The Little Did I Know…prize

[AlanA]

Sure, this dumb FS competition had me go out and log in at least one mile when I never would have even of thought of doing something so stupid! And then add on that I had a few drinks during this dreary day, and it was a ride that won’t be forgotten for a while. Just trying to get started and then trying to get off the bike were quite amusing. I’m just glad (hopeful) that no one saw me.

[Judd]

Little did I know that today I would be so very lucky. At about 4:30 p.m., the thought entered my brain that I had left my Garmin on my bike which was locked outside of the World Bank on G. St and is sometimes prowled by bike thieves. It’s a Garmin Edge 1000 which retails for 500 bucks. A quick check of my backpack and coat pockets sent me dashing outside. Miraculously, it was still attached to the bike along with a somewhat pricey front light.

I got kicked out of my bike room last week and had to start parking on the street again which has made me nervous. I’m glad to have a counterbalancing fortunate event happen.

[Judd]

Little did I know that on my way home I’d run into Ed Felker again. I ran into him on my way home on Friday too. Hains Point is usually a lonely place at night in the winter and I’m usually the only biker out there on my way home. Ed’s a fantastic guy and I always enjoy the opportunity to bike a lap with him.

[Bruno Moore]

So here I am in South Texas, working on this pro bono project over the break doing immigration law/asylum applications/interview preps in the detention centers.* And, in the interest of keeping some sanity over what we’ve been warned is going to be a pretty rough week—”so, tell us every detail about why you fled your home in a country with the highest murder rate in the world”—I brought my bike with me. It’s stashed over by the wall in our hotel room right now.

Took it out for a ride last night on a semi-suburban junkyard service road near the interstate. Got chased by at least three junkyard dogs as my back tire rubs against my fender. I can’t blame ’em, really; this wasn’t that little “ksh, ksh, ksh” rub, but rather a Godawful “SQUEEEEEK! SQUEEEEEEEK! SQUEEEEEEEEK! as the tire rubbed against it like an overrosined bow on a string. I keep jiggering with the Fender from Hell (took me six hours to get that thing installed in the first place…), hope I didn’t break a ziptie on the bridge, make it back after setting every angry guard dog in a semisketch section of San Anton to barking.

Get back tonight…turns out I blew one of the many patches on that tube. I’m flat, and don’t have a Real Pump with me. So glad it didn’t blow while I was outrunning angry dogs, though.

*One of my partners, Priscilla, was the translator for that story—so I’m famous by association, right?

[Judd]

Little did I know… that I would be reunited with a treasured cycling hat of great sentimental value. LeprosyStudyGroup bought me an awesome Walz wool cycling cap with Lumberjack stitched in to the side. It’s my favorite piece of cycling gear. I thought that I had somehow lost it during a ride at the end of December where I had lost a glove shoved into a pocket. I completely reorganized a dresser full of cycling gear looking for it. No luck. I was trying to figure out how to tell LSG that I had lost it. I even considered buying an exact replica and not saying anything about it.

Tonight as I was laying the rain gear out, I noticed a bulging back pocket. I opened to find:

[Edelweiss]

