Arlington Historical Bike Ride (No Drop Ride)

[Steve O]

Note this is the same day as Tour de Fat. However, that is 4-9pm, so one could do both.

[bobco85]

@Steve O 162177 wrote:

Note this is the same day as Tour de Fat. However, that is 4-9pm, so one could do both.

Thank you for pointing that out. I plan on going to the Tour de Fat, too, so I wanted to make sure there was a buffer of a few hours between both.

[bobco85]

Good news: I finalized the route and other details for the ride! Look at the first post on this thread for the updates.

The format of the ride is based on the President’s Day Ride that Judd and komorebi led mixed with the drive-by style Purple Line and Silver Line rides that I led. There are ~25 different stops on the route. My goal is to keep things brief while also giving some interesting details and backstory (the show-and-tell will sometimes be more show and sometimes more tell).

I am also planning an Alexandria historical bike ride for early August, but I’ll provide more information after I’m done preparing this ride.

[accordioneur]

What, no stop at the former HQ of the American Nazi Party … better known to this group as the meeting place of a popular coffee club?

[bobco85]

@accordioneur 162253 wrote:

What, no stop at the former HQ of the American Nazi Party … better known to this group as the meeting place of a popular coffee club?

I already knew the moment I had finalized the route and gathered my notes for it that there would be missing historical spots of interest; to include them all would involve a probable century-long multi-day ride that would neither be as digestible nor accessible as the 26-mile one I’ve planned.

If I remember, I will make sure to point this out on the ride as it is an interesting part of Arlington’s legacy (let’s not pretend Arlington has been a bastion of progressive values throughout its history).

[accordioneur]

@bobco85 162263 wrote:

I already knew the moment I had finalized the route and gathered my notes for it that there would be missing historical spots of interest; to include them all would involve a probable century-long multi-day ride that would neither be as digestible nor accessible as the 26-mile one I’ve planned.

Yes, I agree that you can’t include every piece of Arlington history in one ride and keep it manageable.

@bobco85 162263 wrote:

(let’s not pretend Arlington has been a bastion of progressive values throughout its history).

My father-in-law’s family was run out of Cherrydale when he was a kid. Jews were apparently not welcome in Arlington at that time.

[Judd]

Are we stopping by where Al Gore invented the internet?

[bentbike33]

@Judd 162265 wrote:

Are we stopping by where Al Gore invented the internet?

No, that was in the House of Representatives.

[bobco85]

@accordioneur 162264 wrote:

My father-in-law’s family was run out of Cherrydale when he was a kid. Jews were apparently not welcome in Arlington at that time.

Wow, that’s a sad but definitely interesting story. If it’s not too impolite to ask, I would like to hear it sometime.

@Judd 162265 wrote:

Are we stopping by where Al Gore invented the internet?

Not on this ride, but I think I have a good collection of other interesting stops that I am steadfastly keeping secret until the ride (well, some are obvious based on the route, but I’m keeping quiet!).

[lordofthemark]

I would like to hear the Cherrydale story too. Though perhaps it’s that they were just not welcome in North Arlington? Because what is now Congregation Etz Chaim, but earlier Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Center (or just ArFax) has been around on Rte 50 since the 1940s.

[lordofthemark]

@bobco85 162182 wrote:

Thank you for pointing that out. I plan on going to the Tour de Fat, too, so I wanted to make sure there was a buffer of a few hours between both.

Just so you know, TdeF is not free this year. Its $25, and I don’t think that includes any beer. I am not interested enough in the bands to make it worth my while to attend (but of course it will still benefit local biking orgs – but don’t expect the crowds of years past)

[lordofthemark]

Darn. I was psyched for this.

So, you would think that if you had a bike room accessed by an electronic fob reader, you wouldn’t have the control panel for that reader INSIDE the bike room, would you? Because that would make it impossible to reset the circuit after a power outage? And if you were stupid enough to do so, you would know where the key to the conventional lock was. Right?

But no. So they have to have someone to come out and remove the lock, to get access. Not an emergency, so “hopefully by Monday”

I took CaBi over to the library, to say hi, but that was as at 9:25 and y’all were gone.

[Steve O]

@lordofthemark 162399 wrote:

I took CaBi over to the library, to say hi, but that was as at 9:25 and y’all were gone.

Actually, they weren’t there yet. It’s on July 22.

[lordofthemark]

I will delete mine if you will delete yours, eh?

[bobco85]

@Steve O 162403 wrote:

Actually, they weren’t there yet. It’s on July 22.

Interestingly, as a bonus- er, I mean, side effect – of my steroids granting me the ability to NOT fall asleep for much of last night (Friday was luckily the last day of my prescription), I did actually visualize and auralize the whole ride in my mind 2 times over which included traveling between stops and everything I plan on talking about at each stop. There’s a slight chance that a projection of myself led the group ride with projections of all participants weeks ahead of time and lordofthemark just missed us. That made my brain hurt, but it’s the best explanation I can conjure right now.

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