Washington, DC to Pittsburgh...by Bicycle! Part 1

It's been a while since we did any blogging about epic travel adventures, but I wanted to post this itinerary of my Washington to Pittsburgh ride, in case anyone else is thinking of doing this. For my 40th birthday, I wanted to do some kind of solo travel. I've had this trip on my mind for a decade at least, but logistically it was hard to work out the details with the whole family and bike trailers and all that. But for this trip, it was pretty easy. I booked a train ticket for $42 plus $12 to roll on my bike, selected 5 places to stay that were roughly 65ish miles apart and "bike-friendly," changed the brake pads on my aging but certainly still serviceable touring bike and bought some random snacks at Walgreens. If you haven't done any bicycle touring the mileage might seem a little daunting at first, but I can assure you, this is a very doable trip for anyone. Other than a few street miles on either end, the entirety of this trip is on car-free bike trail laid on old canal towpath or railroad. In other words, the grade is 2% at most. The trails go up and over a mountain range, so you are generally going up for half and then down for half, but the trail always looks pretty flat. I usually assume I will pedal about 10 mph on average including breaks. So, 65 miles a day is only about 6.5 hours of leisurely pedaling. I know a guy who just did this same distance in 2 days! But my goal was to spend some time alone and see the wildlife and history along the way, so I took 5 days, plus one day for travel.

Day 0 for Travel

Sunrise view from the train.

The train station is within biking distance from my house (7 miles or so). I had to leave a bit early in the morning to catch a 5:30am train, but this was actually nice, because there were virtually no cars on the roads.
The people at the Amtrak station couldn't have been nicer and told me to take my bike in the elevator to the platform. There were no racks in the train car, which was not as it was described on the website, but we all just kind of laid down our bikes on the floor and there was plenty of room. There were about 6 other people with loaded bicycles. Because the train is often delayed I decided to book a bed at Hosteling International in DC and start my trip the following day. Sure enough, we were sitting on the tracks outside of Cumberland for almost 2 hours, but the train is a very comfortable, if slow, way to travel. Seats are huge and they recline enough to take a very pleasant nap. It was a little unnerving to get off the the train and be swept immediately outside into a huge city at rush hour, but Washington DC actually has some great bike lanes and bike paths so I spent the remainder of the day riding around the Mall and the monuments. The Hostel was about $45 for a bunk bed in a shared room. They did have decent bathrooms and free linens and a locked shed that was inside a locked courtyard for bicycle storage. Breakfast was included. I thought it would be mostly young adults, but there were people of every age there, including a field trip of middle school students!

Day 1 Georgetown to Harper's Ferry

Can you spot the heron?

I heard that it was hard to locate the beginning of the trail and that it would be crowded and difficult to ride, but I basically ran into it by accident and there were hardly any people out.  It is brick and narrow and kind of bumpy at first, but before you know it, you are outside of the city....Potomac River to one side and the swampy canal to the other. There was a fair amount of commuter bike traffic at first, and a lot of highway noise, but by mile 10, it was very quiet. The wildlife viewing on this stretch is amazing, especially for birds. The miles melted away and I enjoyed the solitude. The trail is hard packed dirt, with a lot of rocks and roots. Not the most comfortable to ride, but I lucked out with weather and the mud wasn't too bad. However, there is a section just before Harper's Ferry that is washed out and you have to carry your bike and bags through a creek and up a steep bank. I was spared this unpleasantness because a storm blew in just before I got to that section and I was sitting under a porch on an old canal house next to a parking lot. A couple who was walking their dog offered me a ride around the washed out section, which I gladly accepted. When I got to Harper's Ferry I decided to bike up the huge hill (very huge, actually had to get off and push towards the top) to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. I met a few thru and section hikers on the way and was reminded of how different one's view of the AT is when you are a thousand miles in, compared to after you actually complete it. They were definitely in the "why am I doing this" phase. That night I slept at The Town's Inn, which is a really old (like 1840s old) inn. I had my own bathroom but it was on a different floor than the room. No television in the room, but it did have an AC unit in the window and a small fridge and microwave. 

Day 2 Harper's Ferry to Hancock

Snakes in trees.

