It's time for my annual Coffeeneuring post. Coffeeneuring is a fun little challenge (as I've noted before, the cycling world is full of such challenges - clearly cyclists are need extrinsic motivation in the form of gimmicky challenges). As described by the sponsors of this challenge,
"The Coffeeneuring Challenge is a time to slow your roll after the lively pace of summer. Time for some leaf-peeping and leisure. Let’s make the most of this delicious time of year with bike rides that include a stop for your favorite fall beverages, and perhaps the consumption of a pastry or two or three. By yourself or with friends, shared on social or not (remember the days when we used to do things and not post about them? I don’t), the way the Coffeeneuring Challenge unfolds is up to you.
The short version of the Coffeeneuring Challenge is as follows:
- between October 7 through November 20, 2023,
- ride your bike to 7 places,
- at least 2 miles round trip each time,
- drink 7 total cups of coffee (or another fall-type beverage), and
- document your coffeeneuring ..."
And of course the best part is that if you complete the challenge, you get a little patch (if you pay for it, that is)! I have a stack of these patches sitting forlornly in a basket - but one lucky one made it onto my cycling bag!
Here are my logs for Coffeeneuring 2023:
Week 1: 10/7-13
1. 10/10. Home to National Landing (nèe Crystal City). As part of the transformation of Crystal City brought about by the Amazon headquarters they're building there, the Crystal City Water Park has been being rebuilt. This park's name has always been the source of confusion, as when most people hear "Water Park" they think of water slides and lazy rivers, not a brutalist plaza with a big water feature where Pentagon contractors (including me in the early 90's) go to get some sun during lunch. When the park closed for renovations a while back there was significant outcry because Cutting Down trees! Changes to the Status Quo! Environmental Something-or-Other! Kvetching about any sort of chance is the Arlington way.
Anyway, the Water Park, which previously had been the warm weather home of Tuesdays' morning Coffee Club gathering, finally reopened: a soft opening at the beginning of October, with all the new feature - including the new food kiosks and the long overdue bathroom - in full swing the following week. Tuesday Coffee Club returned on Tuesday 10/10, and I was there (one of only three people to attend!). At the end of coffee time, I went to use the rest room, and while I was in there the other two cyclists up and left, leaving my bike unattended (not wanting to rat anyone out I won't name them - I'll just call them BleevO and Snowskephine, a.k.a Snowmorebbe). Fortunately my temporarily abandoned bike was still there when I got out of the restroom.
Distance: 17.1 miles
Coffee: Drip decaf from home
Coffee Location: Crystal City Waterpark (coffee outdoors)
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| Four Mile Run at sunrise. Prettiest picture ever of a sewage treatment plant! |
2. 10/13. The I66 Trail. The good folks of VDOT have added a bike trail along I66 heading west from Gallows Road. There was much hue and cry (because, of course there was) when the trail design was unveiled because it runs inside the sound wall, that is to say you get to ride your bike directly alongside eight lanes of Interstate highway traffic. The trail itself isn't bad, and it has more access points than I expected, but riding alongside traffic is nasty, in part because it's LOUD. And you breathe a lot of exhaust. I put my earbuds into my ears (not playing anything - just as earplugs) to muffle the noise a bit. This trail serves a valuable purpose in terms of bike access to areas of Fairfax County which are otherwise hard to reach by bike, but it's not a trail you'd really ride for pleasure.
I took the trail west to the point where it abruptly ends near Fairfax Circle (it looks like it will be extended further west in the future). Rather than just turning around and heading home I decided to bike through the streets up to the W&OD. This proved to be not too bad, though there were some roads - like Courthouse Road - where riding on the sidewalk rather than in the street was required.
Somewhere along the line I unexpectedly rode past what I guess was a local
Chabad House - a big ol' menorah out front, and numerous American and Israeli flags flying from the front porch. Less than a week after the horrific Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, it was a heartwarming sight.
My coffee stop was at Caffé Amouri in Vienna, formerly another weekday Coffee Club meeting place. I was surprised to find they'd added a second room, doubling the size of the place. The barista said, yeah, it opened like two years ago.
Distance: 28.9 miles
Coffee: Decaf Americano
Coffee Location: Caffe Amouri, Vienna
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| Coffee at Amouri |
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| Unexpected signs of Jewish life in Fairfax |
Week 2: 10/14-20
3. 10/16. Arlington Loop. One thing I haven't yet mentioned in this write-up is that I've been spending my days in a surgical boot because of a stress fracture in my tibia I got while running. I'm allowed to do non-weight-bearing exercise including cycling and swimming (I've gotten the hang of one-legged rowing machine, too). I've been trying to keep moving as much as possible, taking care not to overdo things. Today my ride was an Arlington Loop. I have the good fortune of living just a few blocks from the wonderful W&OD multi-use trail, just a mile or so west of a nice loop ride one can do by riding portions of the W&OD, Custis, and Four Mile Run trails. Given the little tail on my rides to and from the "loop", my "loop" rides look like a letter "Q" more than "O".
