Bikeless Adventures

Phase one of this operation was completed on Sunday. I went to church in Richmond, Indiana, that morning and then drove the rest of the way across Ohio, West Virginia, and part of Pennsylvania to arrive in Pittsburgh, where the GAP Trail begins. I was able to arrange for the hotel to keep our bikes until Wednesday morning when we start the ride. We’re staying there Tuesday night.

Phase 2 was getting a car to the end of the trail which is in  Washington DC. Actually, its not a car it is a big black Suburban with a giant bike rack on the back. I appreciate that I’ve been able to drive this vehicle across the country even though each of my gas station stops have required a small mortgage payment. However, I had arranged ahead of time and paid for parking in a lot that I assumed was above ground. When I arrived today to park, I found that it was actually underground with a 6’5″ clearance. At the moment I didn’t want to get stuck, I was afraid I might have to back out with people behind me, and I had to pee really bad. So I decided the best approach would be to go pee. I put in a gas station search in me gps, and then raced the two miles to the gas station.

As I pulled into the gas station I noticed two things: first, the gas station building was about the size of a very small bedroom and did not have any evidence of a restroom, and second, there was a guy trying to climb into the metal clothing donation bin and in fact he slipped through the metal doors at the top and I never saw him again. Curious. I picked the only gas station in all of Washington DC that did not have a restroom. 

I went up to the attendant in his little glassed in box and asked him. He was a nice older man, with a strong foreign accent so came to the door and opened it to talk to me. He asked if I just needed to pee and I said yes, so he pointed over to a corner of the lot by some trees and said I could go there. This is, remember, downtown Washington DC although there were some trees around the lot. Then he said, oh just come in and use my toilet you seem like a “gentleman”. I slipped past him into a little teeny room at the end of his building with a single toilet and was very grateful that he was so kind to me.

After taking care of my bladder issues, I decided to face the parking situation. I called and was told the valet of the motel would meet me. When I got back to the opening of the parking garage/cave there was no valet. I decided to risk it because the the guy on the phone said it was actually 7 ft clearance. I went down towards the tunnel and then crept in at about a foot per second with my door open and looking back to see if the bike rack was going to be torn off. Thankfully it made and hopefully it won’t when I come out. 

I packed my bags and headed upstairs to find the shuttle to the airport. Now, with the bikes at the start of the ride and a car at the end I just needed to get back to the start.

I was the only person on the shuttle from the Marriott Residence Inn to Reagan airport. So, trying to accomplish goal 2, I struck up a conversation with the driver. He was from Ethiopia and had been in the DC area for about 22 years. He has a 7-year-old and a 5 year-old. He had little good to say about Ethiopia from a political standpoint due to corruption, but said I had to go to Africa. I didn’t promise I would, but at least he made it sound more interesting. It was a fun conversation with a very nice man.

At Reagan, I took another shuttle to the Hertz rental. I picked up a car and the attendant was quite chatty. He made me almost promise to go to Malaysia or Vietnam because the cost of living was so low. I was having quite an international experience in the capital of our country.

The next part of my adventure involved the DC area freeway system. There isn’t 100 ft of straight road in that city. After you take a few on ramps, you basically have vertigo and no idea which way is west.. Add to that the surrounding trees that all look alike and I was pretty much lost without my gps. Of course, I lost that too because my battery died and the plug for the rental car was different than the cord I had brought with me. Thankfully, I was able to pull over and eventually find the needed cord. 

It wasn’t hard to pull over because most of the time I was driving at between 5 and 15 miles per hour. I left Pittsburgh early hoping that I would get out of DC before rush hour. Unfortunately with my pee problems and clearance problems, I was hitting rush hour perfectly. 

Since we were riding our bikes to Washington DC, and would have a day and a half to look around, I decided that I would visit another site. It’s likely a site that every American should visit: Gettysburg.

I recently finished the book about Lincoln called Team of Rivals, which was excellent, and followed that with a book about General Grant. Gettysburg was a must for those reasons, but also just to better understand our nation and unfortunately mankind. 

The National Park Service provides an app with auto tours that’s excellent. I wasn’t able to complete the auto tour. but I did go to many of the sites and I’m listening to all of the descriptions of the sites. I finished the evening at the Gettysburg cemetery. Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg address in that area. That gave me pause to be standing where he was in the past. However the real pause comes from considering that over 600,000 men died in the Civil War. Sadly after that huge sacrifice,  much of what it was fought over, remained unresolved and even reversed in many Southern States for decades. 

As you stand on some of those hills and look across blank fields, while thinking about cannons going off and bullets flying back and forth, it all seems unbelievable. It was hard for me to be there, but necessary. 

As an upside, I completed my third goal near the visitor center. It turns out that I found a third thing you can do when you’re 65 to add to learning to cook brisket or become a World War II history buff. You can be a Gettysburg expert. Everyone I saw there was basically my age, although I hope I don’t look as rough as most of the others my age. In any case, a couple was trying to figure out things at the map, I shared with them how I had downloaded the app and showed them how to use it and get it. They were very grateful and I was glad I could help. 

Overall, it was a very long day, and likely harder than the eight days of bike riding ahead, but that’s part of the logistics of the long-distance ride: lots of factors to deal with and resolve. I like it.