A Carless Weekend

I didn't have any plans for Friday night, but I was looking forward to spending a relaxing night with Jon.  It had been a busy week - dogsitting in Gaithersburg, fundraisers, etc, so a night of catching up on Glee sounded perfect.  (I admit - up until two weeks ago, I had never seen an episode of Glee in my life.  I can now say that I'm hooked, my favorite character is Rachel, and that I intend to watch the Rocky Horror episode next week even though I'm only half way through the first season.)

I took RideOn Route 47 from my office in Rockville to Bethesda.  Route 47 winds south past Montgomery Mall before hooking back east to the Bethesda Metro.  It was a great evening for a run, and after another unsanctioned pitstop at Starbucks, I took off for Van Ness.  I was pumped for the new running playlist that I had put together on the bus ride down to Bethesda.  I like routines (more on that in a later post) and I've got a running playlist of about 40 songs that I usually listen to in the exact same order.  In fact, on my normal run on the Sligo Creek Trail near my apartment in Silver Spring, I know exactly where I should be when a certain song comes on if I'm maintaining the pace I want.  (Of Montreal's "The Party's Crashing Us" comes on when I turn around at University Boulevard if I'm maintaining a 9:30/mile pace, for example.)  But it was time to change things up, so I rearranged and added some songs and put together the playlist to the right.


I was so zoned out that when I got to Chevy Chase Circle and crossed into the District, I exited the Circle too soon and took Western Avenue out instead of following Connecticut Avenue out.  I realized this... eventually... and checked the map on my phone to right my course back to Jon's apartment.  I ended up taking Reno Drive most of the way, which is a nice quiet street that I'll probably use in the future.  It's definitely less busy and I also found it to be a little less hilly than Connecticut.  It took me about 33 minutes to get down to Jon's.

Saturday morning I got picked up by Roger's campaign manager Heather to meet everyone in Potomac for the Potomac Day Parade.  It was a beautiful day, and the parade had a great turnout.  It marked one year since our first real campaign event, and I feel just as good now about being part of Roger's campaign as I did then.  I was grateful that Heather was able to pick me up and give me a ride back to Silver Spring - I could have ridden my bike but given that I had to get several things done that afternoon I was appreciative of the ride.

Saturday night Jon had box tickets to the Capitals game against the Atlanta Thrashers.  I was psyched, since I'd never been to an NHL game before.  It ended up being a great game:  Alexander Semin recorded his fourth career hat trick and the Capitals won 4-3 in overtime.  We took the metro both there and back - I forget that sometimes the metro actually is affordable.  Since for once I found myself actually riding the metro during "reduced fare" hours, it only cost $1.60 each way.

The coming week is my last week of carlessness.  Can't believe how quickly it's gone by.

"More Mooching" or "Tonight I Met Henry Waxman"

This morning I took the same RideOn Route 56 bus to get to the office from Gaithersburg that I took there the night before to dogsit.  I had a great time with Tango and Sapphire, as always.  The bus didn't take quite as long in the morning as it did in the afternoon - I got on at the stop at Quince Orchard Road and Orchard Ridge Road at 8:15 and arrived at the office at 8:56 - 41 minutes.  The good part is that the stop for the 56 bus is right in front of the door to my building, as opposed to the Route 46 stop which is at Maryland and Jefferson or the Q2/4 stop at the Rockville metro.  The commute didn't contain any exercise, which I don't like, but there wasn't much I could do since I left my bike and running shoes at the office.

A low-quality iPhone pic of
Congressman Waxman introduing Roger



I knew that after work I'd be supporting Roger at a fundraiser in Bethesda.  We've been campaigning for over a year now, so I've been to many fundraisers like this one.  But this one was different, thanks to two very high profile guests:  Congressmen Henry Waxman and Chris Van Hollen.  Roger, before getting elected to the County Council, had a long career on Capitol Hill, part of which was spent working for Rep. Waxman.  Our campaign was thrilled that during such a busy election season we were able to schedule both him and Chris Van Hollen, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to make an appearance at a fundraiser for us.  The only problem for me was that I'd most certainly have to mooch a ride there.  Thankfully, our Chief of Staff Cindy, who has come through for me before, was able to give me a lift again.  I hate mooching, but when a ride comes with a stop at Subway and some Rock Band 2, it could be worse.

Both Congressmen had nice things to say about Roger, and everyone in the room, after sharing some laughs, agreed on the magnitude of this upcoming election, and the importance of maintaining a Democratic majority in the House and Senate.  After they were done, I grew some balls and introduced myself to the Chairman.  My conversation with the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee went something like this:

CB:  Mr. Chairman, I'm Chad Bolt, I work in Roger's Council office.

HW:  Nice to meet you, Chad.

CB:  You know, I'm actually reading The Waxman Report right now.

HW:  (laughs) Oh yeah?  You like it?

CB:  Yeah I think it's great!

HW:  Well good.  Nice to see you.

And that was that.  (Read: IT WAS AWESOME.)  Afterward, I was able to get a ride home to Silver Spring from another good friend, Miti.  Despite having to mooch twice, it was a great night.  I just realized that this month of carlessness is down to just five days...

A Carless Low Point: The Mooch

I was hoping it wouldn't happen so soon.  It's only Day Three.  My AM commute was fine: another very pleasant ride on Route 81, which took about a half hour from the White Flint Metro to the Rockville Metro.  But, to get to a work meeting, today I had to borrow someone's car.

I attend regular meetings of the C&O Canal Network, which is a gathering of stakeholders and advocates for the C&O Canal and Great Falls Park, on behalf of our office.  The meetings take place at the park's visitor center, located down a windy entrance from where Falls Road meets MacArthur Boulevard.  In other words, it's lovely, but it's way out in the middle of nowhere, from a public transit perspective.

Going to meetings of this kind in the community is part of my job, and I fully expected various meetings like this one would arise during the month I'm going carless.  I had been operating under the assumption that the County had a car share program that would be available for people just like me.  While it's true that the County did institute a pilot program for such a car share service, it was eliminated, along with an avalanche of other really great things, from the Fiscal Year 2011 Operating Budget - and understandably so.  Various departments still make cars available to their employees, but if you want to pick one up, you need to get yourself to the depot, located on Seven Locks Road in Rockville.  It is not my intention to be critical of the County - this is a blog about getting around without a car - so I will refrain from commenting on the wisdom of locating the County's fleet of vehicles for use by employees in a spot you need a vehicle to get to.

I plugged my destination into Google Maps, and was given the route to your right.  Three buses, a nine-minute taxi ride, and one hour 54 minutes later, I'd arrive at Great Falls.  Seriously?  The 46 to the 34 to the 402 and then hail a cab?  I decided that this was not a good use of my time.  I talked it over with my very supportive Chief of Staff, who immediately offered to let me borrow her car.

Three days in, and there it is: the mooch.  I was really hoping that this endeavor in my own carlessness would not result in just using other people's cars.  I'm chalking this one up as a rare exception in order to get to a remote (to say the least) part of the County for work purposes.  But I'm not gonna lie, I do feel a like I cheated...  Tomorrow will be better.