Rockville Virginia back to Rockville Virginia
243 Miles
First I went to Coleman Powersports to get a new rear tire. My old one was down where it needed to be replaced.
Rita called them and had them hold a replacement Bridgestone tire for me. While I was there, I found that a new
chain was necessary. On my way up I was getting a lot of chain slap and the guy working on the bike pointed
it out to me as well so a new chain it was.
I found it was quite a bit colder than I expected or I'd have worn my warmer gear. As it was, I was just in
my stitch and rain gloves. I'm finding that the stitch needs an undergarment of some sort since the wind blows
right at the shoulders and upper arms.
The manager at CPS asked me about possible upgrades to my bike to the tune of 5,000 bucks :) I really wasn't
interested in popping a wheelie at 140mph so said no thanks :)
Next I headed up to see Jasmine. I had a pretty good idea where she was but wasn't positive. I found the place
and went into the lobby. I called Rita to confirm the location and the floor. I was just thinking that Jasmine
should come out of the elevator when sure enough, there she was. She'd lost a bit of weight since last year and
looked better. They were heading off to lunch (her and Molly) so we headed out. I showed her the new bike and
had her get on for a pic. We then headed off to Whole Foods for lunch. Back at her office, I met Ursulla and
we all chatted about weight loss, the ride around the country and had lunch. Afterwards, they let Jasmine off
early so we could wander around. We went back down to her new place and I was able to see Morgan again. She's
still odd but no problem there. We went over to Springfield Mall to get some smaller pants (the 36's were a
little large on me) and possibly a fleece undergarment (sweatshirt or something). I picked up a pair of size
33 jeans (straight leg) at Target and a fleece sweatshirt from Sports Authority.
I still wanted to head down and see the old house and talk to our neighbor Doug. So I said my goodbyes and headed
south.
Traffic still sucks pretty badly in VA. The ride from Springfield Mall down to Dale City was pretty quick but
the ride down Dale Blvd was not to be believed. The weird part is that it's about the same as it was when we
lived there but the traffic is so much better here in Denver that the difference is large.
I went down to check out the house and saw lots of changes. Doug has changed quite a bit as well. He's done
some work on his place including painting his living room and replacing the carpets. We chatted for about an hour
and then I headed off to see my daughter.
On my way down Cardinal, I spotted the new "Townhouses" created to get around the number of single family homes
in Fairfax and now down in Dale City. In Farifax, the builders put walls in between the houses to connect them
but buried them in the ground effectivly making "stand alone" townhouses so more houses could be put on a lot.
Here they put a little archway between the two houses that had no other function than to make them close together.
I headed out to find Samantha. She's down just north of Fredericksburg at her boyfriends house. I met her and
we headed out in her BMW Convertible to dinner at Long John Silver's. It wasn't too bad, for a fast food fish
place :) I think I prefer Arthur Treacher's though :)
We chatted about things and then headed back up to her place. After saying goodbye I considered heading back up to
Jasmine's or back down to my brother's. I called him and he said there was a rain storm down there but it had
passed. Since he had my other warm weather gear, I went ahead and decided to head south. I called jasmine to let
her know and headed off. Unfortunately I encountered the remnents of the thunderstorm. Add that it was dark 9pm
or so) and there are maniacal semi drivers heading south on 95 and you can imagine how the ride went. Because of
the rain, I ducked down getting my chest on the tank and tried to stay below the windshield. I was able to keep
pretty dry but it was fairly chilly. I got to Erich's at about 10:15 or so and headed off to bed.