The sights of D.C. (from my bike)

Dear friends:
My bicycle commuting is going pretty well. Last week, I biked 5 consecutive days for the first time. The weather has been pretty good. This morning it was cool when I started out. I continue to improve my speed and my muscle mass (if not my weight). The scale tells me I have added another 1-2 lbs of lean body mass. While I am not losing as much as I would like, I am happy to be adding muscle.

Last Saturday, I took an all day bicycle maintenance class at REI. Essentially, I learned how to tune up my bike, and it needed a lot of tuning. It rode a lot better at the end of that day. With the instructor's assistance, I adjusted my rear hub, both derailleurs, both brakes, a few of my spokes, and the height of my handlebar, and did some preliminary cleaning of my chain and cogs. All good stuff. Sunday, I bought some degreaser and a brush set for when I do a more thorough cleaning of the chain and cogs, added "Slime" to my tires to further protect me from flats, reinflated the tires to the recommended level, and bought a mini chain tool and spoke wrench to add to my emergency tool kit. I'm not planning to start doing all of my own maintenance work (which would require a lot more tools), but I feel more confident that I'll be able to take care of myself in case of an emergency, and I have a better idea of what to ask for when I'm at the bike shop. I met my goal for the course.

As I promised some time ago, I took some pictures from different places along my commute, and uploaded them. It really is much more inspiring than riding the dark, dingy subway, so here goes:


Lincoln Memorial


Jefferson Memorial


Washington Monument


Lincoln Memorial


Statue


The trail


Yours truly

What do you think? If you could ride by these sights every morning, would you be inspired?