master's in Theater and was a professional actor in New York, before he was an interpreter in the Army, before he was a teacher while going to Law School at night, was a lawyer for the Civial Aeronautics Board before joining Western Airlines; they still speak fluent French and think that we'd all be better off if we all did, too (and I have to concur). In one of their many adventures, they traveled on Pakistani International Airlines and camels in Egypt, and there was an assassination in the very hotel they were staying in.
It was enough to make the rest of the day fade into irrelevance, but I should mention that Michele made sure we were very close to an REI (RIGHT next door, it turned out), and we had a little maintenance work done on Nancy's bike (it wasn't shifting right) and bought some more necessary supplies. One thing we bought was a headband for me called a Halo, which has a little flexible band that fits right above the brows to prevent sweat from dripping down into my eyes. We also got me a replacement mirror, a better one that folds in so it can't get damaged the way my other two have.
For dinner we went to a nearby restaurant, a charrascuria like the one we went to in Manaus a couple years ago, and found ourselves seated next to a nice pair of Marines (one current, one retired). Jim (the retired one) and Rachel were fun to talk with, and we shared some of our adventures with them and they shared some of theirs with us. She has already been deployed once to Iraq, and although she's working now here in Bethesda, she may have to go again. Rachel, here's wishing you all the protection you need to stay safe!
It was nice to take a day off; it felt good to just relax a little (and finally get to watch some PLAYOFF HOCKEY!). Tomorrow, since we will be off route some, it is hard to determine exactly how far we'll go, but a fair estimate is about 50 miles; for now, we expect to either camp about 10 miles this side of Baltimore and run the gauntlet of rush hour Monday morning, or stay somewhere in Baltimore. If the wind is with us or the mileage is less, we may push on past Baltimore. We'll see.
Haiku moment
A night in Rockville
Michele made it possible
What great friends we have!
Thanks again, Michele; we'd have been lost without your help, and Gil and Claudette were an absolute delight to spend the afternoon with.
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