Like most enthusiastic hobbyists knitters have certain things they gravitate toward and fall in love with, be it designers, objects or yarn. For example, there are knitters that will only every knit mittens and only in a specific yarn. There are those of us that have many skeins of sock yarn but have never once attempted a sock and others that boggle at this. But since our hobby involves pointy sticks, I do not recommend mocking any of us for this unless you are part of the club. I have only been knitting for 2.5 years, but I seem to have found my calling for indie dyers. I have fallen in love with two in particular, but I am going to tell you about the first one I fell in love with here.

In January 2011, a mere 2 months after I learned to knit, I was in the Bay Area for a long weekend to visit friends and to learn to make marmalade. Before my class, a non-knitting friend said to me “You have to go to this store that opened recently, I am told it is terrific.” And he promptly dragged me, not unwillingly of course, to A Verb For Keeping Warm. Bear in mind, I had only been knitting for 2 months so this experience was mostly lost on me at the time. I was overwhelmed and over my head, not entirely sure what I was looking at. I also knew enough not to leave empty handed so I picked out some yarn used to knit a sample I liked (I was new to knitting, but not without taste!) and took my purchase to the register.

I think I ended up with even more of a deer in the headlights look when someone started to wind my skein for me… it kept getting tangled so was taking a really long time and I was going to be late for my class. A really sweet woman with a nice smile came up and once advised of the situation offered to mail my yarn to me at no additional charge. I later realized it was the owner, Kristine. Of course, I received my yarn promptly as promised later that week.

The Ishbel in AVFKW yarn was the first complex knitting project I had tried and I am actually wearing it as I type this, over 2 years after I finished it. Originally I had planned to gift it but I just could not part with it once I was done. It was the first yarn I had used where I had met an actual person that had put themselves into it. If you just look around the web site, you will see that Kristine puts herself into everything there.

Not long after finishing, I discovered a shawlette based yarn club and it happened that the second yarn I received in my first club was from AVFKW. The color was amazing… a silvery, lilac color. After that I was hooked and have now been in AVFKW’s Pro-Verbial club for the past two years. I cannot knit as fast as the yarn comes out, but I am OK with that. Since I have not been back to Oakland, I like just having random yarn sent to me from AVFKW. I have always found the textures of the various yarn weights to be completely satisfying. I have been working with one recently at my Saturday knitting group and both the color (Old Growth) and texture have been well liked by other people too. I do not even know what to say about the colors. They are made with natural dyes and I find them very soothing to look at.

I do wish I could be in Oakland today. Kristine has taken her passion for yarn and local textiles to the next level. She has created a yarn with locally raised sheep. It is called Pioneer and it is debuting today! There are natural sheep colors and naturally dyed colors. It is just amazing to think about. I am so excited to see, touch, and knit the results! It is also really interesting to read about. You can read about the project on the AVFKW blog here: The California Wool Project: Pioneer. You can also read more about what goes into creating Pioneer and what it is like to knit with in these posts: Pioneer. And if you are not sure what you would do with it, keep your eye out for the kit that will be available later today!

I am not sure which I find more daunting- the idea of fundraising $2400 or biking hills. To help with both, I am going to try to write a little more in general but this post is specifically going to be about physical preparation for the ride.

I think a lot of people hung up on the general discussion happening in the media with regard to BMI and the “obesity epidemic” would look at me and be surprised that I have committed myself to a 300 mile bike ride. I am overweight. I was overweight on and off during childhood and I have been most of my adult life. I played sports in high school and for the last few years I have made a more concerted effort to stay active. I have no apprehension over the length of the ride. I certainly will not win any speed awards, but this ride is a tour not a race. The idea of hills, on the other hand, I hate riding hills.

I am generally a healthy person. I have some issues with my blood pressure being low for various reasons beyond my control which can present some obstacles when attempting to ride long distances and up hills. Spring has certainly not been my friend this year either. You do not want to be around me when my eyes are red, nose is running, throat is burning, blood pressure is bottoming out, and I am trying to climb a hill. It is certainly not a pretty site.

The Climate Ride has training suggestions on their web site. As a regular gym goer, I feel like I am at least on target for this. I go to the gym weekdays before work and workout with a personal trainer once per week. And I am a bike commuter. I just need to make the time for some longer rides as outlined on their “Week 7-12″ list. To that end, I have set up a Training Calendar on my site that I will fill in with a general overview of my activity starting with the week of April 8th since that is the week that I committed to the ride. If you hold your mouse over an entry, you can see any detail I filled in, for example what I did at the gym that day. I also added a countdown timer to the ride that is visible on every page.

