Day -2: The Weatherman Always gets the Last Laugh.
by Mike
Since James was too hungover after our going away party the previous night, TStephens, Dennis, Nottingham and I decided to spend a splendid day biking in spite of an ominous weather report.
We met up in Clarendon and headed out to the National Arboretum in Northeast which I’ve somehow avoided going to for the past 22 years of living in the area. On the way there, I managed to make what I thought was a safe maneuver across 6 lanes of traffic to turn onto Constitution Avenue which seemed to make everyone a bit less comfortable with me navigating. This sentiment was not misplaced since I managed to get us to the Arboretum fence instead of the entrance. Minor details.
After a pleasant time looking at trees and having Nottingham tell us what the Chinese Tourists were saying about the Anacostia River, we left the Arboretum for massive Burritos at Union Station.
Once our stomachs had been properly inflated, we realized than Nottingham’s tires had not been properly inflated. After some fine folks at the bike rental nearby place watched us struggle, they offered their air compressor to us. At some point during this ordeal, TStephens noted that in spite of the weatherman’s forecast of thunderstorms, we should have worn sunscreen.
We then embarked on a seven mile ride that I promised was roughly three miles. Along this ride, Dennis and Nottingham realized that I was full of shit and split off whilst TStephens and I soldiered on to Velocity Bike CoOp. I repacked my headset with some new bearings to correct the creak I had been hearing, so TStephens and I departed on our now silent bikes.
Unfortunately, the sky wasn’t so silent, and we got very wet.
