Pointless Prize: Extra Mile

[Laurie E.]

Today’s ScavHunt photo was for a picture of a creek. The road that leads to the creek is closed due to construction. This road has been closed for over a year, and last year I was sneaking through the site, so the workers put all types of barriers up to block me. So today, I had to get through Bob Cats, jersey walls, mountains of gravel, ditches, holes and missing roads, not to mention the ice and snow to get to the creek so that I could take the picture. I’m posting both pictures, the construction site and the creek. The things that I do for FS.

[sszibler]

Story in screenshot

[cvcalhoun]

Today’s scavenger hunt was dumplings. I had to find a place with actual curbside service, not just take-out, since I’m not going in anywhere due to COVID. (I found City Lights of Bethesda.) Then their website for ordering was broken. So I called to order. Then my e-bike, which I had intended to use, wouldn’t turn on. By the time I’d finished struggling with it and then giving up and moving all my lights, etc., to my regular bike, City Lights was calling to find out where I was. Then I realized I had put my helmet down somewhere and couldn’t find it, so I had to dig out an old helmet from the back of the shed. And then I headed out into a high headwind.

Let’s just say that my #publicartfinder for today was a pig flying. Which seemed appropriate.

[rumipumi]

Know how they say don’t bring a knife to a gun fight? I brought a foldie on our family ski trip taking up half the back of our station wagon stuffed with four people, ski gear, and winterwear. There were near white-out conditions today. It was too slippery to bike anywhere, and so I walked pushing the foldie in circles in the snowy parking lot for 2 miles, wearing a ski helmet and goggles for fear of falling on my head while… walking. But 29 points for Team 3 Sled Zeppelin!

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[AlanA]

It seems to be a popular day for this post.

I am visiting Las Cruces, NM and rode my bike to get a photo op for the Monuments and Memorials game. I forgot about the thorns they have around here. Both tires were flat within two miles of that picture. Luckily, I carry two tubes and a patch kit. I spent a good 45 minutes getting rid of all the thorns from the outside and inside of both tires.

I had to bail on my ride and hoped to make it back to my hotel (which I did). I now have some more tubes so I can do some more riding. I will make sure I stay on the road!

[cvcalhoun]

And I (unwillingly) got another entry for this one. My new e-bike had suddenly stopped turning on back on Wednesday. But I had it repaired on Thursday, and was informed that it was fine now. And indeed, it was working fine for my ride on Thursday night.

So I plotted out my ride for Friday. Quartermaine Coffee Roasters for the #scavhunt. The statue of a guy holding up a clock at Tiffany & Co. for #publicartfinder. Then the Little Free Library advertised as being at the entrance to the Pence Law Library at American University.

Except that as I started out, the bike would turn on, but then would turn off the moment I started to pedal. That was my first bad sign. But I unlocked the battery compartment and then locked it up again, and the bike started working, so I thought I must just not have locked it properly.

I took the photos at Quartermaine and at Tiffany & Co., but then the bike started turning off randomly–leaving me unexpectedly without either power or lights. But I was quite determined to make that Little Free Library, so I kept limping along. I was going slower than anticipated with all the stops, but I still managed to make it at about 11:45.

Then I started looking for the Little Free Library. There were three entrances to the building that housed the law library, which was a huge building. It took me some time to go around the whole building and determine that the Little Free Library wasn’t at any of them.

Finally, I managed to figure out where the Little Free Library was–inside the building, which was not open to the public. There was no way to get my bike into a photo of the Little Free Library, because I was having to take a picture from outside a window of the long corridor leading to the Little Free Library. But I figured that maybe not getting my bike into the photo would be excused due to the physical impossibility. So I managed to get the photo taken at 11:57. Victory! I went to make my post and… Tapatalk started misbehaving. I kept frantically retrying, but the post didn’t go up until 12:23 am.