If anyone has any super hill climbing tips, please share!

Last year I had the brilliant idea that I would do the Climate Ride in 2013 since I would turn 40.

Then some things occurred that had me convinced that I could not make a May ride in 2013. However, things are starting to improve and the ride will be in September this year instead of May like last year so I started to entertain the idea again. At the urging of an acquaintance, who also happens to be the captain for the WABA Climate Ride team and a first time Climate Rider, I attended an open house at WABA for the ride. I also spent some time reading the Climate Ride site in detail. I won’t bore you with my decision making process, but I decided to give it a try.

I am going to make an effort to document my preparation here. In the mean time, please visit my fundraising page which is also copied below. Each participant is required to raise a minimum of $2400 to ride. They then select up to 5 beneficiary organizations from among those vetted by Climate Ride to be the recipient(s) of the funds they raise. I have selected WABA as my 100% beneficiary. They will receive 50 to 60% of the money which, from my understanding, is a large percentage for a ride of this type. (The remainder is used by Climate Ride to create the ride, staff their organization, and do the minimal advocacy work they do directly).

I have included the information from my fundraising page below so you can read about why this ride and WABA are important to me.

Do you remember carefree bike rides as a kid? Summer days spent riding for hours without a care or worry in the world? Days when enough people rode their bikes that people shared the road and parents did not need to worry about their kids being gone on their bikes for hours? I do. And I really miss it.

As someone that lives in a congested city, I have made a conscientious effort to minimize my car usage by using my bike for commuting, errand running, and general transportation. For the most part it is a great experience, but there is still a lot of work that can be done to make it better by making the environment healthier and the option safer and viable for more people. We can bring back those carefree bike riding days for kids everywhere. Help support my effort to raise awareness of sustainable solutions and bike advocacy!

I’m doing my part to take action and resolve our serious sustainability issues, but I need YOUR HELP!

There are a host of issues affecting the health of our planet and economy. Right now, it is more important than ever to work toward a sustainable and green future. A great way that you can help do something meaningful and concrete is to support my fundraising for Climate Ride. I’m riding more than 300 miles toward in order to raise money for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. They have been working in the Washington DC region since 1972 with the mission of creating a healthy, more livable region by promoting bicycling for fun, fitness, and affordable transportation; advocating for better bicycling conditions and transportation choices for a healthier environment; and educating children and adults about safe bicycling. They are making a difference by promoting green energy and bicycle transportation and fighting climate change. Your generous donation will help my beneficiary work to turn the tide, build the green economy, and secure our energy future.

You can make a secure online donation today by clicking on the ‘Support Me’ button. You’ll automatically receive an acknowledgment and I will be notified by email of your support.

Thank you for your help!

I have realized that stopping to blog about all the things I have been doing means that I am not actually doing them. I have no shortage of things I could write, just a shortage of time. When it comes down to it, writing falls to the bottom of the priority list. I have a bike to ride and tons of things to knit so I doubt this will get updated much anymore.

Rental bike at THE Whole Foods. They told me I was renting a hybrid.

I now hate Texas more than ever.

Do not get me wrong, I was not letting past experience be a predictor for future performance. All of my past trips to Texas have been for business and have been absolutely miserable through a combination of everything that can go wrong will and abysmal weather. I mean really- how often does Dallas ice over in the winter? Well, the only answer I have is every time I am there. I never messed with Texas but it always messed with me. Fort Worth and Houston never felt a need to correct the impressions of Texas that Dallas had left me with.

But Austin… Austin would be different. I was going by choice. It was going to be a nice 3.5 day long weekend/ mini-vacation. The first thing I did after booking my plane ticket was rent a bike. When I checked the weather a week out it was all glorious sun and temperatures in the 70s. Not only would I finish my Utilitaire, I would do every control point again. In one day.

It would turn out mistake one of the trip was rental bike selection. There is a little conference in Austin in March (my boyfriend was going for work hence my decision to go to Austin to tag along) and I was having a hard time getting in touch with some other places that rented bikes so I went with one of those places that just exists to rent bikes to tourists. The bikes were not sized well, were poorly maintained, and were 3 speed city cruisers when I had been charged for hybrids. They were not ideal for an 8 mile ride from hotel to downtown but I figured still better than nothing when I saw them (my ass disagrees, still).

The second mistake I made was not keeping up on the weather. My boyfriend checked two days out only to find such a drastically different forecast I was convinced he was lying to me just to play a trick on me. According to a friend of mine that lives there, the temperature dropped close to 30 degrees as I was flying to Austin. Friday ended up like this and Saturday was even worse. According to the travel guide I picked up on my library Utilitaire trip, Austin averages 350 days of sunshine per year. I feel robbed.

