Oh and By the Way, I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

Yesterday was the first day during my adventure in carlessness that I broke out my bike.  It was a great morning for a bike ride, and everything went according to plan - even getting the bike on the RideOn bus bike rack.  With everything going so swimmingly, I figured there was no time like the present to give something else a try for the first time: riding in DC.

Jon just moved to an awesome new apartment in what Google Maps describes as "North Cleveland Park" (it's three blocks north of the Van Ness metro), which added 9.1 miles to my commute to his place after work from where he used to live in North Bethesda.  I definitely knew I didn't want to bike that entire distance on a Friday afternoon, so I took RideOn Route 47 from Rockville to Bethesda, which winds south via Montgomery Mall.  I do have to say that the bus was 15 minutes late when it showed up in Rockville and by the time it arrived in Bethesda it was running even further behind schedule.  I tried to shrug it off though, as I was eager to bike in DC for the first time and eager to see Jon's new apartment for the first time.

I rode out of the Bethesda metro and weaved over to the Capital Crescent Trail.  In my opinion, there's an opportunity for some additional signage pointing you towards the Trail, and once you get there, signage that indicates which direction you're going.  I was a little disoriented when I got to it, and rode about five minutes towards Georgetown until something didn't feel right and I pulled out the map on my phone.  I took the Trail to Connecticut (out of the way - ugh - next time I'll pay better attention) and made a right to start my journey into the city.  (I definitely could have taken Wisconsin from Bethesda down to Military Rd and cut over to Connecticut, but for at least this first time, I wanted to minimize having to ride in traffic on the road as opposed to on the sidewalk.)

It's a pretty pleasant ride down Connecticut, even though it's a very busy street.  I was really excited when I got to the traffic circle, and realized that I had reached another "put up or shut up moment" for myself.  OK - maybe it's just me - but for someone who has rode their bike exclusively on suburban sidewalks for their entire life, riding down Connecticut Avenue in traffic was a little exhilarating.  I knew that, or at least heard once from a credible enough source so that it codified in my mind, bikes are not permitted on sidewalks in DC.  But what I found riding down Connecticut on this particular Friday night was that sporadically parked cars in the right-most lane form a de facto bike lane, which is pretty sweet.  Drivers also seem like they are pretty accustomed to bicyclists (begrudgingly accustomed or not).  The whole trip took about an hour and a half, which I didn't think was that bad, considering it combined my after-work commute and a bike ride.  I had memorized the street names leading up to Jon's place, so I was able to look around as much as possible, keep an eye out for the apartment, and still stay alert enough not to get pulverized by a car.  I had no idea what I was doing, but I hoped that at least it looked like I did.