I got the tip to get off the Towpath and get on the paved Western Maryland Rail Trail just before Hancock and I have no regrets about doing this. The Towpath gets very bumpy and rocky and covered in black rat snakes and mosquitoes and muddy ruts or hard dried ruts and it was very hot. I questioned all of my motives embarking on this voyage and despaired over choosing such an unpleasant way to celebrate my birthday. Just kidding, but the miles certainly dragged on, and while I was still following the river, the water birds weren't as interesting, or maybe I was just tired of looking. I must have gotten a little dehydrated because that nauseous feeling set in sometime in the afternoon and I had to stop every few miles just to suck on a ginger chew and try to drink some water. This is the problem with traveling alone...you have nobody to talk to if your mood gets low. I was never so grateful to see a Super 8 Motel, my destination in Hancock. The lobby was filled with motorcycle guys who raised their Coors Light bottles to me when I staggered in, all dusty and red-faced. This motel was about what you expect for $50, but I would recommend it. The desk clerk gave me a towel for my bike and directed me to a hose at the end of the building. After I cleaned it off, I was allowed to take it into my room. I heard nothing from the motorcycle guys all night and actually slept pretty soundly. Hancock is a town that embraces bicycling and the rail trails, whether you are going 3 miles or 300, and there is a bike shop and tons of restaurants. Everything is well signed, with is ample parking and you can rent whatever you need there.

Stay tuned for days 3-6!

A Hawk in Laurel Hill

The mountain laurels were still in bloom this weekend when we went camping in Laurel Hill State Park. I could write many things about this weekend, which was wonderful and restorative, but the thing I don't want to forget is that after we had the camper all hitched up and the tanks drained clean and were finally on the road out of the park, we saw a hawk dive down into the ferns and come up with a mouse or something in its talons. The road out of Laurel Hill is technicolor green this kind of year, with a high canopy and the floor covered in ferns. I have seen hawks in the woods before, usually harassing squirrels up in a nest, but I had never seen one dive down into the ferns to hunt. It was spectacular.

Bel Monte

We went to our first trail race of the season, the Bel Monte Endurance Race. Yes, we knew the weather was going to be cold and snowy. A winter weather advisory was posted for the area and the Blue Ridge Parkway was shut down. On the way down, we noticed a screw driven pretty deeply into our tire and made a detour to a mechanic to have it removed and patched. Luckily we found a decent garage and met Tootie, who entertained and was entertained by our kids. The snow hit shortly after that, and we arrived at the camping area when it was nearly dark, which was definitely not the plan (we left at 9am and the drive should take about 5 hours). The facilities were pretty basic. I swear the guy told me there would be hot showers when I made the reservation, but there weren't even flush toilets or running water. We did see a row of portable toilets near the race start line, but it was a pretty long walk from our site. At least the site was leveled and had a picnic table, because it was literally on the side of a mountain. The snow had pretty much stopped while we pitched the tent. We kept the kids inside the car to stay warm. We didn't do much else that night, just climbed into our sleeping bags and M read Harry Potter to the kids. M's friend Jason showed up a little while later and ended up sleeping in his car near our tent. We fell asleep early and it was very, very quiet. No wind, no animals rustling, no people sounds, no trains, no road sounds. 

The next day, M got up early to go the race. It was my hope that everyone else would stay asleep for a long time, but the kids all got up and started goofing off. Freezing rain was in the forecast for the evening and I did not want to spend the next night in the tent (more like I didn't want to pack it up when it was all we). Laurel and I took the tent down and we headed off down the road to see if we could find an aid station to cheer on the runners. I had neglected to print any maps in advance and we had no cell reception, so we had to find a place where we could either hop on some wifi or get some cell service. The woods were beautiful with the fresh snow on the branches, but I could tell it was going to be a sloppy day on the trail. We stopped at the first store we came to, where a sweet older lady made us some really delicious egg and bacon sandwiches and a rather deaf older man stood behind a counter display with a wide variety of revolvers for sale. They also sold Virginia souvenirs, camping supplies, groceries, bait, pretty much anything you can imagine. The man was pretty friendly but could not believe anyone would run in the mountains, and had only a vague idea of where Pittsburgh was. 

We carried on down the road and found an aid station, but M had long since passed through. We followed a forest road and eventually found another aid station. We missed him again, but it was an out and back race so we decided to camp out and wait for him. I pulled out the propane stove and we made some coffee and soup and grilled cheese. The kids ran around in the woods for a while, chatted with the ham radio operators, entertained a baby and ate all the snacks I had packed.

When M came back through the aid station, he was more than halfway done, but was moving much slower than he had anticipated. We gave him a grilled cheese and a pep talk and told him we would meet him at the finish. Then we waited for Jason to come through and all the kids ran with him into the aid station, which made him very happy. 

