Bike tour to Harper's Ferry, WV

The following post was found as an unpublished draft I had intentions to post in August. Now that I've rediscovered it, I've gone ahead and added the pictures and cleaned it up, where appropriate.

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Seems like nowadays my traveling adventures in DC are being manifest through bike touring. No apologies necessary, I'm lovin' it. Without having a car, biking is proving to be the most versatile method of transportation both within and outside the city: as  my weekend-getaway-machine it's fast enough to get many miles out of the city in one day yet slow enough to take it all in.

Many months ago when I learned that Harper's Ferry was only 60 miles up the Potomac River from DC I knew I would one day have to make it a weekend bike+camp. Problem for a while was the weather (too hot during the day to bike and then too hot at night to camp) and also other weekend obligations. I had had reading I wanted to get done or errands to run. Not this weekend!

Knowing from past bike trips that I could get 60 miles done in a half-day I woke up lazily on Saturday morning, made some breakfast, went produce shopping at the local farmer's market and then cleaned up and loaded my bike with all the gear. Packed this trip was my 3 person tent, a sleeping pad, a change of nighttime clothes, extra water, a book, headlamp, toothbrush and paste.

I set out from Capitol Hill at noon on the dot, loaded down with two rear pannier bags and a tent and sleeping pad bungee-corded down to my rear rack. Past all the tourists and launching down the Hill, I set off towards the White House before detouring through Georgetown until I hit the C&O canal towpath. This would be my route for the next 60 miles.

Historically, I was riding a marvel of engineering from the mid-19th century. The canal, situated parallel to the Potomac River, was the precursor to the railroad industry, and later the interstate highway system. When shipping cargo by land proved too burdensome, canals acted as a time-saving means of transport for goods and materials across the eastern parts of the United States. The towpath that I was riding along was never more than 10 feet from the canal itself, which at times was dried up or was laying claim to a large variety of weeds and wildflowers. No longer operational, the C&O is a vignette of pre-modern America; the railroad industry was only a decade or two behind and proved much more efficient as a means of transporting goods and people. In any case, it made for a beautiful and historic ride.

Lockhouse 6 just across the canal from the bike path

Bike path on left, algae-covered-Swamp-Monster-breeding canal to the right

The ride also took me past Great Falls, the waterfall sightseeing location of the area. It's a popular day hiking spot for the outdoorsy folk in DC who don't want to travel too far from the city but still get out into Nature.

The ride went quickly. I was taking in all the new scenery and keeping myself busy with lots of thoughts and plans for my next couple of months. My big news it that I'm moving back to Germany near the end of the calendar year to complete a two month internship in Berlin. So, I had plenty to think about in terms of things left to do in DC, flights to book, train tickets to buy, etc, etc.

Before I knew it I was right across the river from Harper's Ferry, a small town on the border of West Virginia. After biking for so long on so little calories -- I had an apple and chocolate bar for snacks -- I was ready to chow down on some real food. I parked my bike under the bridge, fished out my wallet, bike lock, keys, and phone from my pannier bags, and made my way across the pedestrian bridge to the first restaurant I laid eyes on. I couldn't tell you the name of that place if I tried, but all I knew was that they sold root beer floats and hamburgers and that would make me a happy camper.

A rare photo of the meal. Mere seconds later, GONE

After polishing off the weird mac-n-cheese burger, licking my finger tips clean like a king, I doubled back to my bike and cycled down the path to the campground I had picked out on my ride in. It was 6 miles away on a full and happy tummy and when I got there I pitched camp and wandered around the sleep town nearby.

As it turned out, the sleepy town was having their last "movie-in-the-town-square" gathering of the season. I approached the square to see a canvas stretched across with a projector behind it playing the Andy Griffith show. Nearby some moms were passing out red Kool-Aid and popcorn and people were mingling with their kids and neighbors. It felt very homey to be part of the scene.

(whistles the intro)

The movie of the night was Monster's U: the follow-up film to Disney's Monster's Inc that explained how the two main characters, Mike and Sully, came to know each other. I ended up staying to watch the whole film. Afterwards I chit-chatted with some of the residents who told me I just had to try to the 24/7 diner up the hill, and knowing that I had been deprived of Waffle House for the past several months in DC I was all but willing to ride my bike uphill to find a greasy spoon that would serve me too-strong coffee and soggy waffles at any time of night.

I slept like a rock. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to ride the 60 miles back to civilization and get ready for the next week of work. I was recharged and happy.

Good morning Mr. Sun

All in all, a weekend well spent. The weather was great, the miles were easy, and I had too many pleasant surprises along the way to count. I enjoyed the weekend so much I later did the same itinerary twice more: once with a coworker from the Fed, Ellen, and then my last and final trip alone. It is a very nice outlet from the city, where the hustle and bustle can be quite overwhelming at times. Every now and again it's nice to get out into a place to simply hear silence.

