This morning was probably the first commute in a long time that I did not enjoy due to a variety of factors.
To start off, I was already tired (stayed up past midnight last night due to a family emergency that was luckily resolved with little more than 2 hours of lost time at Urgent Care and some cuts and bruises for the person involved whom I had to convince to see a doctor). Riding from my apartment in Alexandria to the W&OD was fine as drivers were mostly behaving but was cold and windy (I was not wearing my balaclava and had trouble breathing when the cold wind blew).
However, when I took my usual route to get from W&OD to Ballston using the Park Drive trail access, I came upon the mass of cars on and around Route 50 due to an accident at the intersection of Fillmore/Route 50 which is about 1.5 miles away as reported here: https://www.arlnow.com/2016/04/05/commuting-woes-on-metro-route-50-this-morning/ . Looking back, I should have stayed on the W&OD and crossed under Route 50, but I had no idea what I was in for. Seeing as crossing Route 50 was impossible, I made my way on the sidewalk to George Mason Dr, then after riding in the road for a bit (made it half a block in 2 minutes) went back to the sidewalk and used the neighborhood streets (hey, passed near my old apartment) to snake my way to Glebe and eventually work.
My normal commute time: about 30-40 minutes (40 if I’m really unlucky with lights and/or tired)
My commute time this morning: almost an hour
I am using caffeine to hang on today at work, but when I reach home it’s nap time!
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