Little did I know…
On Monday, at midday, it was raining, lightly, spattering and spitting, but I could surely ride 8.5 miles without too much to worry about, right? I even looked at the radar, steady, more of the same, so I skipped the rain pants, and the very coldness dictated my warm parka and not a rain jacket, right? I pulled my yellow reflective vest over it all. I did think my cool blue Spider-Man helmet cover might soak up and deflect the rain that was there. So far, so good. Half a mile in…
And then the raindrops got thicker, and then the puddles started getting bigger, and the drips started dropping off my visor. I had more than 7 miles to go. And then a car passed me and totally Rooster-tailed me, twice, because there were two big puddles right next to each other and we were moving at the same speed. After that I started to feel wetness getting into my boots.
Then the rain got even more aggressive, fairly pelting down on my head, parka, and hands. My gloves were getting soaked through, my ponytail was drenched, and I feared that my parka was starting to soak through. Then more rain fell onto me and I could now feel the water inside my boots sloshing back and forth as I pedaled. I could squish rain out of my gloves, and I was now wet to the bones.
Naturally, as I got to the White House and within a block of work, the rain faded fast and lightened up again, so I rode into Commerce in a misty drizzle. Little did I know I would pick the single worst 48 minutes to be outside on Monday.
Luckily, I squished noisily to the locker room and peeled off my wet, wet layers. My panniers and helmet made puddles, everything I wore was soaked and sopping. I really enjoyed a long, hot shower, and the Ortlieb had kept my business clothes dry. I also somehow had had the presence of mind to bring a second pair of pants, a dry shirt, gloves, and bra, there were spare socks in my locker. I pulled the insoles out of my Lakes and could wring them out! The wet stuff was beyond hope. I hung up the jacket and knew it would be fruitless.
Just three hours later I returned to my locker room to don the dry bike clothes, but putting the boots back on was ominous, and at the last minute I had to put on the very wet parka–after I wrung the water out of the cuffs. Thinsulate is still pretty warm, even when wet. The wet helmet liner was cold. The ride home was uphill and into the wind, but the rain had faded to a misty mist.
I was really hoping for snow. Little did I know that Freezing Saddles would be Monsoon Saddles!

[CBGanimal]

Little did I know that making a last minute decision to take my “other” bike would threaten to leave me stranded far from home! I needed to take my daughter to a 5 hour softball camp in Richmond VA. 5 hrs of watching her PRACTICE is not my idea of productive fun so I always take a bike with me and explore! I had packed up my road bike with all my essentials (money, drivers license, credit card, gum and Kleenex) but in the morning I decided it was a bit too wet and at the last minute took my commuter instead… Half way to Richmond I’d thought I’d get coffee but realized I had forgotten to change out the essentials from the other bike…good thing I had the Starbucks app…I got coffee…but my heartache started when I realized I didn’t have enough gas to get me home. At this point my daughter proclaimed “Mom, we are going to die!”… I got her into camp (calm cool and collected) and proceeded to call about 10 gas stations in the area but none took Apple Pay…dejected and not knowing what else to do at that moment I went on a 4 hour bike ride. While climbing a long up hill stretch I wondered about the change I may have in the car! So as soon as I got back…I started collecting all the change I could find in my car and bike bag. Walla! $10 in quarters, nickels, and dimes (pennies were a very last resort) also found a softball, long lost glove and lots of popcorn (eeewww)…long story short…the cashier was not to happy with me at the gas station but I managed enough gas to make it home! And I told my daughter “see honey, we didn’t die”!

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[Judd]

@CBGanimal 153521 wrote:

Little did I know that making a last minute decision to take my “other” bike would threaten to leave me stranded far from home! I needed to take my daughter to a 5 hour softball camp in Richmond VA. 5 hrs of watching her PRACTICE is not my idea of productive fun so I always take a bike with me and explore! I had packed up my road bike with all my essentials (money, drivers license, credit card, gum and Kleenex) but in the morning I decided it was a bit too wet and at the last minute took my commuter instead… Half way to Richmond I’d thought I’d get coffee but realized I had forgotten to change out the essentials from the other bike…good thing I had the Starbucks app…I got coffee…but my heartache started when I realized I didn’t have enough gas to get me home. At this point my daughter proclaimed “Mom, we are going to die!”… I got her into camp (calm cool and collected) and proceeded to call about 10 gas stations in the area but none took Apple Pay…dejected and not knowing what else to do at that moment I went on a 4 hour bike ride. While climbing a long up hill stretch I wondered about the change I may have in the car! So as soon as I got back…I started collecting all the change I could find in my car and bike bag. Walla! $10 in quarters, nickels, and dimes (pennies were a very last resort) also found a softball, long lost glove and lots of popcorn (eeewww)…long story short…the cashier was not to happy with me at the gas station but I managed enough gas to make it home! And I told my daughter “see honey, we didn’t die”!

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I think the moral of the story is that a four hour bike ride can fix almost everything.

