Anybody interested in a monument tour ride?

[7rider]

I have a book at the house - "Short Bike Rides in and around D.C." and I know they have a few in the Arlington area (off road - bike path sort of jaunts). I noticed one started at the Cemetary and may have hit the Pentagon. I can check and post something - not tonight, I'll be out - but soon.
(oh...that reminds me. I owe Nicole some info on data from my Garmin).
Hmmmm.....

[HillSlugger]

DP suggests that we might want to go by the Eastern Market. It's on 7th St, south of Independence. It might be a good place for lunch, but we go closest to it on the outbound part of our tour.

[7rider]

Well, this route - From "Short Bike Rides in and Around Washington, D.C. (3rd ed.). Michael Leccese. The Globe Pequot Press. 1996" - mimics some of Janice's route. It shows the Pentagon, but doesn't have any routes that go specifically by it.
The book has has another route that goes around Arlington that is on the Mt. Vernon trail. Anyone know if that trail goes by the Air Force Memorial?
Here's a link to the ride....Sorry about the crummy quality - the scan looks fine. PM me if you want a higher quality file. (ed. Actually, it's not too bad)

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...numentride.jpg

[divingbiker]

OK, I finally had the patience to enter the route again into Bikely adding in all the points of interest and the Air Force Memorial and the Victims of Communism Memorial. The cue sheet gets pretty busy with all the sightseeing info in there. Here's the new route.

I assume that everyone knows we're going to have to play it by ear depending on traffic, street closures, etc, that don't show up on the mapping software. It will be especially confusing around the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials and the White House as the roads always seem to be a mess around there. And of course we have no idea what's happening in Arlington Cemetery, though I was told we could ride our bikes there.

Is that enough caveats for you????

My neighbor thinks that there might be places to park our bikes at the Capitol City Brewery next to Union Station (she works near there and checked as she walked by). If not there, there are lots of bike racks right across the street at Union Station and there are cops around there so thefts would be unlikely.

A new TE member, Sunnyside, is still setting up her profile but emailed me that she'll be joining us. So, see y'all at the southeast corner/rightmost arch (see two posts ago) of Union Station at 8:30 Saturday morning!

[Zen]

You guys get all the bugs worked out so the NEXT time you do this all will go smoothly for me

I'll be somewhere north of Thurmont by 8:30 heehee!

[Kalidurga]

Janice, it seems you've done a great job of organizing this ride, so thank you! If none of us get run over by a touron, it should be a ton of fun

ZenC, wave to the Catoctins for me! I love those mountains, but I wouldn't wanna ride 'em.

[HillSlugger]

Janice,

Awesome job on the route map! Thanks for taking care of this.

See you tomorrow by 8:30, Metro permitting.

[7rider]

Janice...you rock! Thanks.
I just got back from the Hill - had some meetings in Dirkson and Longworth. The toutistas were everywhere (even saw a pack of segways go by). The duck busses and double-deckers were out in force. I didn't have as much time as I wanted to scope out Union Station area for bike racks/traffic issues, but it did seem like there is a lot of construction in the area.