The Road to Mt. Vernon.

Back in October, I did something really crazy. I decided that I would try out a 16 mile bike ride to the Mount Vernon Estate. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am NOT a great bike rider. If I have to ride up any sort of incline, I give up after 15 seconds and start walking my bike instead. Pretty pathetic, I know.

 Here is a map of the Mount Vernon Trail. We started where the blue arrow is at Belle Haven Park.

Our view of the Potomac River.

We did the bike ride with our friends Spencer & Taylor. It was really fun, and the scenery wasn't too bad either.

This is Mike's super cool bike that he bought off of Craigslist. (Don't worry Mom, this was before we knew about the Camry fiasco.)

The best part about the whole experience is that everybody else was riding nice road bikes, and I rode this dorky mountain bike. On the way to Mount Vernon, I struggled A LOT. Like usual, I had a really hard time going up any sort of hill. My legs were burning and I was out of breath. I think Mike was sort of embarrassed in front of our new friends. When we were about 1 mile from our destination, I stopped because I thought my legs were going to fall off. Mike and Spencer started examining my bike to make sure everything was working correctly, and it turns out that the back break was rubbing against the back tire the entire time. This obviously created a whole lot of friction and made me put in twice the effort to get my bike going. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, the ride back was a breeze! And I guess I'm not as terrible of a bike rider as I thought I was.