Well, I'm not going to give you too many more details on this next subject, but let's just say if you are going to travel with a kid who is not potty trained yet, you should...well, probably just stay home. I had to make a trip into town to procure some more supplies and while there, I booked a room at our favorite hotel chain before heading back up the mountain to the finish line. The kids all fell asleep in the car on the way back up. As we went up the mountain it got foggier and foggier until visibility was about 10 yards. I parked the car and went to check out the finish line and heard someone calling my name. Two more friends! This greatly boosted my spirits. Tomas had actually finished the 25k hours earlier but was waiting around to watch M come in. While I was hanging out waiting I met a few other runners who had met M along the way or at other races. Finally he emerged from the fog and crossed the finish line. A hard-earned finish on a 50 mile day. (He was delighted to see the hotel key cards in my hand.) As soon as everybody had a much needed shower, we tucked into our beds, cozy and warm and listened to M read more Harry Potter.  

We learned a few things this weekend. First, we need to bring a portable toilet with us. Second, I need a warmer or newer sleeping bag for cold weather camping. Mine was rated to 20 degrees when I bought it (used) at an REI garage sale 15 years ago. I carried it on the AT. I'm thinking it has lost some of its loft, because I was not super warm. Max only has a quilt and that actually seemed ok for him but he was wearing his snow pants and coat all night. I'm not sure if I like that arrangement or if I should get him a real sleeping bag. Third, we are so awesome at winging it. It's one of the strengths of our family. This weekend presented more than a few challenges, but we stuck together, encouraged each other and enjoyed each other. 

Clear your schedule

M and I are not working on the weekends right now and this is a great arrangement, and I will keep to it as long as we can. Saturdays are lazy. Kung fu class for Marko, but we skipped horseriding for Laurel because she's going to do several hours of Girl Scout cookie sales tomorrow and it's 100% ok to say let's just rest. For her, I think rest is more about not seeing other people, driving or getting out of her bathrobe, rather than actual rest. She did take her bathrobe off to go running with M and they were gone a long time. She ran almost 3 and a half miles, which was 2 and a half miles longer than M said they were going to do (so help me if I have another ultra marathoner on my hands here).

Today I got to talk on the phone with a friend who just had a baby. I miss holding babies. Where did all the babies go? She's very far away, so it's doubtful that I'll actually get to meet this little peanut while he's in the squishy newborn phase, but it was nice to hear his cooing over the phone. And to hear her voice and her birth story and all that. Call your friends on the phone, people. Old fashioned, but it feels so good.

Max fell asleep in my arms while we all watched the Great British Baking Show after dinner. Everyone was kind of shoving each other as we nestled into the couch, but eventually we all settled in to each other. It was biscuit week, ending with a gingerbread showcase (M's favorite cookie).

I got the notion that we need to clear our schedule a bit. This is why I like to keep a paper calendar, because it's a visual reminder if you start committing to to much. I also happened to read this past week, from two different sources, something about the benefit of going deeper, not wider. Read the books you have, finish the projects you started, explore the place where you live, that sort of thing.

Snapshot

Today I woke up at 5:55, got Laurel up, and we went on a walk in freshly fallen snow. We didn't say much. She threw a lot of snow into any puddle or stream we passed. Sometimes she reached out to hold my hand.  I try to remember what it was like to be 9, but I can only think of my 4th grade teacher Mr. Antczak yelling. And the clear pink plastic frames of my first prescription glasses. Watching ants cross our sidewalk during summer vacation and my mother's navy pinstripe nurses uniform. I don't remember anything about my feelings.

It was dark and quiet when we set out, but the sun and birds soon joined us. It was the most peaceful hour I've spent with Laurel in a long time.

I worked with my uncle and aunt at their restaurant for a while today. I've been cooking at lunchtime a few days a week. Burgers, chili, steak salads, that sort of thing. This week, there were 2 catered wakes. Today, the place looked festive, with balloons and cookie trays. The mourners laughed and chatted and slowly filtered through the buffet lines. It felt celebratory. My mother watches Max while I work, or sometimes Marlene comes over to our house and looks after him.

There are two enormous, muddy trenches in my basement. What started out as a small fix for a broken laundry tub pipe has turned into an excavation. Today the snow melted into the basement before the plumbers got all the new pipes hooked up and it's quite a mess. They still have some things to do, need to get it inspected and pour concrete before it'll all be done. The replaced pipes were the originals from 1925, so I guess we ought to be grateful for their 90 years of service. But still, I'm left with the question of why do we bury our pipes like that? Makes it so hard to see the cracks and to fix them when they inevitably break. Seems crazy to me. The mud is driving me crazy, but it'll all be gone and re-concealed by smooth concrete within a week. When something is really bothering you, try waiting for a bit. It usually clears up without you doing anything at all. Usually I can't resist meddling, but I'm trying to get better about that.

