Nick woke us up this morning to let us know he was headed to work soon. Tim and I laid in bed a little longer, but we eventually got up and found our clean clothes had already been folded and brought downstairs for us. We changed and when Nick came downstairs to brush his teeth, we hugged and said goodbye until Germany! Tim and I packed our clothes, got ready, and went upstairs to pack our bikes. Nick's aunt offered us breakfast, so we had some cereal and tropical punch. Tess was home sick from school, so she ate breakfast with us. They had an old australian shepard and a very energetic 2 year old husky-shepard mix that is so fast and excitable that it can apparently catch birds out of the air. Both dogs were very nice, and we spent a little time playing with them. Eventually, we prepared our bikes and started off for the day. The weather was really gloomy and it started raining by the time we got on back on the rail trail. We brought out all our waterproof clothes and covers and then kept on trucking. The rail trail was actually really nice and well kept; there was no litter, and every so often there was a trailside playground. There was even a trailside outdoor hockey rink! It made Tim comment that he now understood where all of our tax dollars went. The trail was nice and flat, which was a nice break from the hills we have been struggling over. If it hadn't been rainy it would have been perfect, but at least we had the trail to ourselves.
Eventually, the trail ended, and the bike trail that it was supposed to intersect with was absolutely nowhere to be found. To make matters even more confusing, we were in the middle of a sketchy looking city. Tim routed his GPS to find the Mt. Vernon trail and we took a deep breath and set off again. We were on busy city roads with grumpy drivers but after some confusion and a nice fall on Tim's part, we found the trail again. The only problem was that the section of trail that we found was under construction and closed off! We followed some detour signs, but then these signs disappeared and we were lost on crazy city roads again. After circling around for a while, a woman walking her dog straightened us out and we found the trail again. At this point, we were really wet and tired and wanted someplace dry and warm to stay. Tim found a nearby hotel with his GPS and we set off in search of this hotel. Along the way we saw a bike shop, so we stopped in to see if they had any front pannier racks for a little more storage room on my bike, since my back tire was pretty loaded. They didn't have what we needed, but they did manage to clear up our confusion about why the bike trails hadn't intersected...apparently, we'd followed the wrong trail at the end. Good thing we had a GPS for when we go wrong. We set off again and finally arrived at a Quality Inn and booked a room. Two warm showers later, we spread out all of our disgustingly wet clothes and read our books after a filling meal at McDonalds. We biked 52 miles that day.
Time with Tim:
RAINING. HARD. Today had so much potential, like hearing a brief clip of thrash jazz before you realize cats could make better music. The trail was awesome, as the felonious DC officials have somehow finagled mad bank for building awesome stuff in their district of residence. We ended up in the Arlington bad-section that Dan Summers warned me about. Trying to find the trail, I decided to try biking on the right side of my body. It didn't work but I escaped relatively unscathed. Only problem was the hard, cold rain. Also, after we finally found the next trail (a bridge closure prevented our first try), THE TRAIL WAS CLOSED. And to rub salt into the wound, the detour signs dropped you into a crazier place where DC residents were performing an experiment to see whether honking their horns made traffic move faster. Fortunately we could bike through this gridlock. Anyway, after a day of frustration we found a motel to dry our stuff.
Eventually, the trail ended, and the bike trail that it was supposed to intersect with was absolutely nowhere to be found. To make matters even more confusing, we were in the middle of a sketchy looking city. Tim routed his GPS to find the Mt. Vernon trail and we took a deep breath and set off again. We were on busy city roads with grumpy drivers but after some confusion and a nice fall on Tim's part, we found the trail again. The only problem was that the section of trail that we found was under construction and closed off! We followed some detour signs, but then these signs disappeared and we were lost on crazy city roads again. After circling around for a while, a woman walking her dog straightened us out and we found the trail again. At this point, we were really wet and tired and wanted someplace dry and warm to stay. Tim found a nearby hotel with his GPS and we set off in search of this hotel. Along the way we saw a bike shop, so we stopped in to see if they had any front pannier racks for a little more storage room on my bike, since my back tire was pretty loaded. They didn't have what we needed, but they did manage to clear up our confusion about why the bike trails hadn't intersected...apparently, we'd followed the wrong trail at the end. Good thing we had a GPS for when we go wrong. We set off again and finally arrived at a Quality Inn and booked a room. Two warm showers later, we spread out all of our disgustingly wet clothes and read our books after a filling meal at McDonalds. We biked 52 miles that day.
Time with Tim:
RAINING. HARD. Today had so much potential, like hearing a brief clip of thrash jazz before you realize cats could make better music. The trail was awesome, as the felonious DC officials have somehow finagled mad bank for building awesome stuff in their district of residence. We ended up in the Arlington bad-section that Dan Summers warned me about. Trying to find the trail, I decided to try biking on the right side of my body. It didn't work but I escaped relatively unscathed. Only problem was the hard, cold rain. Also, after we finally found the next trail (a bridge closure prevented our first try), THE TRAIL WAS CLOSED. And to rub salt into the wound, the detour signs dropped you into a crazier place where DC residents were performing an experiment to see whether honking their horns made traffic move faster. Fortunately we could bike through this gridlock. Anyway, after a day of frustration we found a motel to dry our stuff.
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