Left/Right Sanctuary

Another red light, but I can use it to rest on this uphill climb. My legs are tired and it’s humid.

“Damn, Mike and Georgia are getting divorced after 22 years?” I say to myself. “Clara and I are at 17 years. I thought Mike and Georgia would be together forever.”

Green light, feet in the pedals. Ugh, it’s still uphill and it’s still sticky with humidity, but the end of the hill is in sight. Almost to the National Cathedral, where I can pick my route downhill. I look back to make sure no cars are coming so I can avoid the potential of occupants in parked cars opening one of their doors into me. No one there, so I stand up to go faster and the breeze feels good, plus the fact that I’m in a stand of trees where it’s a little cooler.

Back in the saddle, cruising the last more gradual uphill to the Cathedral, should I turn and go down Garfield? Nah, it has some traffic and I want to actually see the Cathedral today. So I’ll sit at this red light.

Mike was my friend, Georgia was my friend only through Mike, but I liked her. Both whip smart, both willing to speak their minds. I never questioned where they were coming from. It just sounds like the constant battles that they had between themselves for 22 years, ones that they always came out of stronger. Maybe they weren’t actually stronger.

Green light, feet in the pedals. These last couple blocks to the Cathedral are pretty flat, mixed morning sun and shade. Turning right into the Cathedral, I see its base, the intense summer sun getting a little farther above the horizon to its right. I slow down as the pavement turns to cobblestones, where the height of the Cathedral gives shade. No one is around this early and I stop to admire the building in silence.

Beautiful place, sheer tall walls of stone, the rounded ornate doorways. I walk with my bike around the corner to look for the Darth Vader gargoyle that the designers hid halfway up. It’s a fun exercise even though I know generally where it is. It’s far enough up that my eyes have a hard time picking it out, especially when the sweat is dripping into my eyes. “I gotta get myself some binoculars,” I say to myself, but still appreciate the concept that I found the Darth Vader gargoyle.

I walk down the gradual hill to The Sanctuary. I’m not sure what it’s actually called, but this early in the morning, there is indirect sunlight around the fountain and direct sunlight above illuminating the architectural curves – making for what feels like sanctuary to me. I’ve taken the picture with my phone before, but I do it again today. I also check my average speed up to this point, 13.4 mph. I’ll take it.

Climbing back on my bike, should I go straight home? I’ve traveled probably 90% of the streets in Washington, DC, but I want to see if I can find a new one, so I go through one of the side streets that doesn’t go straight down towards home. A couple blocks on 35th St NW to where I hit Newark and have to go left or right. I’ve been on Newark before, so I’ve got to find out what’s the next block. I go left, which gets me to 36th St NW, where I can go right. Have I been on Norton? Well, I just crossed it, so it counts. Next is Ordway. I know that I haven’t been on Ordway, so I’ll definitely go right here, taking me downhill.

DC has a crazy grid system, but it has a general logic. After you go north of the lettered streets, you get to named streets that are roughly in alphabetical order. I like looking for the ones out of order, like Rowland and Rodman a few blocks north.

Down the hill towards Connecticut Ave, I start thinking about work – I have to add another meeting to my day and the work I need to do to prepare – but then I get a clear crossing at Connecticut and I have to focus. Pedal fast to get across in the light morning traffic and quickly decide to go north a little more before going home. I go a couple blocks, scanning the options to the right. Tilden is a big fast downhill that I know really well from the torture of having to climb it, so I’ll go down Albemarle into the park. Gotta pay attention to the dog walkers and the people walking without the dog. I try to say hi when they smile, but it’s fast, so I can’t pay a lot of attention.

In the park, it’s flat and I know it well, almost without looking.

Yeah, I am going to miss Georgia. I probably won’t see her much anymore. I’ll see Mike and he’ll be depressed for a while. He sounded horrible on the phone. Makes me…

Hey, there’s a bicyclist up there that I can catch!

I get up out of my seat and start pedaling hard, closing the gap. They don’t know I’m coming, so this should be relatively easy, but this part of the road is fast, even for them, so it could take a little while. It’s a woman, I think, because she looks small from here. She is going at a reasonable clip.

A little faster, I think to myself. I have to get her before we get to the stop light another mile ahead. Yeah, it is a woman, but I don’t know how I know from here. I wonder how I can tell. It’s not just the size. Maybe it’s the light blue jersey? Weird how it's hard to deconstruct your own instincts. That's what machine learning is for.

She slows down to drink and I’m definitely going to catch her. I ride by her, say a quick hello, but mostly maintain my pace. I don’t know if she said hello back. We’re coming up on the light and it’s red. I stop, take a quick look back. She pulls up behind me and I see that she has earphones in. She’s zoned out in music. Another few seconds to wait at the light.

I’ll talk to Mike this weekend. He’ll be ok. We should do a backpacking trip this fall. Maybe New Hampshire. I’ll convince him.

Green light, feet in pedals. Stand up and make the last push before the climb up Klingle. Around the curve and under the bridge to the beginning of the climb.

All right, just settle in. It’s too hot to make this a strong push up the hill... A cute girl walking her dog – that always helps the climb go by faster.

The steep part always makes me want to consider the side route off to the right that looks flatter, but it says it’s for pedestrians only.

I do wonder where that goes, though. Gotta give myself the chance to explore it some day. Just not today.

Climbing out of the Klingle trail onto Klingle Rd…

It’s always hardest when you can see the end. Why is that? It’s like you have to pee the most when you can actually finally see the bathroom. Which reminds me – Take a drink!

I reach down for the last third of my bottle of Gatorade. It’s not cold anymore, but it is something to replenish the sweat I’ve been churning out. Down Cathedral St back towards home. I don’t know what precise way I’ll take. So I actually turn off Cathedral, but still going downhill, enjoying the breeze. A street with a few bigger houses. Maybe I take the side road to get to where the Obamas live. Or I could hit the neighborhood with the huge mansions by the park. But I decide to go down the more main road.

Still relatively little traffic and the downhill on Connecticut lets me go close to as fast as traffic, though there isn’t much. I wonder if I scare the drivers when I’m going about their speed. I bet I scare them when I randomly choose to go left or right, but it’s all in the name of exploring.

The bike ride isn’t about training for a race. It’s a little bit about the exercise the doctors tell me that I should do as my hair starts turning gray. But it’s mostly about exploring, allowing my mind to take me wherever it feels like going, turning left or right at the last second because I simply feel like it. It clears out the garbage in my brain, but by having to navigate cars and pedestrians and cute girls with dogs, it still keeps my reflexes sharp.

After parking my bike in the garage and going up to my apartment, my wife greets me, “Did you get your meditative ride in?”

She knows me well.