M made pizzas tonight, and we ate them as they came out of the oven, without plates, while watching Season 4 of the Great British Baking Show. The boys built a giant pillow fort.

I had the distinct pleasure of being greeted several times today by people who were really glad or grateful to see me. I had a lot of different and unexpected things come up today, but there was some kind of flow to it all and I wasn't bothered. This song was running through my head a lot. We are on time/I am on your side, are the lines that stand out the most to me right now.  Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a day of rest. I think all I have to do is take Marko to kung fu and ignore the mud in the basement. I'll eat leftover pizza and take a nap on the couch while M plays Zelda with the kids. Maybe it will snow more. I'll ignore the bothersome mud in the basement. Enjoy my reprieve from doing laundry. Daydream about our summer camping plans.

Max Turns Three

Max turned 3 today and we had a party at our house with some friends and family. Pink cupcakes, because that's what he wanted. Opening presents as soon as each guest walked in with them, chaotic as that was, at least he really understood where the gifts were coming from. I realized sometime in the morning that an afternoon party for a 3 year old who still usually takes naps was probably not great planning. But he did ok, although he was pretty groggy by the end.

Max at 3 is excellent at holding a pencil or a marker and he spends a lot of time drawing maps and sketching out stories. He loves sitting in boxes. He can ride a 3 wheeled scooter. He loves making snowmen. He's growing out of most of his food allergies. He did not cry about going into preschool once this year (although sometimes he would rather stay home and build snowmen). Favorite Christmas song is a toss up between Wham's Last Christmas and Feliz Navidad.

He adores his brother and sister and I love that the three of them play together. He misses them when they are at school and asks about Marko especially. "Where Marko, he at school?" was a common phrase during the fall. He just recently dropped those verb-less sentences, although he still says "blankwet" and "Mom, I very want you."

Comments

I just approved a bunch of comments on old posts and thank you so much for reading and commenting! This morning I was scrolling through the "On This Day" part of Facebook where it tells you the things you posted in previous years and I read a little thing I wrote about volunteering with Emergency Communities in Buras, Louisiana. There's probably a book worth of memories right there, but it sparked some other, completely unrelated memories of cooking vegan pancakes on the Coleman stove for Lance and M and this guy we met while we were camping in Idaho. We were near the Lolo Pass, I think. I was wearing a green dress. I loved that dress. And that's when we started plastering state flag stickers all over the back of M's car. I think we were up to 37 or 38 when that car bit the dust. We meet such interesting people everywhere we go. I have no idea what happened to that guy in Idaho. But some people we meet on our journeys turn into friends. When I saw Beach Bum's comment sitting in the queue, it made me very happy to hear from him and First Wife.
 

Another November, come and gone

Hello! Happy last day of November! Here's a few random thoughts, because I got a nudge that I hadn't written here in a while.

It's been 10 years since we moved into this house. Nine years since Laurel joined us here. M is going to a race this weekend with a running buddy and my parents have the kids so I am sitting her alone, for the first time in a while. I genuinely like the people M has become friends with through running, crazy as they all are to want to go run 50 miles in the mud and winter gloom. He just texted me to say they were passing through Erwin, TN. I hadn't thought about that place in a good long while but immediately remembered that legendary breakfast at Ms. Janet's. Sharing a bunk room with a bunch of 20 year old guys. The daunting 500 miles of Virginia looming before us. Walking the AT was not always a pleasant experience. But reliving the memories? Pure bliss, every time. My internal compass is righted. There's a lot of distracting voices and influences buzzing around me now sometimes. I forget about what's important, and what my current Katahdin looks like.

Right now, my life is all about taking care of kids. My kids, other people's kids. It's an all day, all night, nonstop kind of gig right now. Snuggling restless sleepers and wiping milk mustaches. Blowing on the Nintendo game cartridges so they can play Mario Brothers and drawing maps to nowhere and building tiny snowmen out of the last little scraps of snow lingering in the yard. Giving makeup advice I'm not qualified to give. Lighting an OLO Guadalupe candle when I feel like yelling and praying for grace to anyone who will listen. My new go-to phrase is "Would you like to start over with a hug?" and that often resets us all. I'm teaching them to do more chores. Unloading the dishwasher and running the washing machine and dusting places you don't think of much, but that make everyone sneeze if you forget them. It's not much stuff that I care to write about, but I generally enjoy the doing of it.

