36 of May

I got a call from Chris Flaherty tonight.  He wanted to know how I was feeling. This is more than just the normal well wishing. He orchestrated a bike ride for us to do Sunday, and since he was feeling a little stiff Monday morning, he thought I might be just shy of dead.

Originally I had sent him a list of bars around my house which I thought  might make a pleasant ride, but when he mapped it out it turned out to be over 40 miles and he didn't think he would be up for that much, let alone me. Instead he planned out a tentative route that would take us south from his house to Washington D.C. I was game because he named a few watering holes that he had visited in the past which I wanted to check out for myself.

 We started around 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning and before 11:30 we'd stopped for our first beer at Chicken Wings and Beer, not far from his home. This has been a familiar stop for us so it was one beer, in and out. Our next stop would be close to 10 miles away in Silver Spring at the Firestation Pub and Brewery.  They don't brew on site at this location but they do brew nearby. We had lunch and there and I had a sample paddle (4-5 oz servings of all four of their beers) while Chris had a pint of their stout.  It was all very good, even their wheat beer which is a style I'm usually not fond of. After that, we walk around downtown Silver Spring for a little while, visiting a cool record store (remember those) and trying chicken on a stick at an Asian restaurant.

Although the weather looked overcast, we proceeded on to out next stop about another 10 miles south. It was the very nice and seemingly old Colonel Brooks Tavern. We each quaffed a pint there along with some much needed water. Chris left it up to me whether we should continue on to DC, turn back for home or call for a pick up. Maybe it was the beer talking, but I felt pretty good and though that since DC was less than 5 miles out we should soldier on.  It wasn't long before I was caught off guard by seeing the Capitol dome rising above the tree lines.

A lot of the trip from Colonel Brooks to our last rest stop, RFD (regional Food and Drink) was on a nice new bike path along the commuter train tracks, but once your are in DC proper there is a lot of street riding to be done.  Most main thoroughfares have a dedicated bike lane but you never know if all the cars behind you know that it's there. Once we got to RFD, Chris told me that one of the sections we rode was where he'd once gotten as close as he ever had to getting creamed by a car. Comforting.

By the time we left RFD it was after 5:00 and since there was a bus stop right across the street, we opp-ted to catch the next bus out of town, back to Silver Spring. Fortunately for us the bus came equipped with a rack on front to accommodate our bikes. The bus ride took almost as long as the bike ride had taken and I was being myself, talking endlessly and asking stupid questions of Chris, who ever so patiently answered them.  At one point the young guy sitting ahead of us turned around and told us that we should have a talk show on NPR. He also compared us flatteringly to MST3K.  I wasn't too sure what he was talking about because it was Chris and I being us, but he did tell me where I might find a bathroom once we got off the bus so as far as I'm concerned, we're friends for life.

Again, once we were in Silver Spring, Chris gave me the choice of riding or taking another bus home.  Once my bladder was empty, I was ready for another ride.  A lot of this ride was on bike paths and side streets, but all those hills I'd enjoyed so much coming down, were a bitch to ride back up. There was yet another offer to call home for a road side pick up, but, I don't know why, I said no, we'd ride it out. By the time we got back to Chris's driveway we'd clocked just over 36 miles on just over a half gallon of beer. Thankfully, I had more beer waiting for us so we celebrated by splitting a Sierra Nevada 16 oz Torpedo.

I must say that I surprised myself as well as Chris that I had made that many miles. Even more surprisingly, I wasn't nearly as sore as I thought I might be. Far from being prone in bed all day, I got up early, walked the dogs, mowed the lawn, did 3 loads of laundry and made dinner.  Maybe there is something to this exercise thing. Now it looks like my planned 40 mile ride is not so far out of reach.