Distance: 75.3 km
Ride time: 4:09:47
Average: 18.1 km/h
Max speed: 42.8 km/h
Total: 40193 km
The milestones keep piling up these days – 40000 km a couple of days ago, the length of the equator yesterday, and today I would be cycling straight into Washington D.C.!
Before leaving in morning Bill and his wife served a full breakfast. After thanking for such a nice stay I was on my way towards the Capital. You might think that the traffic would be crazy coming into D.C. In fact I was able to follow the Mount Vernon bike path the whole way, meaning I was completely separated from the traffic.
The first thing I saw was the Potomac River.
Then I was cycling straight past the Ronald Reagan National Airport…
I then finally saw the Washington Monument in front of me. Crossing the river I said goodbye to the state of Virginia (and in fact some would say the whole South) and I was now in D.C!
Over at the Washington Monument I was going to meet Juan Carlos from El Salvador. We last met in San Salvador a couple of months ago when I was cycling through. In fact Juan Carlos had helped me locate the bike store where I had bought the very same set of tires I’m still using. Great tires by the way, only a few flats after 4000 km of riding.
Since then Juan Carlos had moved to the states, and we were now able to catch up. After lunch I rode over to the White House for a quick photo and passed by the Washington Monument once again.
From the Monument it was only a half hour ride over to Fred K3ZO’s who had generously invited me to stay for the night. Fred has been travelling the world working for the US government himself, so we had many stories from different corners of the world to swap.
What a day!
Nice to see the Anglosphere finally starting to build cycle pathways. Your experiences in Sydney show that we have a long way to go. But we are starting to move that way – but nowhere near as fast as I’d like. But some forward movement is better than none, so I guess that’s something.
Wonderful pictures of Washington. It’s been 20 years since my (so far) only visit there. What a pity you weren’t offered an invitation to stay at the White House!
Hi Thomas,
I’m from Australia, currently cycling around the US and Canada; I’ll arrive in DC Sunday afternoon and I’m staying with friends in Virginia, near Quantico. If you’ve got some spare time it would be great to say hello after following your blog for a while now; otherwise good luck and safe travels,
Rob.
Hi Rob! Would have loved to meet up. The only problem is that my blog is far behind, so in real life I already made it to St. John’s in Canada! Happy cycling and hope to catch you somewhere down the road! Thomas