DC Moonlight Ride

Well, tonight was the night for the DC Moonlight Monuments ride... which Annie and I didn't find out about until today. Spur of the moment and all, we decided to head into the city and give it a whirl. I did one of these rides way back in the 80s, and it was a lot of fun, and it looked like it was shaping up to be a lovely evening. And it was... just warm enough, a lovely moon, and a bunch of fun people were gathered for it.



The city is really pretty at night, and on a Saturday evening, traffic isn't too crazy down by the Mall and the monuments, which is where the ride travels. And motorists seemed to be pretty mellow about a big pack of cyclists taking over the street, or nearly taking it over. We tried as a rule to stay in one lane, but that didn't always work out.

It was all going along swimmingly, until about a quarter of the way into the ride, when one of the other folks from Bikes@Vienna got a flat on a tandem. Annie and I stopped to see if they needed help, as did another pair of Bikes@Vienna folk. By the time I had stopped, Tom and James were already starting to try to fix it, so I just stood by offering advice and a pump. Without boring you with the details, suffice to say the repair was unsuccessful. By the time it was decided to give up on it, the rest of the ride had passed us by, so Annie and I decided to head out on our own a bit further. By the time we got to the WWII memorial, we figured we just weren't going to catch the group, so we decided to hop on the subway and head for home.

It was a little disappointing to not finish the ride, but we still had a lot of fun, and it was a gorgeous night out there. So we'll be there for the next one!