I have not even told you what happened before I left. My flight to Austin was Thursday evening so I went to the office most of the day first. My mother called while I was in meetings all morning. I got online before I checked my voicemail though and found a message from my second cousin in LA waiting for me. Our Great Aunt Midge, the last surviving sibling of my maternal grandfather, had died the night before. Later in the afternoon I received a message from my father. His brother, my Uncle Joe, had also died early that morning.

I decided to proceed with my plans and leave Austin early once I knew when all the services would be held. During my layover in Chicago I received a call from the owner of the pet service I use. Two different employees of his had been unable to get into my house that evening. There was no reason why they should not have been able to so he agreed to go pick up the keys and try it himself. I was close to fried at this point and called my sister to vent. There was no overnight delivery service within the airport so I could not ship anyone additional keys. I would just have to wait and see while pondering if the universe was telling me to just not go to Austin. When I arrived at my gate for my flight, they were offering $300, hotel, dinner and breakfast vouchers and a flight the next day for one person to give up their seat to Austin. I texted my sister since she lives for those kind of deal. Then they were up to $400. She told me to take the vouchers and get booked back to DC on my current ticket. $500. I was determined to have a nice partial vacation and got on the plane just as they involuntarily bumped someone. I landed in Austin to crappy weather and happy news that the cats had been fed.

Friday morning I discovered a day full of rain and the bike issue. I was not going to be deterred though and got my boyfriend and the bikes and began the ride downtown. Austin is a great city to bike in. The bike lanes are plentiful and extensive. There is a well marked network through the city. I quickly noticed the aggressive and antagonistic attitude common between drivers and cyclists in DC pretty much did not exist in Austin. When drivers wanted to make a right turn at a light where we were already stopped, they would stay behind us to give us plenty of time to get through the intersection before they turned across the bike lane. Other cyclists we saw stopped at red lights and stop signs. It was the nicest commute I have ever had as long as I ignore the part where we had to ride a mile north to cross the highway our hotel was on before we could head south into Central Austin and Downtown.

Friday and Saturday were both quite wet but I rode both of them- 10.95 miles Friday and 17.2 on Saturday. Friday was a little more shopping oriented since my boyfriend had not brought his bike gloves and neither of us had brought anything more than light weight base layers so I went out to pick up a few things. Luckily, we both had our rain pants with us. Both days I spent as much time as possible in coffee shops and other third spaces because the weather was just the icing on my cake of defeat for this trip. Friday was so cold, wet and miserable that we left the bikes locked up at the Whole Foods parking garage and cabbed back to our hotel. My boyfriend was the envy of the valet at our restaurant that night went I sent him into the bathroom with some dry, thick Chrome wool socks to change into. The valet was trying to dry his with the hand dryer. I was called a “good woman” more than once for that move. I had met one of the hostess at the restaurant earlier that day while buying those socks at Mellow Johnny’s where she also works. Like all the locals we met, she was really sweet and helpful despite the invasion occurring. She helped us figure out where to lock up the bikes for the night even though she still did not recommend it. Bike theft is a huge issue in Austin. With insurance, well marked bikes and very little love for them (the weather definitely colored our feelings for the bikes) we were willing to risk it.

I have qualifying rides both days, but I am going to invoke the rule where I can use two stops in one trip since I need to use my dinner trip on Saturday instead of Friday to qualify for that category (Whole Foods was less than a mile from the restaurant) and my favorite store that is not a grocery store was also on Saturday.

I got to THE Whole Foods (not the but THE- it is the original) around 9:30 on Saturday and confirmed both to my delight and disappointment that the bikes were still there. I went in for coffee and wi-fi. I needed to plot my day until 5:30. The temptation to go back to the hotel was quite high but I forced myself to make the best of it and at least ride around to different coffee houses for 8 hours. A little before 5 I went to Stitch Lab, a funky little fabric store in Austin that also has classes. I had really wanted to take their oilcloth class that day but it had been sold out with no cancellations. Luckily, the lovely owner Leslie agreed to give me a private class that evening! So I picked out materials and learned the tricks of learning to machine sew oilcloth. Now, to design some bike bags! If you are ever in Austin and have the inclination to do some sewing, I cannot recommend Leslie enough. She is a fabulous teacher and a lovely woman. The fabric selection is nicely curated and quite delightful. It took much restraint for me to not start buying things up on the spot.

The two bags I made. I have two smaller ones to complete that will nest in the one on the right.

