Washington D.C.

One of the reasons I got a bigger motorcycle was to do some touring. To be able to do highway speeds and sit comfortably in the saddle for more than 50 miles. I tested that yesterday by taking a ride down to Washington D.C..

It worked out well. I tanked up the Versys before leaving. I made it from Lancaster to downtown DC, and back up to Hunt Vally, MD before having to refill. I left at 10:30am and was home again by 6:30pm, with minimal discomfort. I am sure that with experience and warmer temperatures that some of the muscle soreness will be less, if not non-existant.

During the trip I saw many more sport bikers than cruisers. In fact I just about saw as many Ducatis alone as Harley Davidsons. So draw your own conclusions about who is a "hard core" biker at this point in the season.

I had 2 reasons for going to Washington this particular day: the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Smithsonian Kite Festival.

The Cherry Blossoms are beautiful. They aren't the pink/purple color you see on TV. That color is an illusion. The petals are white, but the buds are pink. The coloring gives the effect of pink blossoms from a distance. I heard a story on NPR about how you can see through historical photographs that the blooming of these trees has moved up a week or 2 over the last hundred years due to global warming. They now bloom during the last week of March. This coincides with the Smithsonian Kite Festival, which is the last Saturday in March.

I used to be active in kite competitions, and the Smithsonian was kind of the kick off to the season. It was a chance to see old friends again after the winter. It's been 10 years since I competed, so I didn't recognize too many people there. But I knew a couple...

DC is a great place for taking photographs and digital cameras have made that cheaper and more fun. Whenever I go to DC, I always walk down to the Vietnam Memorial because it is so moving and it photographs so well.



Parking in DC is a problem. Most motorcycles got creative, backing in between metered spaces (which is illegal, I'm sure). I crept around in traffic for ages before parking on the edge of a bus zone in front of the last legal spot, but behind the sign. It made me wish for my scooter. This guy just pulled his Vespa up out of the street all together and chained to a sign. I bet he was fine all day. I doubt a motorcycle could get away with that. If more people rode motorbikes, there would probably be more parking dedicated to them, drivers would be more aware, and we'd all be safer.

Overall, I was pleased with the trip. 5 hours in the saddle was no problem. No monkey-butt. The Versys is very smooth on the highway and likes to cruise at 70-74mph in 6th gear. I figure that the speedometer is just optimistic enough to make that perfect. I took 30, 83, the Baltimore Beltway, and the Balto-Wash parkway and felt secure. And I loved that it only cost about 5 gallons of gas. Oh! And I topped 1,000 miles, so it is officially broken in. Yea!