President’s Day History Ride – Monday, February 19th

[Judd]

I’m hosting a President’s Day Ride again this year. In recognition of the bicentennial of the Great State of Illinois, this year’s ride will visit sites associated with the four Presidents who have called Illinois home: Lincoln, Grant, Reagan and Obama. I’m planning just 6 stops this year. At each stop I’ll share some history of the site or individual. I’ve tried to pick sites that for the most part you probably haven’t visited. (I’ve only been to two myself). I’ll once again try to tie historical events to the present.

The official ride will meet at the Lincoln Memorial at 10:30. I plan to get rolling by 10:45. The ride will end at the Lincoln Cottage, which has a museum and also does tours of the cottage (tours are $15). I’m planning on visiting the museum. Scheduling a tour of the cottage with an unknown number of folks arriving at an unknown time will be too unwieldy, so I opted not to include it as part of the ride. If the weather is nice (it was awesome last year) I may do a half DC loop back to Virginia.

I’m planning on starting the morning by having pancakes at Lazy Mike’s in Falls Church at 8 a.m. There was a great crowd there last year.

Hope to see you one the ride.

Full Details:
Pre-Ride Pancake Option: Optional meet up at Lazy Mike’s in Falls Church for pancakes
Ride Meet: 10:30 in front of the Lincoln Memorial steps (look for the tall bearded white guy and the short Asian lady with bikes that look like this: https://i0.wp.com/www.waba.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Judd-and-Josephine-quote-1.png?zoom=2&resize=581%2C305)
Safety Brief: 10:45 I’ll give a quick safety brief (intro of the marshal team, hand and voice signals and ride overview)
Roll out: Lincoln Memorial is the first stop. We’ll roll out afterwards.
Bathroom Break: There will be a bathroom/snack break after the third stop at Glen’s Garden Market
Route: Approximately 9 miles all on DC streets, with heavy use of low traffic streets, bike lanes and cycletracks
Stops: There will be 6 stops on the tour, all related to President’s who have lived in Illinois
End Point: Lincoln Cottage – There’s a visitor’s center with exhibits to view. They also have a bike rack, though we will likely exceed it’s capacity and need to lock bikes to each other. There’s a tour of the cottage as well that costs $15. I’m not expecting to do the tour since space is limited and our arrival time is uncertain.
Bring: Bike lock, money and any snacks you need
Optional late lunch: For anyone that wants to grab lunch afterwards, we’ll pick a place after the Lincoln Cottage

Watch Bobco’s video of last year’s ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mLL8wkM6Ew

Topic

[CBGanimal]

Awesome ride Judd! Learned a few new things…Thank you to all who helped

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[Shawnbeast]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17018[/ATTACH]Here’s the whole group that made it to Lincoln’s Cottage.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17038[/ATTACH]Our fearless leader at Grant Circle, don’t lose your pants, Judd!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17039[/ATTACH]This is as close as we could get to President Obama’s house, thanks to the Secret Service for not arresting us!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17040[/ATTACH]When the socks define the ride

[Shawnbeast]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17027[/ATTACH]Judd starts the ride at the Lincoln Memorial
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17029[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]17022[/ATTACH]Passing monuments and museums
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17023[/ATTACH]Following the rules of the road!

[Shawnbeast]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17031[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]17032[/ATTACH]A stop at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Lincoln’s progeny!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17030[/ATTACH]Visiting the spot where Ronald Reagan was shot, #erotomania
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17033[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]17034[/ATTACH]Snack time and coffeeneuring!

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@Shawnbeast 174894 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17018[/ATTACH]Here’s the whole group that made it to Lincoln’s Cottage.

Ricky wearing a helmet wearing a hat wearing a helmet xD

[Judd]

Thanks for taking and posting all of the pictures Shawn.

What you couldn’t see from the group picture was Shawn sprinting from his camera to get into the shot.

