day two of a three day weekend

here is is sunday afternoon
only halfway through the second day of a three day weekend
laying low hanging out with my younger son, grant
he woke up in a mood from a nap... a short nap
not ready to try and entertain him I offered to calm his mood with Corduroy

it is funny
dean love movies
dean wakes up and requests a movie...
dean gets ready for bed and he requests a movie...
he does not get the movie... but he is persistent in his requests
grant on the other hand can not be bothered
well... other than the short film Corduroy
Corduroy is his buddy
corduroy is a children's book that was converted into a film

dean is at the Nationals game with his grandfather
maybe when they get back we will all go swimming
we went swimming this morning
but... why not swim again this afternoon
after all, this is Memorial Day weekend... grilling poolside is an American tradition!

so... her I am blogging and watching a set of short films with my two year old son grant
letting my body recover from the classic combination of a late night of drinking followed by a hot day out on the bike
hot.... well, only in comparision to the very moderate and pleasant spring we have been experiencing

earlier today we went to my dad's house
it was a good way to kill the morning
also a good way to drop dean off to go to the baseball game
go nats.... and some cotton candy

we all swam
my boys, my wife, and my dogs all in my dad's pool
my dad's dog will not go into the pool... some lab
after some swimming dean took off with grandpa for a baseball game
the rest of us stayed behind
I cooked up some dogs and sausages for my stepmother... her visiting cousins... and my immediately family
we all ate like Americans
like the european americans we are
there was a variety of sausages
then lisa went with grant to the grocery store then home to take a nap

hold on... corduroy is over
snuck in Harold and the Purple Crayon
grant has no interest... grant only wants to see Corduroy

before lisa drove away with grant and the car I unloaded the geared surly karate monkey with front shock and jumped into some basic riding apparrell.... the basic lycra super hero costume
lisa pulled out the driveway in the car
I pulled out the driveway in the other direction on the bike

without much time I decided I would ride from my dad's house in Bethesda to the Cabin John Trails just outside the beltway
I just wrote an article for SPOKES magazine about riding from the Capitol Building to this same set of trails
this would be an abreviated version of that ride
but... this ride would contain some similar elements of carlessness
riding the bike rather than putting in on the car
although not from home and not from the center of dc
this would still be a solid endurance ride with some fun dirt involved ride

in less than twenty minutes I was at the trailhead
the route was made less aggressive by avoiding the cars by guessing my way through unkown whitman territory
lots have changed
yet lot is the same since I guessed my way through these roads 20 some years ago
after some scary shoulder riding on River Road.... it was the trailhead to cabin john just outside the beltway
not far into the trail I could see that the folks from MORE had been in here doing their trail thing
a fallen log had been removed and some rerouting had been done
as well as some well wornness to the trails showing that there has been a decent amount of traffic on these trails

the trails flowed
I rode a fairly mechnical set of loops
feeling spry
starting to gain some confidence on the bike
tried to keep off the bike
allowed the bike to leave the ground a few times
marveled at the proximity of these trails to the house I grew up in and my ignorance to their presence
I day dreamed about trail rides decades ago and conversations of these trails but my inability to ever piece together where they were
there had been mention of them
but I had always thought that people were talking about trails further down River Road deeper into Potomac Maryland

I ran several repeats of some of the internal loops behind the Locust Nature Center
went past the toddler park and the miniture steam engine
watched the clock and estimated my return
rode the dirt for roughly an hour twenty then rode the shoulder of River Road back into DC
it was a rewarding ride
a great little ride
now to piece together a ride for tomorrow am at Gambril State Park