After My Stitch Lab class, I headed back across the river to downtown to meet my boyfriend at Haddington’s to see if we could have dinner there. Again. We had gone the night before and loved it so much we wanted more. The bike shop hostess had put me on a reservation waiting list the night before and while I was sitting at the bar with a cocktail waiting for the boyfriend to finish his schmoozing, the hostess on duty called my phone and said she could seat us in 30 minutes. Most excellent. So another fabulous dinner was had.

The plan when we left Haddington’s was to ride toward the university to catch a bus back to our end of town. Unfortunately, we did not have the foresight to plan on what we should do if the bus was already carrying one bike. We should have left the boyfriend’s bike locked near the bus stop and taken mine back to the hotel sine I was leaving Sunday. Instead, we waved the bus on, set an alarm for the time the tracking system said the next bus would be at that stop and started pedaling. It was a tough ride on those bikes but at lest it was only misting and not too cold. By the time the alarm went off there did not seem much point in waiting for the bus so we trudged on in our misery. We made it back safely but were very cranky at this point. This is my third night ride for Utilitaire and my light setup is the same helmet setup documented in my previous posts (yes, i traveled with my own helmet/lights). I also had my trusty red Shower Pass rain jacket with reflective striping.

I woke up Sunday morning in Austin to a clear blue sky and the sun shining. I cursed Texas and shook my fist at the sun as my flight took off, taking me to NJ and PA for Some family mourning time actually happy to be ending my vacation an entire day early.

Ride 1 of 2 (11 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Store that is not a grocery store
Date: 3/10/2012
Destination: Stitch Lab
Miles Completed: 17.2
Night Ride?: no

Ride 2 of 2 (12 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Dinner
Date: 3/10/2012
Destination: Haddington’s
Miles Completed: 17.2
Night Ride?: yes

Read all posts in this series by clicking here.

View my progress on my Utilitaire Control Card

Smucker Farms of Lancaster County is a fairly new specialty grocery store on 14th St NW next to Martha’s Table and Martha’s Outfitters.

This week I thought I was going to have to utilize Utilitaire rule 7: “You may utilitaire twice in one day one time only! For example, you could choose to utilitaire to lunch, and then do another ride to dessert.” It was a rule I was not planning on invoking, but the past few weeks have been conspiring against me. I was under the weather so my only rides were commutes and excursions to the doctor. Due to a few last minute changes, like deciding I could not ride Vasa Suday and a book I had a hold on at the library coming in, I did manage to make two rides this week outside of my normal commute and doctor visits.

On Saturday I set out late (for me) and did not leave the house until 1 pm or so. The weather was nice but I was not expecting the wind. I decided to head up 14th Street to go grocery shopping since at this point I still thought I would be going to Vasa on Sunday and therefore missing the farmers market so I needed to buy food somewhere. I was headed to Smucker Farms of Lancaster Co., a small farm-to-market grocer that opened recently just north of U Street. I stopped for lunch along the way. When I got there, before I could head into Smucker, I saw that Martha’s Outfitters had a 50% off sale on sweaters so I decided to see if I could find anything for the Betz White class at Fibre Space I will be taking later this month. I scored 5 wool sweaters in a variety of colors for $13.25 (total) so I was happy with that. Then I went next door to Smucker where they were had 20% off frozen beef. Nice. I grabbed a london broil and a chicken and proceeded across the street to the Yes Market for some vegetables, and some sugar for some canning projects I needed to finish Saturday night.

Then I decided to get in some coffeeneuring at Peregrine afterward. I had grand plans of continuing on to Bicycle Space to see their new digs followed by a trip to 5th St Ace but while drinking my coffee I had to sadly admit I really was not up to it at all. Instead I stopped in Logan Hardware where I was able to get the canning lids I needed but completely forget a tarp and some plastic for my newly organized woman cave (aka, our finished basement where I also have my woman only fridge and a standalone freezer) where I recently reorganized my space so I can work on my project bike indoors (there is a man cave in the house too, it is the second bedroom upstairs). I decided not to head back in for those items and instead headed home, feeling like I had pedaled much more than the mere 8 miles I managed to eek out. I had enough gone to enough places to get my Utilitairing done for the week.