[Judd]

I mentioned the video of the “I have a dream” speech yesterday. Here’s a link to an excerpt of the dream part which references the Declaration of Independence. The full speech is 17 minutes and is extremely powerful. It also contains the reference to the Gettysburg Address.

https://youtu.be/3vDWWy4CMhE

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[Judd]

Here’s the clip I discussed yesterday of Obama speaking Indonesian and referencing the time he spent there as a child from 6 to 10. He was fluent as a child and attended Indonesian language school while living there.

https://youtu.be/-_6L96bjmYE

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[Judd]

Here’s the Atlas Obscura link about the Lincoln Memorial undercroft. Atlas Obscura is an awesome site by the way. I’ve been thinking about doing a ride based on it for a while.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lincoln-memorial-undercroft

And here’s the article about the NPS plans to open the undercroft for viewing:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wtop.com/dc/2017/06/visitors-beneath-lincoln-memorial/amp/

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[Judd]

Bonus Lincoln trivia. The home of Lincoln’s Secretary of State once stood on Lafayette Square. William Seward was stabbed multiple times the same night that Lincoln was assassinated. Despite being stabbed in the neck, he survived. Today the US Court of Appeals stands on the site.

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[lordofthemark]

@Judd 174983 wrote:

Bonus Lincoln trivia. The home of Lincoln’s Secretary of State once stood on Lafayette Square. William Seward was stabbed multiple times the same night that Lincoln was assassinated. Despite being stabbed in the neck, he survived. Today the US Court of Appeals stands on the site.

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William Seward was from the State of New York, but sadly not from NYC. He was an upstate “conscience Whig”.

Hmm, maybe a “Team of Rivals” ride?

[Judd]

@lordofthemark 174995 wrote:

William Seward was from the State of New York, but sadly not from NYC. He was an upstate “conscience Whig”.

Hmm, maybe a “Team of Rivals” ride?

You’ve thrown out enough New York facts that a New Yorker history ride would probably be easier. Team of Rivals is a great book and I meant to mention it at the Obama stop. Obama very deliberately attempted to cast his Presidency in the mold of Lincoln and Doris Kearns Goodwin served as an advisor to Obama. (She is also the funniest historian I’ve ever seen interviewed.) His appointment of Hillary Clinton (kind of a New Yorker) as Secretary of State was similar to Lincoln’s appointment of Seward (a real New Yorker) to the same position despite being rivals for the party’s nomination.

[accordioneur]

@Judd 175000 wrote:

You’ve thrown out enough New York facts that a New Yorker history ride would probably be easier. Team of Rivals is a great book and I meant to mention it at the Obama stop. Obama very deliberately attempted to cast his Presidency in the mold of Lincoln and Doris Kearns Goodwin served as an advisor to Obama. (She is also the funniest historian I’ve ever seen interviewed.) His appointment of Hillary Clinton (kind of a New Yorker) as Secretary of State was similar to Lincoln’s appointment of Seward (a real New Yorker) to the same position despite being rivals for the party’s nomination.

We New Yorkers are proud of our presidents, from the great (the Roosevelts) to the mediocre (Martin Van Buren) to the not-so-great (Millard Fillmore, and maybe one more). Using Judd’s loose “lived in the state” qualification, New York can also claim Grant, Clinton, Arthur, Eisenhower, … and maybe more.

[lordofthemark]

I still like Team of Rivals – though I would expand it to include more of Lincoln’s cabinet mainly because Montgomery Blair, who did not run for POTUS in 1860, but was still one of the bigger political players in the cabinet, would justify a ride to Silver Spring. That plus the Seward site, plus I am sure I could come up with something for Chase and Bates (and a Lincoln site we did not do on Monday).

[lordofthemark]

@Judd 175000 wrote:

You’ve thrown out enough New York facts that a New Yorker history ride would probably be easier. Team of Rivals is a great book and I meant to mention it at the Obama stop. Obama very deliberately attempted to cast his Presidency in the mold of Lincoln and Doris Kearns Goodwin served as an advisor to Obama. (She is also the funniest historian I’ve ever seen interviewed.) His appointment of Hillary Clinton (kind of a New Yorker) as Secretary of State was similar to Lincoln’s appointment of Seward (a real New Yorker) to the same position despite being rivals for the party’s nomination.

Actually a native Illinoisan of course, adding to the NY-Illinois connection.

[Author]

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