Bike Tour to Philly

During my year in Germany I came to appreciate the freedom that long bike rides brought. In fact, if you were a reader of this blog from the beginning then you already know I documented it here frequently. I had practically grown up on a bike: my childhood neighbor Rivers and I rode our bikes all through the neighborhood and came to know every street, creek, and shortcut possible. I also biked a lot in my Boy Scout troop and then in high school became friends with Martin and shared an interest in mountain biking the few trails our city offered. Germany introduced long-mileage bike rides to me in the form of a vintage Raleigh bike I picked up at a second-hand market in Cologne. Touring, as I would come to learn, was actually an activity many Europeans did during summer holidays. Some bikes were actually built with a geometry which supported this type of biking.

I got my current touring bike, a Trek 520, as a Christmas present from my grandmother during my final year of college. It felt like I had received the Nimbus 2000 or something -- the world was now my oyster and you couldn't get me off the thing. During the first year of owning the bike I logged probably 1000 miles, 100 of which came from a ride with my friend Samson when we rode from Baton Rouge to New Orleans in late July 2016 (terrible idea, wait until the Fall). Now that I live in DC, the bike has turned into a commuter for my 6 mile round-trip bike to work and weekend rider. We've got some great trails up here specifically for riders like me that want to hunker down and crank out the mileage on Sunday morning. In February 2017 I took the bike out over a 3 day weekend to a state park in rural Virginia just to see how far I could go. That time I borrowed a friend's panniers and packed a tent, sleeping bag, extra food, water, and my cellphone and wallet for the 160 mile round-trip ride. It went well and I had a blast. I was immediately looking for the next ride.

This July 4th weekend I made good on the search by riding a 3 day, 2 night trip to Philadelphia. I had planned overnight stops in Baltimore, MD with a couple I found on the bicycle-touring hosting website warmshowers.org and then in Newark, DE with the family of one of my roommates in DC. Max and Maya hosted me the first night in Baltimore and we exchanged stories of past rides, mine from Germany and theirs from a cross-country tour they did together on a tandem bicycle. In fact they had their own travel blog, which I encourage you to check out. We went to an Orioles baseball game together and rode bikes to the stadium. I also got to meet many of their friends at the game as well as their 2.5 and 3 year old daughters who were super nice and interesting!

Riding with Max on Melvin, the tandem bike that crossed the continent

The Orioles game had a rain delay

Waking up in Baltimore, I realized not applying sun screen had been a bad decision. I had some solid tan lines on my legs where my biking shorts ended, tan lines on my wrists from wearing biking gloves, and then about mid-bicep a nice farmer's tan from my biking jersey. It hurt, too. Maya hooked me up with a leftover bottle of sunscreen which I applied generously before embarking on my 70 mile ride to Delaware.

The ride started off hot without any clouds. An hour in my arms and legs were glistening with that odd combination of sweat and oily sunscreen and I could have seen my reflection if I had looked down. At one point it got so hot I could start to smell the recently laid black top -- not a good sign! I peeled off for a water break to regroup.

Time passed quickly on my bike. With no music and nobody to talk to I had only my thoughts to keep me company. Between that and just being a big 'ole eyeball taking in the scenery I usually finished my rides before I realized it. The second day ended in northern Delaware at my roommate's parents' house. I ended up cooking dinner for Jen, my roommate's sister, and her fiance Eric. As part of spreading the Good News (Louisiana cooking) I bought some ingredients at the grocery store to cook an alfredo pasta dish with what passed as Cajun andouille sausage.

Success: Another household now has Tony's and Crystal in its cupboards

I pulled into Philadelphia right when I expected: 12:00 on the dot. I went first to the Amtrak station to buy a train ticket back to DC and then met up with a childhood friend from Baton Rouge, Finn, who studies Art at Temple. Finn's parents are artists and our moms have known each other since college. We met up over some nice filling falafel before heading to the Barnes Foundation and the Rodin Museum. Sadly, no Liberty Bell or Independence Hall this trip on account of my time constraint with the train, but for proof that I made it to my destination here we are at the Rocky statue:

I took the train back to DC and rode the five minutes from Union Station to my house in Capitol Hill. That was all she wrote: 160 miles over a two night biking trip, numerous pit stops and farmers' markets, a kinda weird tan, a few new acquaintances and a host of stories. One grand experience!

It's been how long??

It's been how long since my last post?! How time passes. It's been nearly two years since my last adventurous post on the Nathan's Babbles blog and so much has changed since then.

      For one, I moved back to the United States to finish my degree program at Louisiana State University (May 2016 grad, BA in Economics) and had a great final year of study. I enrolled in some very interesting courses covering a wide swath of study; from Political Science to African American Studies and Statistics, I loaded up my final two semesters with courses to help straddle the four minors I wanted to pursue before my graduation date. I took two courses from Dr. Wayne Parent (Politics of the South and The Legacy of Obama) which were appreciated not only for their reading list but also the discussion-based nature of the class. I learned some higher level Mathematics in Mathematical Statistics and Stochastic Processes (yikes those were interesting but tough to balance with the humanities courses) while also incorporating the findings in my Econometrics courses with Time-Series Analysis and Econometrics II. I took Public Finance with Dr. James Richardson, who was also my adviser during my research assistantship for senior year. We forged a great relationship and keep in touch to this day. Perhaps far and away the most interesting courses I took were Social Justice in the 20th Century and Contemporary Africa, two themes which I had hardly if ever delved into. The former covered Gandhi, King, and Mandela by autobiographical readings and small Socratic dialogues. The course culminated in a research paper and I chose to analyze several of King's rhetorical devices in his speeches in a collection I found at the local library. Contemporary Africa was fascinating because Dr. Gibril Cole is hands down one of the top 2 professors I have ever learned from. We covered so much and I was flying by the seat of my pants at times, but his unrelenting set of expectations drove me to work hard. I truly appreciated it. At the time, I was taking a particular fascination with the music of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Niger, and Mali. My roommate Aaron and I were radio DJs at our university station and ran the world music show Pangea. I wrote my final paper in Contemporary Africa on the music of Fela Kuti and received top marks. I finished first in class.

