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@baiskeli 69482 wrote:

CaBi stations at heavily-used parks with bike trails leading to them is a great idea. When’s Bluemont get one?

I supposed technically, the one at George Mason and Wilson is ‘Bluemont’ – well, the Bluemont Junction trail.

(and it used to be 1) the closest one to Arlington Forest 2) dockblocked something fierce. Though in the past year, the dockblocking has got a lot better – as in hardly happens anymore, at least when I’m in that area now)

[Kolohe]

@KLizotte 69343 wrote:

George Washington’s distillery is making the stuff the old fashioned way according to the recipe from GW’s days but in very limited quantities. You have to put in an order because it sells out. Contact the distillery directly for more details.

It’s also something like 100 dollars a bottle (maybe even closer to 150) iirc from visiting the gift shop at the distillery and mill this summer. (you can get authentically ground corn meal pretty cheap, though)

Just to note, the distillery and grist mill aren’t on the grounds of Mt. Vernon at the end of the Parkway, it’s over on Mt Vernon highway closer to the intersection of US Rt1.

The only variance to a 100% authentic 18th century production is that the fire marshall* wouldn’t let them put the mash over a wood fire, so they have to use electric heaters for that part. The stills are all wood fired, though

*it’s also worth noting that the thing burned down several times over the course of its working life, and the existing distillery structure was only built about 10 years ago after at least a 150 year absence from the grounds.

[Kolohe]

oh ok, thanks. It does look a little bit different than most of the recent bike boxes I’ve seen in all the jurisdictions inside the diamond.

[Kolohe]

@KLizotte 69139 wrote:

There is a new one at the intersection of Commonwealth Ave and Mt Vernon Ave in Alexandria next to Anthony’s auto center. There is a sign explaining where a cyclist should stand and works as advertised though I suspect most cyclists don’t see the directions.

I think there’s one now on Veitch at the intersection of Lee Highway (on the courthouse side). (there’s green paint all around it, with a gap where that symbol is inserted, iirc) There’s also a more clearly labelled ‘place bike here’ marking (on the pavement) on New Hampshire Ave (for a dedicated bike signal) at combined intersection with U-street and 16th.

[Kolohe]

@jrenaut 69117 wrote:

The only solution to that intersection is to nuke it from orbit. I’d never been through there at rush hour until the Bike Arlington light event, and it’s appalling. I guess that’s the tradeoff – as you get further from Downtown, you get beautiful off-street trails, but when you do have to interact with the roads, it’s a cluster. Downtown we have less infrastructure, but it’s less “good-good-good-good-WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE”.

I will say, though, that despite the crossing and 50 yds on either side being a hot mess right now, I anticipate a greatly improved endstate with where they appear to be going in terms of alignment and path merges.

[Kolohe]

Not a closure (and technically on the W&OD rather than 4MR I guess) but just an alert that the trail just on the north side of the Columbia Pike crossing is rather torn up right now. Still totally passable, but I wouldn’t want to come across it for the first time in the dark unawares. (particularly as there’s dirt now where I normally start my braking for the light and/or other trail traffic)

[Kolohe]

Though at least the gate now opens, (which it didn’t as little as a year ago, iirc) and you don’t have to trespass onto the vet hospital anymore and squeeze through the gap.

[Kolohe]

*raises hand*

Yes, I have the same problem too. The worst place for me is the MVT between the Airport and Old Town where many portions of the trail are below the road grade and so one is looking directly into the lights.

I don’t find it to be as much of an issue in areas of sufficient ambient light, for instance the W&OD between Col Pike and Shirlington Road. Or, paradoxically, on any unlit trail when there is a low overcast, to the point of drizzly fog – the backscatter from city lights brightens everything up sufficiently (the way even a full moon doesn’t).

I bought towards the end of last winter (but haven’t used it this winter yet, I keep on forgetting to put it on the charger) a really high lumen light, which I adjust to an aimpoint centered on the ground a few yards ahead of me. I found that it helps quite a bit to keep the headlights from being quite a blinding, by making the difference in brightness less.

[Kolohe]

Lots of brunch options in Shirlington too.

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Cuccinelli wants everyone on a bike to wearing a burka, McAuliffe wants everyone to buy a bike made in East Asia where he gets 10% of the gross proceeds, and Sarvis thinks bicyclists shouldn’t have to obey any traffic laws – but they do have to strike a Coasian bargain with each and every SUV in the sharrows.

[Kolohe]

@Dirt 67138 wrote:

Seems a bit late in the season for a check ride, no?

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@consularrider 66672 wrote:

Let’s see, the same photo, but one is 22″ and the other is 18″?

I guess not everything’s bigger in Texas.

[Kolohe]

Man, I wish I still had the contact info of the German exchange officer I worked with back when I was in the military. His name was Dolph; kind of a prickly fellow really, very often curt and dismissive. It didn’t help that we would kid Dolph about being a Communist – and not in an ‘Obama is a sekrit socialist’ kinda way, but the man grew up in East Germany, and so, naturally was enrolled in the Youth Communist League and all that malarky.

But he would have been super helpful for this inquiry, because we always said, “Rude Dolph the Red knows rain gear”

[Kolohe]

Now that it’s getting dark earlier, I think we should see if they have a version for 2 wheeled vehicles and everyone should get one:

[Kolohe]

@lordofthemark 66306 wrote:

The metrorail station, IIUC was sited there as part of the original metro plan back in the 1960s. And from that, the bus station naturally followed (one of the initial fruits of metro was removing the massive number of buses that stopped on 14th street, IIUC.) And of course very large numbers of DoD employees rely on both. And the bus terminal was rebuilt, farther from the pentagon, after 9/11. For a brief period people transferred at Pentagon City.

Actually, the bus terminal renovation started before 9/11 http://metro.pentagon.mil/facts.htm – and iirc, was in some jeopardy of completion after 9/11 occurred. It is likely, imo that if the plan wasn’t already in the works and nearly complete, the whole bus bay would have been scuttled and indeed, permanently moved to Pentagon City.

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