My Evening Commute

[Emm]

Last night I did a couple laps around Hains Point on my way home since the weather was so amazing. The smell of cannabis was REALLY overwhelming at a few spots on the Potomac side. Those spots were also conveniently bug free, compared to other parts of HP which were just teeming with gnats and flies yesterday. Poor bugs on the Potomac side were probably high in more ways than one…

[DrP]

Well, that was timed with great luck.

I checked the weather before leaving the office. According to wunderground, I had just under 2 hr before thunderstorms were predicted and the radar showed nothing in the immediate area. Should be enough time to bike to the gym, work out and maybe get home again – depending on how accurate the two hours were – before the storms started. Ha! It was bright and sunny upon leaving the office, but 20min later I see clouds and occasional rumble in the distance. Then it starts to drizzle and continues for the last 1/2 hr of my trip to the gym, thunder getting louder. Noticed big storms just upon us on the TV weather report, ugh. Worked out. Towards the end of the workout, I can see that it is pouring out and the TV is going on about possible tornados in La Plata. Mention nothing in Arlington – glad I wasn’t over the river. Suit up in all my rain gear, and head out to look and listen for lightning/thunder to see if I can attempt the trip home. And it wasn’t raining! Quick on the bike and hope I can make it the <2miles in this brief lull because there is lightning elsewhere. Started drizzling for the last mile, but I made it home before it started pouring again, less than 10 min upon returning home. A bit of drizzle isn't bad, considering what I saw through windows.

This is definitely not the first time the wunderground predictions have been so wrong and storms were not on the radar when I left the office, but appeared within 20 min. Oh well. Adds to the fun of the commute.

[huskerdont]

@DrP 139090 wrote:

Well, that was timed with great luck.

I checked the weather before leaving the office. According to wunderground, I had just under 2 hr before thunderstorms were predicted and the radar showed nothing in the immediate area. Should be enough time to bike to the gym, work out and maybe get home again – depending on how accurate the two hours were – before the storms started. Ha! It was bright and sunny upon leaving the office, but 20min later I see clouds and occasional rumble in the distance. Then it starts to drizzle and continues for the last 1/2 hr of my trip to the gym, thunder getting louder. Noticed big storms just upon us on the TV weather report, ugh. Worked out. Towards the end of the workout, I can see that it is pouring out and the TV is going on about possible tornados in La Plata. Mention nothing in Arlington – glad I wasn’t over the river. Suit up in all my rain gear, and head out to look and listen for lightning/thunder to see if I can attempt the trip home. And it wasn’t raining! Quick on the bike and hope I can make it the <2miles in this brief lull because there is lightning elsewhere. Started drizzling for the last mile, but I made it home before it started pouring again, less than 10 min upon returning home. A bit of drizzle isn't bad, considering what I saw through windows.

This is definitely not the first time the wunderground predictions have been so wrong and storms were not on the radar when I left the office, but appeared within 20 min. Oh well. Adds to the fun of the commute.

Good story, great luck and timing. Yeah, wunderground and random-weather-generator.com have been worse than useless sometimes for dodging storms. Last night I made it home in time to get the dog out for his walk before the storms hit, so I actually rode in sun (!), and I thought I was golden, but then we lost power (N. Arlington) and still didn’t have it this morning. Win some, lose some.

[vern]

We’re all gonna get wet…have fun!

[Steve O]

@vern 139115 wrote:

We’re all gonna get wet…have fun!

HA! Waited it out. Blue sky’s a comin’

[bentbike33]

I saw @wheels&wings herding unruly waterfowl on the MVT in the rain this afternoon. Thanks for getting them out of my way!

[huskerdont]

@vern 139115 wrote:

We’re all gonna get wet…have fun!

Raced home and got there just as the first drops were falling. It’s odd racing into the dark clouds, like you’re hurrying up just to get in the storm sooner, but every now and then it works.

[DrP]

@Steve O 139122 wrote:

HA! Waited it out. Blue sky’s a comin’

I should have ignored wunderground again – it predicted rain from a little after 5 until almost 7, and the radar showed huge rain clouds coming our way. weather.gov show possible rain all evening, so wasn’t of much use. So, I left in the rain, and it stopped about where it started to rain on me the day before. At least I wasn’t rained on the whole way home.

Maybe they were just showing me data from the day before each time, like their clocks were 24hr off. That would make more sense to me than what they were showing.

[GovernorSilver]

Tried the 7th St -> Capitol Square Place -> 9th St SW -> Case Bridge route.

There was a bit of a wait for a gap in the stream of cars going down 9th St. Then because I still have not acquired the skill of bunny hopping, I had to walk the bike across that 10th St loop. Not a huge fan of the 9th St traffic but I’m guessing taking Independence to 10th St wouldn’t be much better. The switchback was easier than expected and once I got on Case Bridge the ride was pretty sweet. I forgot how to get to that police station parking lot for the shortcut but didn’t mind riding a little Ohio Dr/Buckeye loop to get to 14th St Bridge. There was a minor bummer in that the sidewalk approaching the CaBi station from the west side was blocked by a big fenced-in square pit of some sort, but riding on the grass wasn’t that bad.

