Veterans Day Bike Ride

Let's start by settling punctuation: Veteran's vs. Veterans' vs. Veterans Day. Judd, the leader of today's Veterans Day ride, works for the Veterans Administration and says that according to their official style guide there is no apostrophe. The day doesn't belong to Veterans; rather, it is a day in honor of Veterans. Now you know.

I left home at around 9 AM to bike to Velo Cafe at The Wharf in DC, the starting point of the ride. At that time of the morning it was quite cold - my first ride of the season with temps in the thirties. I dressed warmly and so was comfortable - of course, with the exception of my hands which were cold despite gloves, glove liners, and little chemical warmer packets. I spent about the first half of the trip into DC obsessing about how my hands were going to hurt all day. Fortunately, in the second half of the trip I distracted myself with another train of thought and, since I wasn't focusing on them, my hands didn't bother me as much.

At Velo the earlybirds got coffee while the rest of the group drifted in and schmoozed (note: they don't have brewed decaf coffee at Velo, so I ordered a decaf latte. They have almond and soy milk but not non-fat, so I got my latte with whole milk). Once everyone (about 15 people) had arrived we made a presentation to Bob, a rider who is moving away. Josephine had put out a call for photos and reminiscences and on very short notice put together a really lovely book. My contribution to the book was this photo:

Cardiac Coffee Club (Bob is in the rear)

Just a few weeks after my surgery last year, a group of the morning bicycle coffee clubbers took coffee club on the road and brought it to my house, Bob among them. This was a super nice gesture and was a warm spot of cheer during the tough period of my initial recovery. Bob was also a role model in terms of athletic recovery after serious illness. He had a bout with cancer, after which he came roaring back. He is the kind of rider who can knock off 100 miles like it's nothing day after day after day. Last winter he dropped out of Freezing Saddles in the middle for personal reasons but had already ridden so many miles that he remained in first place for weeks after he stopped riding!

Presentation to Bob (in patriotic jersey) at Velo Cafe

DC is a city that is not short on monuments, even if you limit yourself to a theme, and so we had plenty of Veteran-themed monuments to tour. We visited the American Veterans Disabled for Life monument and the DC War Memorial (honoring DC residents who died in service to their country), where there was a wreath from the "Association of Oldest Residents of DC". I figured this was an organization of centenarians; I later looked it up - their membership requirements are being at least 40 years of age with at least 20 years of residence in DC, which means that if there was an equivalent organization in Arlington I would qualify as an "Oldest Resident of Arlington". In fact, I'm so old that I could qualify as an "Oldest Resident of Arlington" and an "Oldest Resident of Brooklyn".

At the American Veterans Disabled for Life monument

Association of the Oldest Residents of DC wreath

We continued on to the WW II Memorial, then crossed the river back to Virginia and headed to the Merchant Marine Memorial (sometimes known as "waves and seagulls") near Columbia Island. After riding past the Pentagon we went up the hill to the Air Force Memorial. One interesting thing about that memorial is it had a mistake in it - General Billy Mitchell received a Medal of Honor granted by the President, but it wasn't the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was accidentally included in a list of Air Force Congressional Medal of Honor recipients and his name was included in those listed on the memorial. When the mistake was discovered his name was chiseled out and a blank patch of marble put in its place - a very obvious "oops" in the memorial. Mitchell was considered the father of the Air Force, but he was apparently a difficult person - he was promoted to brigadier general then demoted back to colonel not once, but twice! He was posthumously awarded the rank of major general.

The Air Force Memorial

Judd gives a talk

Group panorama

Nadine wanted a picture of Cynthia and me together because we matched (interestingly, she didn't ask for a picture of me with SteveO, who was wearing the identical jacket to mine - see preceding photo)

As the day wore on it definitely warmed up  - into the upper 40's at least, and I went down to wearing only one pair of gloves and put away my balaclava.

We finished up at the Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima), a fitting place to say our goodbyes to Marine vet Bob and head on our way. A subset went out for tacos at the Rosslyn District Taco. Then we all went our separate ways. Four of us headed west so I had company as far as Ballston.

Group photo (thanks, Ricky!)