July 4th Ride

Sorry for the long span between posts. After going strong for a few months, I decided it was time to take a small hiatus to celebrate my 1 year wedding anniversary, my birthday and the 4th of July; but now I am back and will be posting regularly again.

My wife and I went on a fun ride the July 4th. It was my first time on the bike in a couple of weeks. The sun was hot with temps in the high 90s. We rode to the Wonderland Ballroom to meet up with some friends in the evening for some food and drinks before heading farther downtown to watch the fireworks. It was a great day and I really enjoyed spending the evening with my wife riding around DC.

For our route, we took the Sligo Creek bike path to the town of Tacoma Park on the border of Maryland and DC and then continued on 3rd Ave to Kansas Ave. These streets had intermittent bike paths and were easily navigable through the city. Because of the high temps, we had to take a little breather in the shade after climbing a couple of larger hills on Kansas in the blazing sun. Once we cooled off a bit, we continued on looking forward to the cold beers that were in our immediate future.

Sitting at the table on the sidewalk facing 11th ave, we saw dozens of people riding down to the mall to watch the fireworks. We ordered some BBQ wings which were saucy and well cooked with a fairly decent blue cheese dip. Then I ordered a foot long chilli/cheese dog and my wife ordered a sandwich and fries. Pretty decent food, good service, great beer selection and a real chill atmosphere is how I would describe this off the beaten path establishment. Having heard good things, we were happy we made this our hangout spot to celebrate our countrys break from Great Britain.

We then went to Cordozo High School to watch the fireworks. It was a great view. To the left is an image I made of our trip up 14th street which was exploding with fireworks everywhere. Every block there were people having fun and celebrating. Below is the short video excerpt of the show from Cordozo High.

Happy Fourth of July Everyone.

words, video and the last photo by Ray Heinsman