"How Do I Get There From Here" or "Baseball History"

Today was Walk To School Day, an opportunity to encourage Montgomery County's students to do just what it sounds like:  walk to school.  It's also a good chance for Roger to get out in the community and meet parents, teachers, and students at a school in District 1.  This year, we celebrated Walk To School Day at Ashburton Elementary School, and we met at the Davis Library to walk there.

The problem for me and my carlessness is that Davis Library is located on Democracy Boulevard near Old Georgetown Road.  In other words, it's not near any metro stops that I could easily bus to and then ride my bike the rest of the way.  The closest one is Grosvenor, but the problem was that there is no quick way to get from Silver Spring to Grosvenor.  I considered taking the Capital Crescent Trail over to Bethesda and then taking Old Georgetown up to the library, but with having to bike back to the office in Rockville afterwards, I thought maybe that was a little bit too far.  After pouring over the RideOn routes in the area (and with help from Jon), I decided I'd take the Route 37 from the Wheaton metro to the intersection of Tuckerman Lane and OGR, then bike the rest of the way down to the library.  The 37 leaves the Wheaton metro every half an hour, so to give myself enough time I needed to pick up the 7:00 bus.  That meant leaving my apartment at 6:30, easily the earliest departure time thus far on this endeavor, but that's mostly because I needed to meet Roger at 8:00.


The green lines represent my bike route; the blue line represents the
RideOn route; the purple line represents how Google Maps told me
to drive to the library.

 The bike ride to the Wheaton metro was an easy one:  up the Sligo Creek Trail to University and make a left, then a left at Amherst to the metro.  What I didn't consider was how dark it would still be leaving at 6:30 - I really need to pick up a light for my bike, especially since it's getting darker earlier at night.  Once I took the RideOn down Tuckerman, which took about a half hour, I made a left on my bike at OGR.  I wasn't sure what kind of sidewalk (if any) would be running along such a major roadway, but there was sidewalk the whole way down to Democracy.  It took about ten minutes to bike to the library, giving me some time to cool off since I was already dressed for the day.

Walk To School Day had a great turnout, and Roger was joined by Ashburton Elementary School Principal Charlene Garran and District 16 Delegate Bill Frick.  I also met a future Pulitzer Prize winner in Julie, a third grader who interviewed me for their school newspaper, The Ashburton Star!  After it was over, I took off on my bike down Tuckerman and back out to Rockville Pike.  I picked up the Route 46 and took that the rest of the way to the office. 

Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Phillies and the Reds was tonight at 5:07.  As a diehard fan, I didn't want to miss any of it by going home after work, so I stayed at the office and watched it there until it was over.  Turns out, I am REALLY glad I did, as it was a game not to miss - Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter, only the second time in the history of baseball it's been done in the playoffs.  I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Batter after batter, strikeout after strikeout Roy dominated the Reds lineup.  My heart pounded the entire way through the ninth inning.  We have a special team this year, and I think it's going to be a very special postseason for us.  (Before anyone accuses me of bandwagoning - I grew up in Pennsylvania and used to listen to Harry Kalas call Phillies games with Richie Ashburn on the radio with my grandfather - back off.)

After work I took the Q2 back to Silver Spring.  It only took about 40 minutes, as rush hour was long over.  I didn't mind the ride: I had just witnessed baseball history.

Day One: Not That Bad, So Far

Day One of my endeavor in carlessness was, of course, the same day a flood warning was issued for the area.  But while the skies were ugly and the roads were wet, it could have been a lot worse.

The "pantry" in my office

I had already planned the different routes I could take to get to my office in Rockville, including a metro bus and a combination of a RideOn bus and running.  Since some other days I'll be running or biking, today I wanted to take the recently improved Q line to work so that I could carry everything I wanted to have for the next few days.  That included lunches for the week, clothes to run in, and food for breakfast.  If I were simply planning to get around by using bus or metro, that would require some planning in and of itself.  But what further complicates my plans is that I intend to fill in missing pieces of bus routes by running or biking.  As a runner, if I'm running in the morning I always prefer to grab a swig of orange juice, down some water and eat breakfast when I get back - meaning that I'd need to keep some breakfast food at the office as well.  So I stuffed all of that stuff in my backpack, and realized that, of my three pairs of black dress shoes, two were already at my office and one was at Jon's apartment.  But, I also needed to take my running shoes to the office, and since I was otherwise lacking a pair of shoes to wear, I just rolled with those.  "Stranger things have been seen on a metro bus," I reassured myself.

It took about 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop at Spring Street and Georgia Avenue.  I couldn't believe how crowded the bus was when it pulled up.  Every seat was filled and ten, maybe fifteen people were standing in the aisle.  I would have tried to snap a picture, but my hands were full and everytime I try to take a picture on my iPhone I encounter major ongoing capacity issues due to my obsession with music, and my phone tells me there's no more room for pictures or anything else.  I wondered what would happen first: the State Radio mix I was listening to would come to an end, the bus would get to Rockville, or the plastic bag carrying my milk, salad, and shrimp pasta leftovers would break. 

I tried to follow the crowd and move back each time the bus stopped and more people tried to stuff on.  Then, somewhere on Viers Mill, the girl sitting right next to where I was standing pulled the "stop requested" cord.  I casually glanced around and realized I was surrounded mostly by people my age or younger probably en route to Montgomery College's Rockville campus where the line terminates.  With no senior citizens in sight, I jockeyed for position in taking over the newly vacated seat and lucked out when the girl took off for the front bus door, blocking the other potential seat-claimer.  SCORE!

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I paid the right amount in bus fare... my SmarTrip card went in to the negative on Saturday coming back from Georgetown, so I grabbed some change before I left my apartment for fare.  But, if there are different fares for SmarTrip and cash, then I probably didn't pay enough.  Amateur mistake, I'll do better next time, I promise!  The bus arrived shortly after 9am - about ten minutes late which I am guessing either happens every time it rains, or it just happens every time.  I'll get on the earlier bus from here on out.  All in all, it took about one hour to get here.

Alright, lunch is almost over.  Tonight I'm running to my boyfriend Jon's apartment after work as long as the weather holds out.  If not, I'll be riding my first RideOn bus.