Miracle on the W and OD Trail

The Herndon Moose Lodge #2274 welcomes all to the W & OD Trail/Patricia Leslie

Attention, ladies of the Washington region:  I have an unbelievable find. One that is astonishing and shocking.  

Ladies(shhhhh), I have found the place in the D.C. area, maybe the only place, where men exceed women by a wide margin. By a ratio of, like and gulp, 4 to 1. I counted and thus, I know.  

This was one.  To protect the safety of all, most shout out "on your left" when passing/Patricia Leslie

The Gardner Family welcomes all to the W & OD Trail, a good place to walk dogs/Patricia Leslie

Or take a survey.  The surveyor said he thought they were measuring for a new water line/Patricia Leslie

Or inventory bees?  (What was he doing?)/Patricia Leslie

Or catch up on local history.  This marker describes Sterling Station/Patricia Leslie

Sometimes (rarely) the view's not so good/Patricia Leslie 

But usually, like this and easy on the eyes/Patricia Leslie

Perhaps it is like this all the time in Loudoun County? Another reason to go west, go west.

In Loudoun County along the W & OD Trail, you might see some smart folks taking outdoor siestas after lunch.  Why don't we all siesta after lunch?/Patricia Leslie

Ladies of the jury, it is time to get out your helmet and your bicycle and get to riding on the W and OD Trail.  They are there.  Whizzing by. And trim. They do not all appear to be the same-sex variant. (Or would that be "variation"?)

But you have to stop your bicycle and get off to "engage." And you may want to think about "needing help."  Leave your bike tools at home.

Why at one point when I laid down my used pink (found at the dumpster) bicycle (no kick stand) and sipped some water and munched on my pear snack in the shade, a right good-looking dude flew past and yelled:  Did I need any help?  

Y e e-haw, come on over, dude!  

Help?  

Help?  

Yeah, I needed some HEP.

"No, no need for help.  I am okay," I shouted.  (What was I thinking?)

Let's have lunch on the W & OD Trail in Loudoun County/Patricia Leslie

Then, at the same stop a couple of minutes later, another right handsome cowpoke came along carrying a plastic bag and set himself right down at the picnic table across the lanes from me and proceeded to eat lunch in the sunshine and yelled across the trail, something about

"It's a great day!"  

"But you're in the sun," I hollered back.  Even with a breeze cooling you off riding the trail, it was hot.

And he said: "I like the sun." 

And I said, "I like the sun, too, but it's a little bit much for me today, and I really like this shade" even if I was standing in rather high grass where, I later discovered, flying varmints resided, which bit the blood out of my left forearm which to this day still bears their marks, and it is possible snakes lived there, too, but having snake experience, I maintained a snake lookout  and saw none, but ignored my arms.  Drat it all. 

The buzzards flew overhead/Patricia Leslie

He and I ate our food in silence a few minutes, enjoying being outdoors and away from horns and the sounds of the city, listening to nature's music:   the soft rustle of the wind and leaves, the buzzing of insects, the overhead vultures (they make sounds?), and then it was time for me to leave because of the huge, loooonnnng uphill slope I still had before me.

And he hollered across the way: "Well, have a nice ride!"  

And so I did.

Along the W & OD Trail/Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

Biking on a sunny afternoon

Along the George Washington Parkway Trail/Patricia Leslie

The Bike Ride

How do you like to ride on a bike,
Under a sky so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a girl can do!

Ride my bike and move over the trail
And I can see so wide,
River and trees and airplanes and all
As I go cycling by

Till I look down on the pavement dull
Down down down I fall
Up on the bike I go riding again
Oh, look! There's the National Mall

With apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson

A traffic jam along the George Washington Parkway/Mt.Vernon Trail in 2011/Patricia Leslie

From the George Washington Parkway Trail with the Washington Monument in the distance and is that the Jefferson Memorial?/Patricia Leslie

A rare sighting in Vienna along the W&OD Trail:  A member of the trail patrol/Patricia Leslie

Dogs are always welcome along the W&OD Trail/Patricia Leslie

Crossing Gallows Road along the W&OD Trail/Patricia Leslie