Day 79/80 – Leesburg VA – Washington DC 45 miles and ODay

Day 79 – Aug 30, 2015 – Leesburg VA – Washington DC 45 miles

Is this our last day? Is this the end of our tour? On some levels this was the destination that we told most folks along the way …. “we are riding to Washington DC” … it was easier. But actually we still have about 35 miles to make it to the “coast” or to sea water.

But this was a wonderful soft finale riding into our nation’s capital and even having a welcoming committee to greet us! We rode the whole day on the Washington and Old Dominion bike path, paved and smooth. When we hit the trail it was like entering a bicycle superhighway. It was packed with weekend warriors on their expensive rides. We constantly we harassed by the “on your left” alerts of people passing us as we moseyed on down the path. We could have traveled faster but thought it would be appropriate to slow roll into the city. As people passed us they gasped in astonishment at our load! “Wow” “Oh my God” and “Holy schmoly” are the expressions of the carbon bike riders. It was weird, as if we were from outer space. A few people said “oh those are bicycle touring people”. It was funny.

We had a blast riding on our “slow roll”. We stopped in Vienna Virginia, the place where I last lived when living in the DC area. I did not recognize the town. The bike path is new, the murals, the cute little shops, and a brewery, wow. But we did stop at a Vienna institution that I did not remember, the Vienna Inn. People on the bike path said that it was a greasy spoon, and we said perfect, a fitting way to end our greasy spoon tour. I guess I had been there at one point in my life, who knows? There was a sign out side notifying people of the upcoming soccer season and the sign ups for the youth soccer program. That is what I do remember.

I loved the sport of soccer and I guess I was good at it. The years of playing with my brothers, reenacting the World Cup tournaments in our back and front yards. I knew soccer from watching it and emulating the best of the best. I excelled in the sport. Made it to the Vienna area Select Girls Soccer team, against my mother’s wishes. I loved it, scored many goals, traveled to other states to play. I was a pioneer in the world of girls youth soccer. One thing in my life that I was really proud of. My parents rarely came to the matches, but that’s okay, maybe my brother’s came to one or two games. I do remember all of that vividly. Because as quickly as it happened it ended when I moved from Vienna Virginia to Vienna Austria where I went to the American International School. No more women’s soccer. Ironically I read a recent article at my American International School paper that talked about how the American International School placed in a top ranking position in Girls High School soccer. I guess I was slightly before my time?

The rest of the ride was navigating ourselves from the W&OD to the Custis trail to meet our “welcoming committee” at the Italian Store in Arlington VA. Up and down the hills and finally over the last hill, there they were, cameras in hand and smiles on there faces. How glorious was it to see my colleagues and friends at the bottom of the hill. I really could not believe it. People actually came out to see us. WOW! It was surreal to see these familiar faces there on our path. Were we really here? Outside of Vienna, as we passed streets like Cedar Lane and Gallows, and entered Falls Church I started crying. We actually did it. I am here on a bike and I pedaled all the way across the United States. I cried of a few minutes trying hard to find my composure so that I could celebrate with my friends. This was definitely one of the best moments of our journey.

This celebration continued, Eric my nephew was waiting around the bend at the shop. Ingo and his daughter arrived shortly thereafter. We sat and talked. Everyone wanted to know so much about our journey. It was and is still hard to distill into into a very words but we tried. We laughed, pictures were taken, we had ice cream. And then it was off to finish our arrival celebration and ride over the Key Bridge into Georgetown and to the waterfront area for more of the party. Another surprise Christiane Meier, my former boss and close friend who now works as a correspondent in Berlin for ARD’s morning show, came to say hello and congratulate us. By chance she was visiting DC and there she was. It was all so good.

Felix and Hilly brought some Prosecco bottles which we opened illegally. We all toasted the event. I brought out Valerie and Marcus’s Santa Monica sand that they sent us and poured it into the Potomac river. It was great. And just beside us were are road weary bikes, dirty as we have never seen them, but proudly taking up a prominent space at the harbor. They deserve a lot of credit.

It was all so exciting that is was so hard to express ourselves. How do we answer all their questions about what this was really like? We were very exhausted after this journey. One of my best friends since High School in Vienna – Maria came down too. There they were, my colleagues and friends, my history, my family, such joy. Emotions are easy and effortless, and there they were. We were happy.

The last a very special thing we had to do to make this arrival complete was to go to the White House and do one of our “dances”. Yep, we have danced, at significant places, all along the way. I thought the White House would be a good one. Many people along our route, after telling them we were going to Washington, told us that we need to get there and straighten them out…. or tell Obama something for us. And since the Capitol is under scaffolding, the White House seemed the best place to do it. So there we were dancing in front of the White House. Felix filmed it. It was a perfect way to end the very special day.

Day 80 – Aug. 31 – Washington DC – 0 Day

We spent the day planning. We found out that Alan Kaplan’s memorial service will not take place until we have returned to LA. We can stick to our original plan and take the train back to LA. One more thing, tomorrow we ride to the salt water and reach our….final bicycle riding destination Annapolis MD, and then we are done.