Today's ride was nothing special. When I passed through Crystal City I tried to grab a free banana from the Amazon banana truck, but they were closed for the day, and the banistas (yes, that's what they're called) were busy trying to wrestle a cover onto the truck. challenged by the brisk wind.
I stopped for coffee at Best Buns in Shirlington (wintertime home of the Wednesday morning Coffee Club), where I also picked up a baguette to have for dinner and, despite my continuous resoutions to eat less sugar, a double chocolate chip cookie. I ate half the cookie and saved the rest for later. Since I had half a double chocolate chip cookie I guess I had the equivalent of a single chocolate chip cookie, maybe?
Distance: 19.9 miles
Coffee: Decaf Coffee (and half a double chocolate chip cookie)
Coffee Location: Best Buns, Shirlington
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| Coffee and cookie at Best Buns |
4. 10/17. Home to Reston Town Center with the AK Gang. I used to lead rides for the Arlington 55+ cycling group, until they decided to make all the rides on Thursdays, a day which doesn't work for me because of a work conflict. While I was volunteering I made friends with a small group of the higher end riders from that group, who I continue to ride with now and again (I like riding with senior citizens - they ride at my speed!). My ride titles usually refer to them as the "AK"s, "AK" being the English transliteration of the initials of the Yiddish phrase "אַלטער קאַקער" (or "alter kakher") which means, basically, "old fart". Actor Michael Douglas knows this expression, and now you do too.
I met John and Clare, Gordon, and Rita at the Masonic Temple alongside the W&OD in Falls Church. My riding was a little slow due to my still-ailing leg, but I generally kept up. It was one of those days that felt cold when it was cloudy and warm whenever the sun came out.
Riding with Gordon is always a hoot, as he's Mr. Magoo on a bike. He'll ride all over the place - for example, riding in the opposing lane of the bike path so he can ride alongside you and chat - but never realizes that he's doing anything wrong and instead gets offended at the rudeness of others if they call him out (for example, he couldn't understand why a cyclist coming from the other direction while he was riding in the wrong lane yelled at him to get out of the way). But other than his obliviousness he's a super-nice guy.
Distance: 29.6 miles
Coffee: Decaf Americano (and a toasted plain bagel)
Coffee Location: Starbucks, Reston Town Center
Bonus Coffee Ride*: I attended Friday coffee club on Friday 10/20 (my mom's birthday!) and got to see the Pride of Baltimore docked in Old town Alexandria.
Week 3: 10/21-27
5. 10/23. Herndonish. A ride by myself. Because of the stupid surgical boot I've spent too much time lately sitting around the house. I just needed to get out and hit the trail. I drove as far as Idylwood Park so I could bypass the close-to-home part of the trail I'm really bored with by now. I must be quite a sight when I stagger out of the car wearing my surgical boot, pull my bike out of the back, change into my cycling shoes and ride off. People must wonder what kind of strange injury I have which prevents me from walking but not cycling - but it's legit. As I mentioned up top, the idea is to minimize weight-bearing on the leg while it heals. My only challenge is that I typically unclip with the left (bad) leg, and so I have to be very careful not to overload that leg when I stop.
I rode out past Herndon, just far enough to make it a 30 mile round-trip. It was a ride into a fairly strong wind on the way out, but the fall colors were popping - very pretty. On the way back I decided to bypass the frou-frou coffee at Green Lizard in favor of a simple cup from 7-Eleven at Van Buren Street. Unfortunately, their coffee service has gone downhill. They didn't have any decaf available, nor was there a decaf option in their automated fancy drink machine, so I had a small cup of some slightly burned tasting regular. I don't normally drink caffeine, so I really feel it when I do; I had that "
Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!" caffeinated feeling all the way home.
For a time the spread of Starbucks and other higher end coffee shops throughout the land made existing coffee outlets up their game in order to avoid losing business: even McDonald's improved their previously dishwatery coffee, and quick-stop places like 7-Eleven and WaWa started serving decent brew too. Unfortunately, due to cost-cutting or lack of caring (or maybe it was the pandemic), the quality of quick-stop coffee has gone back downhill in recent times. A disappointing cup, but coffee nonetheless.
Distance: 30.8 miles
Coffee: Regular Coffee (and a granola bar, brought from home)
Coffee Location: 7-Eleven, Van Buren St. and the W&OD Trail, Herndon
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| Oh, Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven (and their sub-par coffee) |
Week 4: 10/28-11/3
6. 10/28. The Great Pumpkin Ride. My participation in The Great Pumpkin Ride (GPR) has its own blog entry, so I won't duplicate the details here. While the GPR itself doesn't offer coffee, after the ride I pedaled over to Great Harvest Bread in downtown Warrenton where I had a cup and a snack.
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| Bee all that you can bee! |
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| Coffee and a treat at Great Harvest |
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| The swarm of bees |
Distance: 25.5 miles
Coffee: Decaf Coffee and a small free sample slice of their Halloween rice crispies treat
Coffee Location: Great Harvest Bakery, Warrenton, VA
7. 10/31. Crystal City Coffee Club. I attended the Tuesday morning coffee club again. Technically, this wasn't the same location as Ride #1, since that ride's location was outdoors at the Water Park, and this one was indoors at Mah Ze Dahr, on account of the cooler weather.
