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Frosty Mugs with Squadra Frosty

Team 5 will host happy hour in the basement of Meridian Pint (3400 11th Street NW 20010) this coming Wednesday (1/30). I’ll plan to arrive at 6pm and am told that the bar has a fine selection of taps that will surely keep me entertained until at least 8.

11th Street is a great strip of bars, restaurants, and row houses, and is very cycling-friendly. I think of it as a low-key version of U Street.

This is a great chance to meet the riders behind the team that will be gradually ascending past yours in the rankings.

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One of my best rides after moving back to DC was bobco giving me a personal tour of the Potomac Yard Trail and Arlington Loop. It did a lot to increase my confidence in cycling the other side of the river and probably saved me some close calls at the IOD. So, it was a treat to do the same for a friend last night, showing him the way from Ballston to Mt. Pleasant via the Custis and Rock Creek trails. We hit up neighborhood bars (Marx Cafe and Raven Grille) before and after his meeting.

He’s Belgian and has rather strong views on food & drink, so I was delighted when he declared Port City’s Optimal Wit to be a very good Belgian-style wheat beer (a style he noted isn’t so popular in Belgium anymore).

Here he is starting his journey back to Virginia at the end of the night:

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@spelter 186349 wrote:

I would totally in for this. Wednesday is the better day for me but I can be flexible.

Wednesday it is! I’ll plan to be at Meridian Pint by 6pm and will stay until at least 8. I’ll also add it to the Freezing Saddles calendar.

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VA Ave westbound is downhill, making it relatively easy to keep up with traffic. I get on VA at New Hampshire and quickly get in the far left lane. Around the gas station there are two cutouts in the divider — it’s very rare that I fail to get through to the opposite sidewalk at one of those. It seemed dodgy the first few times I did it but nearly always works out fine.

Hopefully the gaps in the divider I’m talking about are clearly visible here (I’m posting from my iPad, which doesn’t always play nice with the forum software):

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If you’re feeling cautious, there’s always the option of riding to the Kennedy Center and using the stoplight & crosswalk to cross the parkway there.

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Who would be up for a team happy hour next Wednesday or Thursday (1/30 or 1/31)? Based on our team heat map (http://dcbikemap.com/heat/), it seems like Columbia Heights is our geographic center.

I hear Meridian Pint on 11th St has a brilliant selection of tap beers but have never been. Anyone interested?

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Pastry ride #2 — Local 16

The baklava was OK to my taste — rather dry and bland. The band was the main attraction. There will be another show on Friday.

https://www.capitalbop.com/spotlight-january-2019-elijah-easton/

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Rock Creek Trail is mostly free of ice and now also mostly free of Honda.

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Team 8 has a beerneuring ride this coming Saturday that we should try to infiltrate. Leaving Best Buns in Shirlington at 10am.

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?14118-Team-8-Thread&p=186240#post186240

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Welcome! You’ll have lots of company on option 1. It’s a great commute.

After exiting the trail, some people keep straight on K Street into downtown. A larger crowd heads to the intersection of Virginia Ave & Rock Creek Parkway and makes its way into Foggy Bottom up Virginia, with routes from there seeming to vary quite a bit. I find it mostly comfortable, though it might take you a few rides to find your preferred route up (and especially down) Virginia Ave. Usually when going back toward the CCT in the evening, I cross to the south sidewalk around the gas station and then use the pedestrian crossing. I think that’s the best way, since that intersection has its quirks.

Please let us know how it goes! There’s a regular coffee group that meets on Friday mornings at Swings on 17th and G, which I wish I could attend more often.

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Thanks for organizing the Belle Haven cleanup — like everyone else, I was impressed by the sheer number of people who showed up in the wind & cold (and on a day when other clean-ups were cancelled), motivated to come back later in the year, and rudely surprised by the amount of styrofoam! Also, I failed to dig this helicopter out of the frozen ground, so definitely need to come back for it:

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(Ok, that photo is terrible, but I swear there is a sizable toy helicopter in there)

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Pastry ride #1 — Killer ESP

Hauling trash out of Belle Haven in the frigid air stirred a hunger that tacos just couldn’t satisfy. Emm put me straight: killer cherry pie on King Street. Not too sweet, and a crust even Dad could respect.

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Running a bit late (all morning events today are competing with last night’s eclipse) but am on the way!

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Jump is rolling out a new model with a few subtle changes: a smartphone holder for navigation, a QR code up front for unlocking rather than a keybpad on the back of the bike, a cable lock instead of a U-Lock, smarter internals for tracking performance and maintenance needs, and a battery that staff can swap out very easily. Their goal is to take these off the streets only once a year for maintenance rather than every time the battery needs changing. I wonder if this means the end of discounts or credits for docking bikes in a designated hub.

I ride these from time to time (including to the BikeDC happy hour this evening) and they are seriously perky, a ton of fun, and in a sane world would utterly eliminate short Uber/Lyft rides within the city.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/18/18144582/uber-jump-new-electric-bike-bikeshare-micromobility

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I’m going to try to hit up the BikeDC happy hour @ Bar Roubaix tomorrow eve and the MVT trail cleanup at Belle Haven Park on MLK day.

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Cool beans. Haven’t been to Bar Roubaix yet, so that will be a bonus.

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