Per our General Plan, instead of waiting until 2027 before we can start recruiting for it, I am going to announce our 2029 ride to Washington, DC  now. As such, here as we enter 2023, the drum roll begins for a ride from San Francisco to Indianapolis to the Nation’s Capitol on the NBG route.  We have chosen that year because that will be the 50 year anniversary of my first crossing of America on a bicycle. 

What seems to make it even more note worthy, is that I am pretty sure I was   the second  solo bike ride across America in the modern era. (after World War II). In fact, it was the second  since 1935 (Charlie Klutz) and 1884 when Thomas Stevens circumnavigated the globe on a HiWheel bicycle. Former Bicycling editor, John Schubert beat me by two years when he crossed America by himself in 1977. 

 

Instead of it  feeling like a triumphant event, the end of a bike ride across America, I almost felt embarrassed for what I had just accomplished.  2 1/2 miles from the  Nations Capital, US 50  ended at a freeway blocking Arlington Cemetery. In fact the whole of Washington DC was surrounded by freeways. As humiliating as it was, I had to stick my thumb out to get a car ride  to complete my journey.   At every on-ramp, signs expressly stated that bikes were not allowed. And all  the roads that crossed the Potomac River were all a part of this high-speed road network. Already I could see I was not in the sync with the destination I had almost reached The world all around me was teeming with high speed automobiles.

This as the day before I had crashed hard on a wet  down hill, Then refused camping in the  yard  next to where I had slid out because  I was a “stranger”. On my way to the Capitol the next day, I was literally pushed off the road   by a car bumper.

By the time I arrived in Washington DC, I felt like an interloper. Even though it had come about in 1888, like the Natchez Trace Parkway, a wide sweeping motorway in the southeast, the grand Washington Mall, looked like a monument to cars and not human power. Whether by foot or bicycle all of its attractions were a notable distance apart from one another.

On its way  to the capital, two miles away, the Mall seemed to be scaled for horsepower and  not the human power of two wheel pedal machines. Of which I saw none. The people walking about had all parked their cars on the streets and lots near  their  attraction of interest and walked in. Surrounded by wide boulevards it seemed to be welcome turf for the motoring public. They feasted on the free street parking near the sites to see in their cars as they  often drove from one to the other.

In fact, my  bike with soiled ripped and torn saddlebags seemed to make the few people that were there want to ignore me even more. The few tourists walking about acted like they didn’t see me until I asked one of them to take a picture. Obviously inconvenienced, the man I asked, took one shot on my pre-digital 35mm camera, and quickly returned my picture taking device back to me.

The drab looking buildings and dreary skies seem to  further dampen any cause I could have for celebration. I made a promise to myself then and there that I would return to DC in notable fashion. In a way that would benefit cyclists and brain injury survivors everywhere. When, I did not know.

Toward the end, I will be on the Eagle HiWheel bicycle. I also hope to be joined by my now 11 year old son on the ride. 

When: September 2029

What: NBG Mayors’ Ride  Indianapolis to Washington DC

Why: To promote the Car Free Pittsburgh to DC connection as well as the route the NBG has selected to get to Pittsburgh

Who: Cyclists, as many as a dozen, all approved by the National Bicycle Greenway as joined by riders from San Francisco and NBG Anchor Cities up to Chicago.

Stops: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington DC