So then I started home. But the bike was turning off more and more frequently, to the point that I thought I was going to have to operate it without pedal assist for the last five miles. Of course, trying to pedal a heavy e-bike without pedal assist is actually harder than pedaling a regular bike. Fortunately, I finally figured out that if I again unlocked the battery compartment and locked it again, the bike would start working again.

Oh, and did I mention that it was 28 degrees and felt like 19 when I left, and 27 degrees and felt like 18 by the time I got home? And that I kept having to take my gloves off to fiddle with the switches, the battery compartment, etc.?

[epilsk]

You and batteries do not get along! Well done.

[Steve O]

@rumipumi 213984 wrote:

That looks rideable.

[cvcalhoun]

I seem to have way too many entries in this contest this year! Let me tell you my tale of woe. I was planning on doing the Martin Luther King, Jr. thing for the Monday scavenger hunt. But it’s a long way away. So my genius plan was to do my ride for Sunday about 11:00 pm, get to the King memorial around midnight, end my ride, start a new ride, and get the ride for Monday early. I figured all this would take around 2-3 hours. I left my dog, who is recently adopted and has serious separation anxiety, with the tenants who live in the basement so that she would be okay during my absence.

Things started well. I got my New Year’s Day scavenger item, my Little Free Library, and my public art for Sunday, then started down the Capital Crescent Trail toward the King Memorial. When I hit 10 miles (the minimum for public art finder), it was after midnight, so I ended my ride, started a new one, and managed to take a photo of public art on the way to the Memorial. And I had in my pocket the address of a Little Free Library I could visit on the way home.

The first hitch came when I discovered that the Rock Creek Trail was closed, and I couldn’t figure out where the detour went. So there was a brief but hair-raising ride on the Rock Creek Parkway. But at least that ended soon, and I proceeded on to the Memorial and got my photo.

On the way back, I even figured out where that detour went, so I got back to the CCT without incident. However, I realized that the battery on my phone was low–and I needed the phone for Google maps to figure out how to get to the Little Free Library. Not to worry–I’ll just stop at Fletcher’s Cove and plug my phone into my portable charger. Except that the phone shut down just before Fletcher’s Cove. And what I had not realized is that you can’t just turn on the phone as soon as you plug it in. It takes enough energy to start up that it will just shut down again immediately. So after several vain attempts to turn on the phone, I had to give up on the Little Free Library.

Then a little before River Road the battery on my bike was giving out. (The owner’s manual said it had a lot more range than that, but then again they measure with a lighter rider, flat surface, not so cold as to impair battery life, and during the day so the lights aren’t on.) The e-bike is heavy, and pedaling it uphill without e-assist is almost impossible. So I decided I’d limp along to River Road, pick up an e-bike there, bike home with the battery from my bike, get the spare battery, bring it back, and ride my e-bike home.

So I got the e-bike from the CaBi station at River Road. Except that I discovered it didn’t actually have any power. But I couldn’t switch to a regular CaBi, because those have no sides on their cargo area, so the battery would just fall out. So I decided to limp along to Bethesda Avenue and switch it for a different e-bike.

Except when I arrived at Bethesda Avenue, the only e-bike there gave me a message that, “There is a problem with this bike. Choose another one.” Of course, the only one I could choose was the one I had just been using, which I knew didn’t have any power.

So I biked with the e-bike with no power up to Woodmont, where fortunately I found a working e-bike. I biked home, got the spare battery, and biked back–only to discover that my Garmin had decided for unknown reasons to end the ride early, so I lost about 8 miles. Plus, the Garmin was running out of power. So I switched to using Strava on my phone, which finally had enough charge.

Except that the spare battery didn’t work. I’d had issues with it before, but had been able to make it go 5 miles or so by opening and closing the battery compartment–and I only needed to go five miles. But this time, that didn’t work.

Of course, I now needed desperately to pee, and there were no available restrooms and no large bushes to hide behind in that section of the trail. So I just found a dark area, and hoped to hell no one came by before I finished. Fortunately, no one did.

