MY ROAD BIKE makes a slight hum under the right conditions.  The tires, wheels, fork, and frame all work together to produce a sort of muted, resonant "hum" when I'm coasting or pedaling lightly on a good surface.

I was reminded of this today, as my friend and I tooled along on Beach Drive.  We used to ride together a LOT- thousands of miles a year- but of late our riding time, and in fact time together in general, has been very very limited.  But today was just too nice not to ride, plus we'd made the plan a week ago.

Beach Drive is the epitome of easy riding.  It runs parallel to, and in the floodplain of, Rock Creek from the north end of the Drive all the way into Georgetown, about 16 miles.  Long segments of it are closed to auto traffic from Friday morning to Sunday evening, and it's paralleled along its entire length by a separate multi-use trail (which I don't generally use).

From my house to my friend's is about four miles, and from his place to the north end of Beach Drive is another few.  We rode together as far as Candy Cane City, a playground just on the Maryland side of the MD/DC dividing line.  That was about ten miles from my friend's house and, since he's not been riding much, it made a good turnaround point.

On the return leg we stopped for lunch at a place we both like, then took our time returning to his house where we lazed in Adirondack chairs and enjoyed the brilliant March sunshine.

Altogether I covered a shade over 28 miles, my friend about 20.  It was a great way to spend a day.