The bike lanes were remarkably clear for a weekend. I told a jogger twice he was not in the jogging lane but he seemed to have grown immune to being told this by cyclists because he completely ignored me. I had to let some tourists on Penn know the walk/ don’t walk signs are in fact there for a reason and perhaps it is best to follow them in an unfamiliar city. That is getting old really fast. New to me though was the rampant crosswalk blocking on 14th. I guess I just do not go there enough. 3 out of 4 crosswalk/ curb cuts I attempted to utilize in order to get to the bike racks on the sidewalk along 14th were blocked by parked cars (I had the Travoy so I find it easier to use curb cuts). I did not have the patience to call them all in for ticketing. While I was drinking my coffee I actually saw the owners of the two different vehicles blocking a crosswalk come out. The first one left without event. The second made me pray for a cop to come by right away. First, she nearly backed into someone that was using the crosswalk to actually cross the street. Then she swung out into 14th to make a u-turn and nearly took another pedestrian out. Amazing.

Week 5 of 6
Ride 1 of 2 (9 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Grocery Store
Date: 3/3/2012
Destination: Smucker Farm of Lancaster Co.
Miles Completed: 7.86
Night Ride?: no

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

Late Saturday night I received an email notice that a book I was waiting for at the library would be ready to pick up after 2 the next business day. Luckily, Sunday is a business day at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library branch of the DC Public Library. The main branch of the DC Public Library is the only library designed by famous modern architect Mies van der Rohe and the only building in DC designed by Mies. I had decided late Saturday that I would not be doing the Vasa ride. I was also not biking to the farmers market. I did, however, have a board meeting for the DC State Fair late in the afternoon not far from there so I decided I could swing by on the way and get my second Utilitaire in for the weekend.

My ride to the library was windy and fairly weird. Maybe it was just the Sunday traffic. I yelled at a taxi driver for u-turning across the Penn Ave bike lanes and he proceeded to drive along, head hanging out his window staring at me. A Peapod truck driver rode my rear tire for over a block in the bus/ bike lane on 7th. There were no vehicles in the traffic lane and the driver proceeded ahead of me toward H just as I was trying to figure out what he was up to and how I should go about turning on to G with the weird behavior he was displaying. G itself was a mess with cars parked across the bike lane a full 90+ minutes after angle parking was over. And my ride down 9th later was calm.

The library was impressively busy for a Sunday. I found my book on the hold shelf and was out of there and on my way to my meeting fairly quickly. From the library, I headed south on the 9th St bike lane for a few blocks to go to Teaism for my board meeting where I coffeeneured with a Darjeeling. I headed home just as the sun was setting and the wind was still blowing.

Week 5 of 6
Ride 2 of 2 (10 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Library
Date: 3/4/2012
Destination: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Miles Completed: 3.52
Night Ride?: no

Read all posts in this series by clicking here.

View my progress on my Utilitaire Control Card

My standard evening view. I know people pay a lot to come here and see it, mostly because they like to stand in the bike lanes and photograph it (please do not stand in the bike lanes).

I had a great Utilitaire post all ready to write up about how I rode my bike 35 miles to buy a chicken. But you know what I did not do? Take a picture during the trip. Therefore, according to Utilitaire rule 9 my 35 mile chicken ride is not qualified to be a Utilitaire. I have a receipt, and most of the chicken still. But that would be a picture taken after the fact. I am very disappointed.

I did, however, take some pictures on one of my commutes last week so instead I will write what I can remember of my commute on the Thursday night in question.

My commute to work starts in the morning with a stop at the gym. I ride in my gym clothes and bring work clothes with me. My boyfriend and I ride together but he goes directly to his office first since it is pretty close to the gym and he has a good place to leave his bike there. Unless the weather is bad, it is rarely dark out when I leave in the morning.

I really do have a beautiful commute. I live on the south side of the National Mall so it is rare that any of my rides do not involve crossing it. My commute takes me directly passed the National Museum of the American Indian, National Air and Space Museum, National Gallery of Art East Building, Canadian Embassy building, and Newseum. I also see, but am not directly adjacent too, numerous other historical and important buildings including the Washington Monument and National Capitol. All of that is just within a mile. I try not to take it for granted and remember how lucky I am to live here.

After the gym, I ride the rest of the way to the office (just over half a mile) where I am again lucky and have a secure place to leave my bike in the garage in our building. The excitment level of the ride varies depending on how many people are parked in the lanes illegally or how many pedestrians decide to cross without looking right in our right of way (what possesses a person to walk into a street on a “Don’t Walk” and proceed slowly while looking at their BlackBerry I will never understand). Occasionally other cyclists will decide to do something ridiculous too and I have yelled at more than one. I do not recall anything truly exceptional that day meaning someone likely did something and I likely yelled but it has become part of my new morning norm.

