Biking on a very hot 4th

The forecast for today was 95 degrees (F). So, Andrew and I decided that we ought to get started pretty early on our little bike trip, to avoid the worst heat of the day. I was bustling around the kitchen at about 8 AM to get our water bottles filled and ready to go, when something occurred to me:

Setback #1: Andrew’s bike was still at the bike shop.

They had promised us the bike by Friday (today), so we rearranged our plans to arrive at the bike shop at 10 AM (when they opened) and pick up his bike. I made Andrew drive me around in the new (to us) car, to give him some more practice, and we messed around the house for a bit. Then we headed off to the bike shop.

Setback #2: The bike shop had no paperwork on his bike, and consequently didn’t know what state the tune-up was in.

The guy behind the counter asked us to give him an hour to give the bike a once-over to just make sure everything looked good. In the meantime, Andrew and I walked around “downtown” Vienna — passing through the crafters setting up for the 4th of July doings and grabbing a small lunch at Whole Foods. At about 11:15 AM we returned, picked up Andrew’s bike and headed home. From there, we biked up to the Vienna Metro stop.

Setback #3: Bikes aren’t allowed on the Metro on the 4th of July.

Well, that one was a deal-breaker, so we decided to just bike around Vienna. Of course, the road we picked was probably the most hilly road in town, but I’m proud to say that I actually made it up each and every hill without dismounting (though I may have slowed to a crawl). We ended up back by the “doings”, so after grabbing a frozen chai drink from Starbucks, we walked back through the crafts, and I picked up a couple little somethings.

When we got back home, we had put about 7 miles on the bikes — my longest ride so far (though that’s likely to change later this weekend).