Molson Bike Tour (North): Mr. Reeves Goes To Washington

Yep, that's right. I visited Washington this week and have officially joined the Presidential race. I'm running on the GDI ticket. Heck, the competition doesn't look unbeatable. I have my cabinet ready to go as my group of friends are qualified as any. My vice-president would be Jim M. as I need an idea guy and Jim has a million of them. My legal staff/spin doctor would be Champ. Press Secretary would be Al C. as the press can be vicious and you can't get mad at Al. Chief Adviser would be government teacher Brian D. as nobody can talk politics better as I'll need some help with the Senate. The Secretary of Defense would be formal Naval man Hank G. The Secretary of Education would be teacher Shelley G. as she will not let this country turn into characters like in the movie Idiocracy (good movie). Dirt Girl Laura O. would make an outstanding Secretary of Agriculture. For my Secret Service, we have Buddy D., Gus and Tommy M. A solid line there for protection. I even stopped by the Watergate (pic below) just so I could get used to that area for future elections (ha). The door man there I assume has had too many people ask to take their picture as he denied my request.

Seriously though, it was my first time to the nation's capitol and seeing all these landmarks in person gets the old ticker pumping a few extra clicks. I was seriously hyperventilating there a bit when I first pedaled (great bicycle town) up to the Washington Monument and over to the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool. Makes you feel pretty proud and fortunate to have been born in this great country, flaws and all.

As noted, D.C. is a great bicycle town. My hotel was less than a mile north of the White House so as Bob Seger says, "I could go east, I could go west, it was all up to me to decide..." I went everywhere. The pedaling through pedestrian and vehicle traffic reminded me of doing the same in New York City back in 1988. Some roads had dedicated bicycle lanes but even with those, you had to beware as folks in D.C. are aggressive in their pursuits to their cushy government jobs. Rightfully so as I would go bonkers having to drive in that traffic every day. They have a nice mass transit system via rail, however, it was shut down on Wednesday which made for an interesting day to leave town. We'll get to that in a bit.

While pedaling Monday morning, I got to witness someone of importance in the royal family having to get something done outside the White House as 15 or so important looking vehicles came barreling out of the side gate while police stopped traffic. I was right in front of it all. I could just picture the secret service guys talking in their walkie-talkies, "heads up for the big headed kid on the bicycle." Those are some bad looking dudes with some bad looking dogs in tow so this big headed kid wasn't going anywhere.

I went by Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot and for such a horrible occurrence, it is kind of sad how the locals around the place are attempting to make a buck off of it. Across from the Theatre you can pay to go in the house where Lincoln actually passed. And next door to that you can have a delicious breakfast at...Lincoln's Waffles.

I'm not a big museum guy but the Smithsonian is the "Smithsonian of museums" if that makes sense so I checked out the American History building. Some good stuff in there. My favorite was the file cabinet that the Nixon "plumbers" broke into that eventually led to the Watergate failure. Those morons beat the crap out of the that thing. My favorite museum was one that a local recommended, the Newseum. They had a portion of the Berlin Wall on display, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo gallery and some cool artifacts from the news world that even ADD-boy Tim could follow along with.
The pedal over to the Georgetown and George Washington campuses was a beautiful one. Rows of joined homes aligning old-school roads with a few pubs mixed in for good measure. Yep, hit a few of those and met some great people along the way.
The Arlington National Cemetery was awe-inspiring to say the least. If you didn't get a little choked up with that experience, you don't get it. I wasn't going to look high and low for it but stumbled upon two 'Reeves' graves along the road (pic below). Represented.
So Wednesday comes and its time for Mr. Reeves to leave Washington. I planned to head to the airport the same way I came, on the rail. My flight wasn't until noon so there was no wake up call needed. I flipped the television on and the local news advised that the rail was closed all throughout the city for a safety inspection. While the traffic in D.C. is tough enough, you take away the rail system and you double your vehicles coming/going to/from the city. A Sunday shutdown would have been more efficient in my thinking but I guess until I am President, I have no say in the matter. No worries as the airport was only 10 miles away and a bus will surely be able to take me there. I walked to the bus station where I thought the bus to the airport would leave. It was going to the airport but to Dulles, not Reagan. I had the option of taking two connecting buses that would take me further away from Reagan airport before I got closer. After crunching some numbers, I decided to take a cab and thankfully found a great driver who dodged the morning gridlock (it was looking pretty fierce) and got me there with time to spare. The bartender at the airport diner joked that while it was a bummer that the rail was not in operation, crime in the city for the day would drop 20% because of it.
Thank you Mother Nature for only raining overnight. I can handle a few clouds. A good city and a good trip.
Future President Trail Head