I do remember the ride home better. Most days I ride to my boyfriend’s office and we ride home together because 4 eyes on crazy rush hour traffic is better than 2. It is also just a nice way to finish the day too. On Thursday nights he has a class though so I ride home on my own. On those nights I take 9th street. I have a love hate relationship with 9th. There is a shared bus and bike lane from where I pick it up until a block before I hop back on to Pennsylvania Ave (the last block has a separate bike lane). If you are a regular DC commuter, particularly from MD or VA, you will recognize the shared bus bike lane as the “OMG! EMPTY LANE! Mine! All Mine! MUST SPEED OUT OF TOWN!!!” I love this lane because it is big, the road is on a down grade for almost its full length so you can pick up some nice speed and once you do, you pretty much never hit a red. I hate this lane because I think it is one of the more dangerous bike lanes in the city. It is on a primary route out of the city to VA and in addition to the crazy rush hour traffic a lot of pedestrians seem to favor it as a great place to jay walk. I feel I need to ride it once in a while though because it is there and I would prefer it get safer rather than go away all together. So why do I still remember my ride home on it almost a week later? Because nothing remarkable happened. The drivers were not particularly crazy. There were no drivers like the time 2 weeks before when a lady from VA zigged in and out of the lane and I actually rear ended her through a series of wonderfully crazy moves she pulled all in a lane she never should have been in. I did not encounter jay walkers, especially none like the “gentleman” the week before that walked out into the road without looking while wearing HEADPHONES then yelled at me for being on my bike in the bike lane. When he finally agreed it was a bike lane (not that it made a difference if it was not since legally I can be in the street and I was in one of the sections of the city where it was illegal for me to be on the sidewalk based on the time of day, but I really did not think we could get that far in his lesson on the laws that evening) he decided I still needed to look out and stop for him as opposed to him watching where he was going or, heavens forbid, crossing the 4 lanes of traffic legally. None of that. Just a nice 22 mph ride down to the Pennsylvania Ave lanes where I had the usual jay walkers and photographers and pedestrians who like the nice waiting area in the middle of the road, completely oblivious to the fact they are in a live traffic lane.

I took a few breaths and reminded myself I live in a beautiful city and I was never going to survive tourist season if I did not start finding new cycling routes. And I took the picture above just before turning back down 4th and across the mall to battle the headphone wearing zombie joggers that wear no reflective gear.

This was a night ride and my light setup was as described in my first night ride. I was wearing the same jacket too since it is water proof, has reflective strips and is a good windbreaker. It also layers well. I rarely wear a different outter layer when I bike.

Week 4 of 6
Ride 2 of 2 (8 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Work
Date: 2/23/2012
Destination: Work
Miles Completed: 5.02
Night Ride?: yes

Read all posts in this series by clicking here.

View my progress on my Utilitaire Control Card

Loaded up with vegetables at my CSA pick up.

I ride my bike nearly every day, but writing about weekend trips seems more interesting since I go more places. I am not sure I have the stamina or wit to write amusing variations on my everyday commute.

On Saturday I met up with Adam and Ben at Pound for some #saturdaycoffeeclub, a developing offshoot of #fridaycoffeclub like #bikedchh. If you are every in DC, just keep an eye on twitter for some informal biking meet ups! Coffee was had and there was some generally nerding out about city planning and riding bikes.

I had another errand to run in the same neighborhood as Pound, but two time sensitive errands to run as well so I decided to head out into the wind toward Adams Morgan. On the way, I dropped off a bunch of wine corks for crafting projects to another tweep, Gillian, who happens to be working on a fantastic sounding documentary about Annie Londonderry, the first woman to bicycle around the world. I am still mentally preparing to try NYC to DC in 2013 so I really can’t imagine around the world in 1895!

I finally made it to Adams Morgan, experiencing the cruelty of riding uphill in the wind, to pick up lovely vegetables grown by my lovely farmers 99.9 miles outside of DC as the crow flies. Unfortunately for Randy every week, the roads weren’t built by people following the path of those crows. Yet, he still comes to bring us food all the time anyway. I loaded up my bike and got ready for my next time sensitive errand.

The reason I did not have the Travoy out with me (if you noticed in the photo above) was because I also had my laptop. When I use the Travoy I cannot use other bags on my rack and I felt more comfortable, whether it was justified or not, with my laptop strapped to the rack in my messenger bag than in the Travoy bag. I had to go to the Apple store to finally deal with a well documented issue with my vintage of computer since none of the issued updates fixed it and I was finally at the point where I could no longer listen to the beeps and clicks without wanting to pull my hair out. The freezing was at least amusing since I only noticed it when watching video. The video would stop while the audio would continue then the video would run really fast to catch up with the audio. Ok. That got old too. Anyway, I had 3 months left on my Apple Care, all of my data backed up, and a 12:30 Genius appointment in Georgetown. Luckily they agreed to replace my drive so I wished my computer a fond adieu and headed back out.

