It was a very chilly morning commute. I actually wore arm warmers for 1/2 the commute - in June in Washington, D.C. Unheard of! I (randomly) met my morning commuting buddy, Chip. He is retiring from the Coast Guard in less than 2 weeks. I will miss seeing him on the trail.

My afternoon commute was different. I had to go to a meeting at 2 p.m. so last week I e-mailed the organizer and asked him if I could ride my bike to the meeting and park it in the conference room. He's a runner so he "gets it". His response - "Cool. We can accommodate the bike and we can accommodate the rider." So instead of getting on the metro, I got on my bike. It took me less than 8 minutes to get to the building (in downtown D.C.) where the meeting was being held. I walked into the building and when I went to lean the bike against the wall, the security guard said, "Excuse me. What are you doing?" Well, apparently you're not supposed to bring bikes in the building. I guess I'm used to where I work where the security guards chat with me every day about my cycling. The guard told me that I would have to leave my bike outside but I don't even own a lock because my Madone is always by my side. I told him that the meeting organizer said that I could bring the bike so he called him and Kerry came down to the lobby. He looked at me (in my kit) and looked at the bike and said, "You were serious?" I cracked up. We went upstairs and I put the bike in his office and changed into professional clothes in the restroom. After the meeting, I did a quick change and one of the participants (they were all very cool university professors) said, "Did you just change in a phone booth?!"

I had to do my city commute instead of my daily trail commute. I was extremely alert and wired but I made it home safely.