Maryland and DC pit stop recommendations?

[cvcalhoun]

As usual, there has been a lot of focus on Virginia pit stops. (I can only be jealous of the Crystal City one being open all week!) But does anyone have recommendations on the Maryland and DC ones? Ones I could possibly attend are:

• Rockville – Fallsgrove
• Rockville – Town Center
• Rockville – Twinbrook
• North Bethesda – US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Rock Springs Business Park
• Naval Support Activity Bethesda
• National Institutes of Health Bldg One
• Bethesda
• Friendship Heights
• National Geographic Society
• Golden Triangle – L Street
• GoldenTriangle – Farragut Square
• Georgetown Waterfront Park Area

However, applying my math skills here, that would be only about 15 minutes to get to and spend time at each one, which would be just about doable if I were using a jetpack instead of an overloaded bicycle with an ancient rider. I’ve therefore had to give up my dream of going to all of them. So, on that list, which ones have the best food? The best swag? The best raffles? The best entertainment?

Topic

[cvcalhoun]

Bethesda:

Swag: towels, reflective ankle straps
Food: apples, bagels, bread
Service: Griffin Cycle was providing air, lube, and basic tools
Raffles: many at a time, every 15 minutes. However, there were so many people there that chances of winning were probably less than at less populated stops
Entertainment: recorded music

[cvcalhoun]

Friendship Heights

Food: apples, bananas, potato chips, fortune cookies, granola bars
Swag: portable coffee mugs
Raffles: theoretically closed at 8:30, but was still having raffles at 8:40. While they had only 2 at a time, there were so few people that chances of winning were high. (I won 3 lbs. of coffee.)
Services: learn how to put your bike on the bus

[cvcalhoun]

National Geographic

Food: first coffee with real cream, oranges, granola bars
Swag: water bottles, coupons for free circulator ride
Raffles: even though they were supposed to go on until 10:00, the last one had ended by 9:40.

[cvcalhoun]

Skipped:

Rockville Fallsgrove and Twinbrook, and Rock Springs Business Park (too far out of the way)
NIH (security would have taken even longer than at Naval Medical, and it didn’t have the advantage of being open early).
Golden Triangle Farragut Square and Georgetown Waterfront (closed by the time I made it there)
Golden Triangle L Street (Where were you guys? I got to 19th and L 15 minutes before it was supposed to have closed, and couldn’t find any sign of a pit stop. The people at Farragut Square said that several others had also been unable to find them.)

[Mikey]

Fairfax city:
Bananas, Coffee, Water
Swag – Multi tools, water bottles, drawstring sacks, Maps, Smart Wool Socks (if you donated the ones you were wearing). $10 Spokes gift Cards

Dunn Lorring
Bagels, Coffee, Water Donuts, Clif bars/chews
Water Bottles, drawstring bags, Smart lanes t-shirts

East Falls church – Gauntlet of cheering fans (didn’t stop to see what was offered)

Ballston
Bagels, Coffee, Bananas, health drinks
headphones, spork, LED nightlight, Water bottles, Potomac Peddler Tshirts
Raffle – sunglasses, bells, water bottles, helmets, Bike Arlington Jerseys

Rosslyn
Bagels, Coffee, Bananas, Kind granola bars
water bottles, maps, stickers, grocery bags
Raffel – same as Ballston

Georgetown
G-town cupcakes, coffee, water
water bottles, maps, stickers, lapel pins

Capital Riverfront (by USDOT) I arrived at 9 as they were winding down
Water, Granola bars, coffee?
Patch Kit, reflective leg cuff band, pens

[lordofthemark]

@Mikey 115933 wrote:

Capital Riverfront (by USDOT) I arrived at 9 as they were winding down
Water, Granola bars, coffee?
Patch Kit, reflective leg cuff band, pens

Yes, both regular and decaf!

[cvcalhoun]

Total pit stops: 6.

And I’m amused that a thread which started as a plea for more information on Maryland and DC (it’s right there in the subject line, folks!), because there was already so much about Virginia, has quickly attracted so many posts about Virginia pit stops.

[dasgeh]

Just saw nbc4 coverage of btwd, featuring the falls church pit stop and some familiar faces

[DCLiz]

Sounds like Eastern Market was the winner for coffee — Peregrine was there with hot and iced! So good! (and yes, there was cream)

[cvcalhoun]

Columbia Heights

Food : apples, bananas, bagels
Swag : more water bottles, maps
Raffles : one every 15 minutes
Services: Bicycle Space is doing at least minor repairs

[cvcalhoun]

Whole Foods Bethesda

Services: Freshbikes has air and lube
Raffles: Freshbikes has an instant raffle for registered users. I won mints.
Food: no free food, but they have $3 burgers, $1 hot dogs, and $1 sweet potato chips (made on the premises) I got an extra burger for free by being there when they were closing.

[elwbikes]

You made out with quite the haul, cvcalhoun!

[Bruno Moore]

College Park: six boxes of Shopper’s colossal donuts, about six dozen fresh bagels and cream cheese from Bagel Place, coffee, bars of all sorts from MOM’s, Oreos, water bottles, nice plastic cups from the City, raffle prizes, CP Bikes doing maintenance, and at least one city council member to actually listen to All These Cyclists. Oh, and my orangeshirt. Best. Pitstopswagassortment. Evah.

Hyattsville: closing as I arrived; basic fruit and pamphlets, but switched out my XL shirt from CP (some of the Maryland stops got a weird run of sized, it seems) for one that would fit better.

Met Branch: basic fruit, B2WD bottles, and a BicycleSPACE mechanic (Will) who gawked at Val the Schwinn/Brünø’s Indestructable Arkel Panniers.

Noma: bagels (not as nice as the CP ones, but still not bad), WABAfolk (yay!), and a Noma spatula. Seriously, a spatula. That’s…actually, it’s a pretty nice spatula, come to think of it. Oh, and I categorically refuse to do that silly intercap thing in “Noma.”

Freedom Plaza: Shoot, place had just about closed when I rolled in; take a breather with Phil/Shane/Greg, offer congrats, and head to the MLK window office.

[cvcalhoun]

@elwbikes 116084 wrote:

You made out with quite the haul, cvcalhoun!

Yep! Whole Foods is having a sale on meat next week–pay $40 for $50 worth of meat. So we can buy two lots of that. With the gift card I won, it will cost us only $5 for $100 worth of meat! My wife and I drink a lot of coffee, so the three pounds of Starbucks coffee will definitely get used. I ate all day, and came home with a huge bag of swag. So I’m not complaining at all!

[bikeeveryday]

Are you sure it was “Bicycle Place? or Space?

@cvcalhoun 116078 wrote:

Columbia Heights

Food : apples, bananas, bagels
Swag : more water bottles, maps
Raffles : one every 15 minutes
Services: Bicycle Place is doing at least minor repairs

[Author]

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