I stopped for a sandwich then headed for work where I did some more Coffeeneuring. It was really cold so the Peet’s machine was a welcome site. Luckily, I just had to go to work, not actually do work. I had left both of my phones sitting in the office the night before. (Yes, both. While my employer generously pays for unlimited BlackBerry use, I keep my personal stuff separate.) I quickly finished my coffee and headed to Bicycle Space to talk to the guys about pedals.

When I first got a non-hybrid “fast” bike back in 2004, clipless pedals were not far behind. I lived in the suburbs and mainly stuck to multi-use paths in those days. When I moved into the city in 2005, I kept the clipless on, but started riding a lot less. I went through phases where I was determined to ride more, but after a clipless related crash on a city street one day I mostly stopped. When I decided to start riding again in the fall of 2009, the first thing I did was ditch the pedals.

Now that I am a lot more comfortable riding in the city and starting to look at improving my riding and taking longer trips I decided to try clipless again. I went to Bicycle Space looking for dual sided platform pedal and to see if there were different shoes I might like better. Phil and Paul were working in the back that day which made the trip worth it just to hang out in the back a little. They assured me I did not need different shoes and I could walk around to my heart’s content without fear of destroying them. That was good to know. I had been under the impression I should not really be walking anywhere on them and the switching between shoes was one of my major irritations with clipless. After some more talking I picked up a set of dual platform pedals and was on my way.

My last errand was back by where I started my day. I went to Hill’s Kitchen to exchange my Sodastream canister and pick up the popcorn topping they have since my boyfriend likes it on crackers. After that, I went home, feeling as if I had ridden twice as far due to the wind.

With all the potential control card categories, I have opted to use my chance to make my one substitution (previously requested as per the rules, but I can no longer see the comment where MG said that either one of my requests was allowable). I am going to remove the “Movie” category and make it “CSA Pickup.”

Week 4 of 6
Ride 1 of 2 (7 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: CSA Pickup (substitution for Movie)
Date: 2/25/2012
Destination: Adams Morgan, Star Hollow Farm CSA pickup
Miles Completed: 16.2
Night Ride?: no

Read all posts in this series by clicking here.

View my progress on my Utilitaire Control Card

Lunch and Coffeeneuring Utilitaire at Lot 38

I decided to finally do a meal Utilitaire this week. I usually only eat out on Saturdays  so I decided to use this trip instead since it was a Monday and felt different enough to rank a challenge category. I took the day off because my birthday was on Sunday and I do not work on my birthday. But since I did not have to work on my birthday I floated the day off a day. I had planned on a long ride north and east into Maryland but got a slow start to the day and decided to do nothing instead. Well, except go to the closest place I could for lunch and coffee while meeting the minimum requirements of this challenge. Lot 38 did not exist during the Coffeeneuring challenge and it has been a nice addition to the neighborhood. They have good coffee, light food, a nice space, and Wi-Fi. It is just a mile from my house so I rode up the street a little bit just to be safe on the distance!

Ride Details
Week 3 of 6
Ride 1 of 2 (5 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Breakfast of lunch (includes Coffeeneuring)
Date: 2/13/2012
Destination: Lot 38
Miles Completed: 2.02
Night Ride?: no

On Saturday I did my usual rambling ride, starting out with Weight Watchers and breakfast with my friend Beth. Then I took off on roughly the same route I did two weeks ago.

Sherman Circle is still Sherman statue free!

This ride was more of an activity ride. The only errand I needed to run was a stop at Big Bad Woof (also on my route 2 weeks ago). I had to drop some stuff off at a friend’s house on the way which left me with a decision to make as I headed north east- head for the bike lanes on 11th St or tackle Bastard Hill since I was right at the base of it. I had never tried this particular challenge before and have done a pretty good job of psyching myself out on hills. I recognize this is as much a mental obstacle at this point as a physical one so I have been practicing riding straight up hill on the stationary bikes in the gym. Here is how it went. Riding up the hill without stopping could probably be a control card category on its own. Do you know the worst part of riding up Bastard Hill? The lack of equivalent down hill on the other side.

Since I was headed toward Takoma, I decided to head to stop in at Rooting DC which was being held at the neighborhood high school.

The best bike parking I could find.