Distance: 17.5 miles
Coffee: Decaf Coffee (brought from home)
Coffee Location: Mah Ze Dahr, Arlington, VA
Week 5: 11/4-11/10
8. 11/6. Buying Lizard Lights. Every year my coffeeneuring includes one or more Arlington loops, since that's such a common ride for me (for example, see this year's ride #4). Today my loop the ride had a purpose. My poor lizard, Cooper, was feeling rather under the weather since the basking bulb (heat lamp) for his tank had blown. Being a cold-blooded critter, he really depends on external heat! There's a PetSmart at Potomac Yards just south of Four Mile Run Trail, so I planned an Arlington Loop with a little detour to pick up a pack of bulbs. There's actually a PetSmart less than a mile from my house, but that wouldn't have given me much of a bike ride - going to the far-away pet shop was a much better choice from a cycling perspective.
The bulbs were much more expensive than I remembered - but that seems to be the case with everything I buy these days. Strangely, when I looked online on the PetSmart site the bulbs were a couple of bucks cheaper there, and Petco has them for 2/3 of PetSmart's price - lesson learned!
As I continued around my loop I stopped in Shirlington and had my usual Americano at Peet's. It was a warm afternoon, and I sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and 60+ degree temps before continuing on home.
Distance: 29.5 miles
Coffee: Decaf Americano
Coffee Location: Peet's, Shirlington, Arlington, VA
Week 6: 11/11-11/17
9. 11/14/23. March for Israel. The world is in a crazy place right now, and one of the crazier spots in this crazy world is the current war instigated by Hamas against Israel. I don't want my coffeeneuring to get political and so I'm not going to go into this situation in depth (hint as to my leanings: all my aunts and uncles were born in Jerusalem, as were my grandparents, and my great-grandparents, and my great-great-grandparents, ... you get the idea).
Anyway, without question the best way to get to big rally type events in DC is via bicycle. No crush in the Metro, no delayed buses, no parking hassles. I biked downtown with my friends John and Clare (of the AK Gang - see ride #4). Three hundred thousand people attended the rally. 300K seems like a modest number (inaugurations draw 4-6 times that number), but when you figure there are only about 6 million Jews in America, it's pretty impressive. Assuming most of the attendees were Jewish, that's about 5% of all the Jews in America showing up for the rally, a pretty nice show of solidarity. What does it mean for 5% of a total population to show up? Well, if you got that kind of response for a Christian rally, that is, if you had 5% of all the Christians in America show up for a rally that would be 11 million people - equivalent to the entire populations of New York City and Chicago combined. The only reason 5% of the nation's Jewish population fits on the mall is that there are so few of us in total.
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| John bought this flag, but handed it off to me when they left |
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| The scene |
John and Clare left early, while I stayed on and rode around the perimeter soaking up the scene. My son was somewhere backstage in the video control room, serving as technical director for the live video feed - but I didn't see him (I hadn't really expected to). Eventually I headed home, as I had to get ready for a music gig that evening, but took time for a stop in Shirlington for coffee. Along with my coffee I ate a pack of animal crackers which some trick-or-treater had dropped on my lawn on Halloween.
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| Peet's coffee and found animal crackers |
Distance: 29.5 miles
Coffee: Decaf Skim Latte
Coffee Location: Peet's, Shirlington, Arlington, VA (this is my use of the going to the same place twice rule)
10. Coffee Clubbing at SteveO & Loose Bones' place.
So, this is the third morning Coffee Club ride I have included here (see #1 and #4), but each one involved coffee at a different location and so they all count. This one was very special - fellow Freezing Saddles alumni SteveO and Lucy superseded the usual Thursday coffee club by hosting a coffee gathering at their lovely new joint home. Since the pandemic I've gotten lazy about coffee club and make it not even quite once per week, but despite having been out late the previous two nights with music gigs I wasn't going to miss this special event. And in North Arlington, no less!
I pedaled over to their place, which is on the same street as my first apartment in the DC area (about eight blocks north). While riding along Fairfax Drive I glanced at a cyclist waiting at the light on the cross-street. She momentarily looked familiar, but I swear - all cyclists look the same to me with the helmets and the glasses. It wasn't until she caught up with me a few blocks later that I realized it was fellow coffee clubber Stacy. We rode the rest of the way together.
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| Chatting with Robyne at SteveO's |
It was a lovely gathering, with delicious pastries. In fact, there were enough high class pastries that the mediocre Safeway mini muffins I had contributed (picked up on my way to the previous night's gig) went untouched. There were even
hamentaschen. The gathering was listed as running until 8:20 AM and so at 8:20 I hit the road (never accuse me of not being literal!). I made it home in plenty of time to turn around and head to physical therapy (for my stress fracture thing). Nice way to start the day.
Distance: 10.2 miles
Coffee: Decaf drip from home
Coffee Location: SteveO & Lucy's place
Weeklet 7: 11/18-20
No entries. As usual, I'm a little disappointed that coffeeneuring ends before my birthday so I can never go coffeeneuring on the big day.
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*The rules state that you can't count more than two rides per week.
