Hopefully this won't be the last LAST bike ride, but with the time change (I really dislike daylight savings time), it's going to be much harder to find time to ride.

So, after shaking off my post-Halloween hangover, I quickly plotted out a route and hit the road. Despite not having ridden for about two weeks, I actually felt pretty good. For some reason my HR was not nearly as high as it has been going up hills, which to me seems kind of backwards. Oh well.

As you can see below, my trip took me back up to multimillion-dollar McLean neighborhood along the Potomac. I thought this was kind of interesting — the further north I went, from Arlington into Fairfax County, the more McCain/Palin signs I saw. Interestingly enough, the dividing line seemed to be Route 123/Dolley Madison Blvd.

A really inspiring sight for me: as I turned from Westmoreland St. onto Chain Bridge, there were about 10 people standing on the side of the road with a huge Obama/Biden banner and waving signs around. People were honking and giving the thumbs-up. Gotta love grassroots efforts!

April 2008.

My turnaround point was a familiar place, as I had previously visited this spot back at the end of April. The under-construction house where this photo was taken is still empty and unfinished, so I decided venture one more time into the backyard to take in the view.

I figured I should capture the moment 6 months later with another self portrait with the river and trees in the background.

6 months later and I still look like a tool.

[One thing I love about Virginia is the fact that most of the leaves are still on the trees by November, whereas in Connecticut they've been long gone for 2 weeks. The fact that it's commonly above 50 degrees (it was actually around 70 when I went out) also helps.]

I think that's the last time I'm going down to that particular spot, not only because it'll probably be someone's residence next year, but my cleats were completely coated in sticky mud. I may or may not have wiped them off on someone's lawn with a McCain/Palin sign on it.

Without further ado, the usual MMR route:

Oh yeah, and GO VOTE TODAY! Your future depends on it!