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[drevil]

@Judd 151865 wrote:

Little did I know that on my way home I’d run into Ed Felker again. I ran into him on my way home on Friday too. Hains Point is usually a lonely place at night in the winter and I’m usually the only biker out there on my way home. Ed’s a fantastic guy and I always enjoy the opportunity to bike a lap with him.

Does Hains Point officially close after dark, or are you allowed to ride or be there 24/7?

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@drevil 153529 wrote:

Does Hains Point officially close after dark, or are you allowed to ride or be there 24/7?

quick google search doesn’t provide open/close hours for east potomac park itself, but in my experience the gates to the road around are opened and closed seemingly at random. there’s also the always open sidewalk ring around the edge which is quite fun as most parts of it are actively crumbling and sinking into to river at any given moment. You may encounter a weird man named steve, known for fairly often riding there around midnight, possibly in a bathing suit.

[Judd]

There does seem to be a bit of randomness on gate closing and opening times. I’ve been there past midnight a few times and they’ve been open. I’ve heard they are closed around 2 am but have no personal experience.

They are usually open by 6 am which is about the earliest I get there. But some days they’re still closed at 8 am. Most people just jump the curb and go around when the gates are closed in the morning.

They are also closed if there’s flooding which happened on Monday night. That didn’t stop some people.

I’ve never been stopped after curb jumping. I image the worst that would happen is that you’d be told to leave.

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[AlanA]

Bob James suggested that I submit this ride for consideration.

And although all of it doesn’t relate to the bike ride, it does convey how my 14 hour day went. I was in the LA area, and the weather had been awful, so I decided to take my rental car and my rental bike for a road trip. Here is the summarized story. Also, I had no idea what the roads were like as I had planned my route using Ride with GPS.

Today I went for a road trip for a planned 70 mile ride in the Imperial Valley is search of dry weather. Here are today’s lowlights:
1. Many pockets of torrential rain on the drive over.
2. Two major accidents causing quite a bit of delay.
3. Really strong winds in the desert that got worse the further I went into my planned ride. They started out about 25ish, and by the time I had to bail, they were pushing 50ish.
4. Roads that got worse the further I rode. And you can’t even imagine how bad they were. I can’t believe that they considered them paved. As I got to the worst part, I was doing about 5-6 on a flat road!! And my hands were killing me just trying to keep the bike upright and avoid all the holes.
5. Riding my bike in a dust storm! I finally had to bail on my original route as this was just way too dangerous (and stupid).
6. Getting a flat tire on the awful road in the dust storm as I decided to bail out and head back. Within a minute of turning around and able to go over 10 mph, I nailed one the many holes in the road and got a flat instantly. I’m just glad I didn’t destroy the rim or tire.
7. Walking about a mile (half in a dust storm) back to a huge factory where I could seek shelter and change my flat (not one passing car offered any help). There was no way I was going to try to change a flat in a dust storm.
8. Getting caught in a blizzard on the way back on I-8 towards San Diego. This was in the rental car, not on the rental bike. Whew!!

But I did get a 50 mile ride in and I lived to tell about a most interesting day.

[Judd]

Entry in the heart-warming category.

I had a really rough week. I’ve been staying late at work trying to save a high profile software deployment that is not going very well. I only got 5 hours of sleep each night and by Thursday I was exhausted on the way home. There was a strong, demoralizing north wind at Hains Point and for the first time during Freezing Saddles, achieving my 30 mile a day cycling goal seemed like a job. I’m way behind on basic life maintenance stuff like having food (and beer!) in the house and doing laundry. On my ride home on Friday, I actually dozed off on the bike multiple times.

I got home Friday night ready to head straight to bed, but on my doorstep was a plastic bag with my name on it. I opened it up and this was inside:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13471[/ATTACH]

LeprosyStudyGroup had left me a care package that really brightened my day and reframe the week. LSG is one of the kindest, caring people I know and I’m glad to have him as a friend.

[CBGanimal]

Great story!!!! Hope this week is better!

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[LeprosyStudyGroup]

Not pictured; trace amounts of polonium 210, and hella fire ant colonies released under door

[Author]

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