Then I decided to use my e-bike to limp back to Bethesda Avenue and catch an Uber. (I’d been resisting that hard, because I am very concerned about COVID, but desperate times, etc.) So I got back there, and called an Uber Comfort so it would have enough room for my bike (which folds, but is still pretty heavy and bulky). Uber said it was 12 minutes away. But then unaccountably it canceled, and Uber said another one that was 25 minutes away was coming. But when I contacted the driver of that one, he said that he was picking up a Cheryl, not a Carol, and already had her in the car, so he wasn’t coming. So I canceled that ride. But then Uber said there were no cars available. (Seriously, Uber has no cars!?)

So then I called Lyft. First car again canceled on me. Meanwhile, my electrically heated gloves had given out. Plus, I couldn’t check my phone to see whether the car was coming without taking off my gloves. So I was left wondering how long I could go before developing frostbite.

Fortunately, the second Lyft was able to get the bike inside and get me home. I arrived 8 hours after I started, with a serious chill, numb fingers, tenants who had long since gone to sleep with the dog, and no Little Free Library photo. And I had to go to work in the morning.

The good news is, I did manage to get in a sleaze ride later in the day to get the Little Free Library. But that’s about all the good news I can report about that trip.

[epilsk]

First, you are trying WAY to hard to win this prize. Please stop!

Second, I can’t help but observe that most of your issues stem from electronic things. Maybe you need to go analog? no ebike, paper maps. As a high ranking member of the Cabal, surely you can jigger the rules to let you track rides with a mechanical odometer.

You are an inspiration and cautionary tale at once!

[bikingjenn]

@rumipumi 213984 wrote:

Know how they say don’t bring a knife to a gun fight? I brought a foldie on our family ski trip taking up half the back of our station wagon stuffed with four people, ski gear, and winterwear. There were near white-out conditions today. It was too slippery to bike anywhere, and so I walked pushing the foldie in circles in the snowy parking lot for 2 miles, wearing a ski helmet and goggles for fear of falling on my head while… walking. But 29 points for Team 3 Sled Zeppelin!

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I obviously have the wrong idea about the scoring. How do I get 29 points for two miles?

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[cvcalhoun]

It’s 10 points for riding at least a mile on a particular day. Then it’s another10 points for the first mile, 9 points for the second, etc. So if you do two miles on a particular day, it’s 29 points.

The scoring system heavily rewards going out consistently every day. @bikingjenn 215489 wrote:

I obviously have the wrong idea about the scoring. How do I get 29 points for two miles?

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[cvcalhoun]

Well, the non-electronic bits are also causing problems. My seat is broken at the moment. The manufacturer has promised to send a new one. But in the meantime… well, I may never have sex again! @epilsk 215328 wrote:

First, you are trying WAY to hard to win this prize. Please stop!

Second, I can’t help but observe that most of your issues stem from electronic things. Maybe you need to go analog? no ebike, paper maps. As a high ranking member of the Cabal, surely you can jigger the rules to let you track rides with a mechanical odometer.

You are an inspiration and cautionary tale at once!

[epilsk]

OMG!

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[bikingjenn]

2/5/22 this was crazy. Okay, so some would say that biking in a snowstorm is nuts. Others have told me I am crazy for riding when it’s in the teens. Yesterday I was so excited to be riding in the rain, until…I hydroplaned on the TR Island wooden bridge.

Down I went and harder than on all of my too-many-falls over the past few years. Bottom line: hip and elbow in less pain than the shoulder, which I now have in a homemade sling.

After I spent the night with Ibuprofen and an entire bottle of champainless, I thought the shoulder was better. This morning was a different story.. spent the whole day in my PJs on the couch until I felt as if rigamortis was setting in. I was sad that I was letting my team down, so…

My husband helped me put on a coat and get my bike out of the garage. It rolled with me which seemed like a good idea at first, but I think I went too far. I got blisters since I didn’t bother to put on socks. I got some crazy lady stares, but I got in my mile.

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