    When I graduated in May 2016, I stuck around Baton Rouge to work a part-time public policy internship before starting a full-time job for Louisiana state government at the Department of Revenue. Much to my chagrin, I was still in Louisiana. Things were looking solid, however, and I was fortunate to be in-line to be the state's top economist in the Department of Revenue by summer 2017 at the ripe age of 22, but I was really hoping to get out and experience the world. In July 2016 Baton Rouge became a hashtag when Alton Sterling, a black man and father, was wrestled down, shot, and killed by police officers responding to a call in the neighborhood. A few days later as retaliation, a man from Missouri drove down to Baton Rouge and shot down several members of the police department. The city was emotionally distraught and for good reason. And as if that weren't enough, in August 2016 Baton Rouge received 5 straight days of rain which, when the rivers, tributaries, and storm drains filled up, flooded major parts of the city. My uncle and aunt took on 13 inches of water as did my cousins. Luckily my parents' house was fine as was the house I had not one week prior moved into, and for several weeks we were sharing quarters with our homeless family. My job with the government was to start August 15th, but was delayed a week due to the flood. It seemed everybody's lives were put on pause to deal with the storm. My family pitched together extra hands and I remember for a week straight I was working 8 hour days for family, friends, and members of my church gutting carpets, drywall, furniture -- really everything in sight-- in hot August heat and humidity. You didn't stop working until you ran out of phone numbers to call. And when those ran out, you didn't stop until people two degrees of separation were safe and fine, too.

   It seemed things were on the one hand going fairly well and then on the other just completely falling apart. In September 2016 I received two interview requests by phone from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, an institution to which I applied several months prior. I took the interviews and two weeks later was offered a job in Washington DC. Just what I had wanted -- a job in government, in DC, in economics! Sadly, I was just getting to like the Department of Revenue and my coworkers there, but gave my two week notice. I was packing up my life in Baton Rouge as I knew it, parting ways with childhood and high school friends and family members that had watched me grow up, the whole gambit. I arrived in DC with a hiking backpack stuffed with clothes and a luggage full of work clothes. I crashed on friends' couches and air mattresses for 12 days before signing a lease and laying claim to my own room and starting work at the Board.

  Since October 2016 when I started my job, time has certainly flown by. I've already met and had to say goodbye to really interesting people in Washington. In this city, people come and go. Just like any job, but not least your first real one, you have good days and bad days. I had a hard time transitioning from student-flow (deadlines, assignments, feedback and progression) to work-flow (longer term projects, learning new skills slowly, notching institutional knowledge under my belt). Some people are sticking around and I'll make the best of it, surely. Sticking to my Bonn days, I assumed the making-friends strategy of joining a rock-climbing gym (okay, yes, but I wanted to do it anyway). Unlike Louisiana, I can actually take my skills from inside the gym to outside the gym at nearby parks. I ride my bike close to 100 miles a week through commuting to and from work and my rides on the weekend. Each day I pass the Supreme Court, Capitol, Mall, Washington Monument, White House, and Lincoln Memorial -- twice -- which through typing realize is surreal. Nearly all of my friends from back home came up to visit me during my first 6 months here (*cough looking at you Miranda and Rion) and we had a great time exploring the city together. When Mardi Gras rolled around my inner Louisiana came out and I threw a party for 40 people and cooked crawfish etoufee, red beans and rice, and chicken and sausage gumbo, ordered three king cakes and made my own boudin king cake, and if that wasn't already enough bought 40 pieces of Popeyes and 24 biscuits. I think the party was a success.

  In all, I can't believe I turn 23 tomorrow (July 5th) when so vividly I can remember turning 21 in Brussels' main square two years ago with Cat, Anne, Elodie, Dave, and Samson. I've got some interesting developments for the remainder of the year, but I'll refrain from typing it out until it's all official, lest I jinx the whole shebang! As I like to travel as close to my birthday as possible, I just wrapped up a formal bike tour from DC to Philadelphia, which will be the subject of my next post.

  To give you something to chew on, work at the Federal Reserve has been a great opportunity coming out of college. I frequently see Janet Yellen in the cafeteria and once so boldly (okay, sheepishly) asked how she was doing, to which she replied "Good." We've had some turnover in my section, but before leaving my Chief and I published a paper on the public website. Feel free to read it and get back to me.