Presidents Day Ride 2024
What better way to spend Presidents Day than to take a ride to the first monument dedicated to our first president. On a sunny and chilly Presidents Day, 17 riders did just that. The ride began at a Sheetz in Herndon with eleven riders. One rider we learned was a recent transplant from a Navy assignment in Hawaii and is now supporting the NSA. We look forward to Michael joining more rides and also joining our club.
The ride proceeded along secondary roads west of Dulles and Leesburg and stopped at the Point of Rocks MARC Station to link up with six riders from MD. As part of our club ride procedure Best Practices, our Riders Brief starts off with rider introductions which include in addition to name, a persons vocation/avocation, and an interesting factoid about oneself. This information sharing is key to building social bonds and facilitating teamwork. Once the introductions were made, the ride lead, Jose, verified riders’ assignment to small groups.
The group proceeded on the second half of the ride heading west from Point of Rocks through hilly farmlands towards Harpers Ferry, then north through territory hosting numerous operations of Civil War combatants. After an hour and ten minutes of excellent twisties and roller coaster roads, we arrived at our destination, Washington Monument State Park.
The park is situated on one of the summits along the South Mountain ridge line and provides beautiful vistas of the Maryland countryside. Unfortunately during the winter season only the lower parking lot was open. So the group enjoyed a stimulating ten minute hike up to the monument. Again due to winter operations, the interior of the monument was closed for the winter. If we were able to enter, we would have been treated to a somewhat cramped stone spiral staircase taking us to the top of the monument. On a previous visit, it reminded me of similar spiral staircases of European Medievil castles.
With no access to the monuments interior, we enlisted the help of another visitor for a group photo.
The last part of our adventure was a short 15 minute ride to Middletown east of Monument. Part of what makes our rides enjoyable is our inclusion of a food venue to not only feed our bodies, but to feed our souls with comaraderie.
The ride was a success, not only because we completed the ride as planned with no significant issues or accidents, but we all met new people and had a good time.