Rooting DC is an annual gardening forum to build community among urban gardeners (hello, community meeting!) I am a board member for the DC State Fair and thanks to the initiative of our outgoing President and one of our founders, Ken, we have a DC State Fair table in the Info Fair part of Rooting DC. I went by to help staff the table for a couple of hours and tell people about the fair! (Have you heard of us? You should come out and compete! This will be our third year. Date and location TBD. Last year we had a bike accessory contest so start thinking of ideas!)

I snuck up on Rhea and Ken and got this great candid shot!

I spent about two hours at Rooting DC and talked to a lot of people about the DC State Fair. There was a lot of enthusiasm for what we are doing. I really hope the really exuberant woman figures out how to keep alpacas in DC because alpacas at the fair would be awesome!

When I left Rooting DC, I found a nice little Middle Eastern restaurant to grab a bite to eat (tabbouleh and falafel!) before grabbing grub for the cats at Big Bad Woof. I also went to the Takoma Library since I discovered last week that it had been so long since I had used my library card I had been purged from the system. I browsed a bit and got a new card. There were a lot of people at the library which was nice to see.

My bike at the library.

It was around 3:30 or so at this point, but still really nice out so I did not want to head home just yet. I decided to head back down Georgia Ave (via Piney Branch) for a stop at Qualia Coffee since I never made it there during Coffeeneuring. It is a nice place and it was a beautiful day to sit on their back patio and hang out with the local ally cats that came by. I can definitely recommend Qualia more than I would recommend riding your bike on Georgia Avenue. That was fairly nerve racking and drivers have no regard for the 3 foot passing law there.

When I started this challenge, I figured I would accumulate my 12 rides by doing some of the categories twice. But after last week I began to realize it would not be too difficult for me to do one ride in each category. There are a couple of things I rarely do like go to the Movies or out to Dinner so one of those two categories will definitely be swapped out with my one permitted category change. When I started this ride I thought I was going to make it a library trip. I have a community meeting scheduled in March before this challenge ends, but since that is a harder category to fill I am going to use my Rooting DC stop as community meeting since I can easily go to the library again but a community meeting may be harder to find if my schedule gets changed.

Ride Details
Week 3 of 6
Ride 2 of 2 (6 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Community Meeting
Date: 2/18/2012
Destination: Rooting DC
Miles Completed: 17.99
Night Ride?: no

Read all posts in this series by clicking here.

View my progress on my Utilitaire Control Card

A wet #fridaycoffeeclub

Image courtesy of Felkerino

(You can skip this first paragraph if you know what #fridaycoffeeclub is.)

DC bike personalities MG/@gypsybug and Felkerino/ @dailyrandonneur (both of whom have been mentioned here previously) are not only part of the elite cycling insane   local bike culture, they are people that like a good cup of coffee. And so #fridaycoffeeclub was born. It is a come as you are, preferably via 2-wheels, informal Friday morning coffee meet up that gets around via word of tweet to the #bikedc community. Since I like coffee and bikes and have to be awake when this happens, I think it is fabulous.

Unfortunately, I have a commitment every weekday morning that nearly always prevents me from attending coffee club. I was there once, as evidenced in the photo above, but that has been it so far. Figuring I was not the only one that would have a conflict, I organized #wednesdaybeer for #bikedc (twitter does not pick it up in a search so no link for you). We had a nice group come out to Cafe Mozart recently on a Wednesday and all I had to do was send a few tweets. Cafe Mozart also seems like a good place to meet up. They have a simple beer selection with good happy hour prices, basic mixed drinks, and a broad range of food options. We had people come and go and were there for about 3 hours.

Some people that wanted to be there could not be though, so that is where this post comes in. I have informally committed to organizing 2 more #fridaycoffeeclub meet ups not on Friday and not in the morning during the month of March. I can promise you that I will send a few tweets and that I will not make all of you that are interested happy because that is just the way things work sometimes and I am fairly certain I once gave up “pleasing everyone” for Lent (prior to giving up Lent and subsequently Catholicism for Lent). I will not even promise to be at both events, but I will see what I can do. I am planning on it now, but my work schedule gets quirky sometimes. Who knows, maybe this thing will take off and I will make a Facebook page and we can get special incentives to go places like the food bloggers do.

I tried to do this as a survey but ran out of patience, so we will do this via comments instead. I am going to propose two meetups. You tell me whether you can make one or the other. If you are interested and cannot make either one, please tell me when/ where you would like to meet up. You can also tell me if you have another location entirely in mind. And please read the comments. See what other people are saying and if one of their suggestions works for you too!

Meetup 1- Tuesday March 6th, 5:30 PM, Cafe Mozart

Meetup 2- Monday March 19th, 5:30 PM, Cafe Mozart

Ok, let’s hear what you have to say!