Really enjoyed my first full day of bike commuting in months.

[bentbike33]

@GovernorSilver 139233 wrote:

Tried the 7th St -> Capitol Square Place -> 9th St SW -> Case Bridge route.

Now that the cherry blossoms are gone, the “Anacostia Riverwalk” (a.k.a., the sidewalk along south side of Maine Ave.) offers a flat, uncrowded shortcut to the 14th Street Bridge. The green light from 9th to Maine, or the green left-arrow from E. Maine to 9th, gives you almost unused westbound lanes to the fish market most days. See: https://www.strava.com/activities/566760462.

[GovernorSilver]

@bentbike33 139249 wrote:

Now that the cherry blossoms are gone, the “Anacostia Riverwalk” (a.k.a., the sidewalk along south side of Maine Ave.) offers a flat, uncrowded shortcut to the 14th Street Bridge. The green light from 9th to Maine, or the green left-arrow from E. Maine to 9th, gives you almost unused westbound lanes to the fish market most days. See: https://www.strava.com/activities/566760462.

I might give that route another shot after my cycling performance improves. I just got lucky that one time that I managed to find a big enough gap in the otherwise endless stream of cars headed southbound on 9th St. to slip through to and get to Banneker Circle. I just don’t have the necessary power/acceleration to reach a good speed for blending in.

dbb’s route is more to my liking – tried that this evening. 😎

[DrP]

The second part of my commute home (gym to home) had a bad and a good in it – and the good was shockingly so.

Biking Fairfax Dr. west in Ballston headed to the CT access (flyover), as I approach Glebe, there is a big a flashing double arrow in the right lane of the the straight lanes (this area has a right turn lane, bike lane, two straight lanes and a left turn lane. Then a median). The bike and right turn lanes were clearly open for use as was the left turn lane and one straight lane. Across Glebe, where they replaced an old blue building with a hole, they have the bike lane and right lane completely blocked. Only one narrow lane between the cones/barriers (it was a mix) and the median. Sidewalk was blocked too. Great. The county is scoring really low on these lane, especially bike lane, closures.

I am waiting at the light trying to figure out how long I am going to have to wait for all the cars to clear to let me in because usually everyone guns that light to start speeding up to I-66 speeds before they hit a curve that they need to slow down again on. The light turns and I start across the intersection. The cars in the straight lane do not start moving yet – on phone or being nice I do not know. So, I took the lane pedaling as fast as my little legs and my hybrid let me and made it to the trail in FRONT of all the cars. I waved as I turned on to the trail.

I am going to assume the best that the lead person also saw my dilemma and allowed me to go first. Thank you!

[Sunyata]

@DrP 139739 wrote:

The second part of my commute home (gym to home) had a bad and a good in it – and the good was shockingly so.

Biking Fairfax Dr. west in Ballston headed to the CT access (flyover), as I approach Glebe, there is a big a flashing double arrow in the right lane of the the straight lanes (this area has a right turn lane, bike lane, two straight lanes and a left turn lane. Then a median). The bike and right turn lanes were clearly open for use as was the left turn lane and one straight lane. Across Glebe, where they replaced an old blue building with a hole, they have the bike lane and right lane completely blocked. Only one narrow lane between the cones/barriers (it was a mix) and the median. Sidewalk was blocked too. Great. The county is scoring really low on these lane, especially bike lane, closures.

I am waiting at the light trying to figure out how long I am going to have to wait for all the cars to clear to let me in because usually everyone guns that light to start speeding up to I-66 speeds before they hit a curve that they need to slow down again on. The light turns and I start across the intersection. The cars in the straight lane do not start moving yet – on phone or being nice I do not know. So, I took the lane pedaling as fast as my little legs and my hybrid let me and made it to the trail in FRONT of all the cars. I waved as I turned on to the trail.

I am going to assume the best that the lead person also saw my dilemma and allowed me to go first. Thank you!

I ran into something similar yesterday on the way home, but I guess it was before the actually put barriers up. There was a construction truck blocking the bike lane and the cars actually slowed down in order to let me merge into the regular traffic lane in order to get around it. People were really being nice yesterday. Maybe the sun had something to do with it?

[DrP]

Wet. Very wet.
And it was only raining for about half my ride.
Even though I had just lubed my chain before my Monday ride, it was clearly needing more lube upon return since it sang too much.
Much of my gear was still wet this morning, despite my best efforts to dry it out. I did get to use my new Crystal Ride cap this morning to deal with the still wet pads in the helmet.

[dplasters]

It finally happened. After almost two years and 8k miles, I had a flat tire. I was just shy of two miles from home so just walked it instead of dealing with it in the rain. Never found what did the damage and honestly couldn’t even find a hole in the tire.

The great bike god smote me.

[Author]

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