Yesterday there was a literal shoot out across the street. Two cars exchanged gunfire and both sped off. A bystander was injured by glass. It was the second time I have watched the police casually roll out the yellow tape there, mark bullets and take photographs, and mill around for a while before packing everything up. It's disorienting to look out your window an hour later and have it look like nothing happened. Police are asking witnesses to call. No arrests have been made.  You know how that story goes.

There was a massacre at a synagogue near us right before Halloween. I tried to write about it a few times but deleted all my drafts. As a family, we processed it in in our own way and then, because life is like this.... the good, the bad, the horrific and then the good again, life kept passing by and I didn't even think about it for a week until the gunfire broke out across the street. And I'll go on telling you about other random things of a more positive nature, because life unfolds this way. 

We went on a road trip to Charlottesville, VA last weekend. We left at 5:30am and driving in the morning was the best idea ever. We made record time and it was pretty relaxing trip down. The kids find my Aunt Mary's house to be absolutely magical, filled with treasures and delights. They adore her dog. Three days was not enough time to greet all of our C-ville friends, but we did our best to make the rounds.

We keep saying we need to buy a new car. Ours is 15 years old and has a 160,000 miles on it. I did a lot of car shopping over the summer, but couldn't seem to pick one. I mostly looked at minivans. The car we have still works, so the issue isn't pressing. I don't think I know how to make a decision when not under duress. Or maybe the minivan is just the wrong vehicle for us.

I just became certified to run an archery range. M is so close to mastering the baguette. (See, it's getting very random now.) I think there's going to be a resurgence in long form blogging again because everybody is sick of social media and the blurbiness of it all. So maybe if the bloggers I used to love following will start writing again, then I will start writing again and you can read more of my thoughts in a more timely and organized fashion. Maybe I'll tell you more about the archery or the bread baking in a future post.

And then finally, because recommended links are always my favorite part of a blog post, as long as it's not shilling something useless, here are a few.

I listened to this more than a few times this morning.

I read this to my kids. And loved it even more than they did.

I'm ruminating on this before doing my holiday shopping.

Bedtime Memories

Laurel doing portrait sessions of all of us, one at a time, posed with stuffed animals. Max standing on his head. Cool breeze through open windows. M's voice reading the Odyssey. The clink of ice cubes in their metal water bottles. The smell of baby soap in damp hair.

The Law

We read a book about Frederick Douglas today. It was mostly about how he spent his childhood and how he learned to read. The illustrator did a beautiful job of conveying the humanity of the enslaved people. When Frederick is being transported to Baltimore, there's a picture of a napping man, holding one end of the rope. Frederick's arms are tied together with the rope, behind his back, but he's gazing out at the harbor, taking in the sights like any kid does when they go to a new place. A slave was a real person, not an era. A kid, who was separated from his mom at birth, who was valued enough for his work to keep him tied up, but not enough to properly feed or clothe or teach. Laurel cried at the picture and hid her face. She knows about slavery, but in a very sanitized way. I decided that we needed to start reading a little more about history, especially American history and examine the the things that have changed over time. Kind of a rabbit hole and hard to know where exactly to start, but if I don't just dive in a little deeper, then I'll never get anywhere with this. I decided that given current events, it would be best to examine what exactly we mean by equal rights guaranteed by the constitution, and political borders.

We started with our neighborhood and how it is called different things and has changed over time. We can walk a mile and be in 4 different city/boroughs, some lines run right through the houses themselves. We talked about the parking law. No parking in Swissvale in the early morning hours, for street cleaning. No parking in Pittsburgh on the second Tuesday of the month. It's arbitrary. Laws and maps are not set in stone. They are designed by humans in an attempt to keep some sort of order. Or to make money, which sometimes results in oppression and mistreatment of some other people.

Frederick Douglass was breaking the law when he learned to read. His "master" was following the law as it stood at the time. So, when you live in a community, it can be good to follow the law, but it's never good to simply follow a law without thinking what it means for everybody.

Here is the constitution of the United States. When I read it from the beginning, I can imagine what it would be like to start a new country or organization. How you try to write out how things should go, but knowing you really can't anticipate all the problems. The language makes me cringe. I remember that I wouldn't have been allowed to cast a vote.