June 29, 2016
Day 29 in Falls Church
The plan for today was to go for a short morning ride on the W&OD trail, get some maintenance done on the brakes at a local bike shop, then visit Arlington National Cemetery in the afternoon. We did two out of three. We left around 8:30 AM and rode north on the W&OD trail. It runs right next to our hotel in Falls Church. It is very well used trail and was full of cyclists, runners and walkers. About 8 miles into the ride, a small sign on the side of the trail pointed right and said Meadowlark Botanical Garden 1.5 miles. At first, we rode past it, then turned around and decided to go check it out. OMG! It was a VERY steep climb on the bike trail up to the gardens. We all made it, but fortunately we had no panniers on the bike. If we had been loaded, Kerry and I would probably not have been able to pedal the whole way. We arrived at the garden about 20 minutes before they opened and discussed whether we wanted to wait to go in or just ride on. I was not in favor of getting back on the bike right away, so we chose to stay and visit the gardens when they opened at 10AM. That was a very good decision. For the senior price of only $2.50, we spent a couple of hours walking around a really outstanding botanical garden. Most of it was based on native Virginia plants, but there was also a Korean garden that was very beautiful. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.
The ride back down to the W&OD trail was easy and the day was perfect for cycling, so we decided to keep riding instead of returning to the hotel. We rode up the trail for several miles and stopped at Herndon. I was looking for a restaurant for lunch when Kerry and Viktoriya spotted a bakery. They went in and found sample heaven. There were several kinds of breads out with butter and jam. The staff cut sample slices that were full serving size and the four of us made lunch out of bread, butter, jam and some chocolate cookie samples. Kerry tried to pay something for all the food we ate, but the clerks declined, assuring him that we were welcome to what we ate. We did buy some whole wheat rolls and Viktoriya bought a bag of cookies, so we weren't total freeloaders.
After our break in Herndon, we rode north to Ashburn. Kerry and I had eaten authentic North Carolina barbeque there two years ago, so of course we had to stop. We shared a pulled pork plate which was really good. Then we headed back to Falls Church and the bike shop. They replaced the brake pads, changed the oil in the Rohloff hub and replaced my handlebar tape. It was all done in just over an hour. Now it's time to eat again and get ready for tomorrow's visit to the Smithsonian.
Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 1,580 miles (2,543 km)
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