Epilogue Part 1: D.C. and the Rally to Restore Sanity

October 30th

It was our last night in North Carolina. Heck, it was our last night for the bike trip period. So we made darn sure we got a view of the sunrise the following morning.

We woke up before dawn, a bit groggy, but a bit relieved that we didn't have to ride 50 miles with 50 pounds of gear on our bikes.

There was slight pre-November chill in the North Carolina air before dawn. A small crowd of about six stood on a deck overlooking the beach, waiting for morning's glow. It came, it glistened, and yet it seemed anti-climatic. A sunrise isn't a sunset from the opposite direction. A setting sun leaves its light behind: The light show made more brilliant by sunlight's eight-minute lag time in reaching the Earth.
The fiery beams linger a full eight minutes even after the sun has gone down.

So perhaps I'm a little bit partial. Still, a brilliant sunrise is a brilliant sunrise, and the beach by the sea is a beautiful way to start the morning. Much better than what will be our very last "continental breakfast." While we're in the lobby, a mother is asking hotel staff where she can find an appropriate Halloween party for her seven-year-old daughter. The mother explains her dilemma: "We live in the mountains--they won't celebrate Halloween because it's Sunday."

Oh my!

Nicole and I have other concerns. We disassemble our bikes and put them in the back of a rented Chevy. We're on our way to D.C. and the Rally to Restore Sanity.

We took photos of other ships, but they were far to blurry beyond belief.

We turn around and head towards our nation's capital, covering by car in a little less than an hour what we generally achieved in a day on a bike. The state that took us a week to ride through on our bicycles takes only a few hours on the Interstate. We see some Navy Destroyers at Newport News, Virginia. Nicole snaps some blurry photos as we travel over and then under the mouth of the James River.

Miraculously, we find a parking spot once we reach the Capital. We're only about 20 minutes by bicycle away from the The Mall. We open the hatch and re-assemble our bikes (minus the panniers, of course) and race down to the mall. At first, we assume it's at the Lincoln Memorial. Is it over? It doesn't look there was any large mass of people here? Did they march somewhere?

We ride our bikes to the other end of the mall. There they are! And by "they," I mean the quarter million people who showed up with their signs and in some cases, costumes. It takes some maneuvering to get close enough to the speakers to actually hear some of what's going on. It isn't until we get to the Air and Space Museum that we can faintly make out the voices of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on the loudspeakers. We can't even see the stage our quite make out what it is what they are saying.

Nicole enlisted the help of a tall gentleman standing atop a fire hydrant.

 

I try to get closer. Nicole tries to follow me but instead starts taking photos of the more interesting rallygoers. Jon is making his final plea for sanity, and I'm sort of like the characters from "The Life of Brian" when they come to see Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. I can faintly make out what Jon Stewart is saying, something about "Blessed are the Cheesemakers." I clap when other people clap. I'm willing to go out on a limb and assume that what he's saying is both funny and poignant.

What about Pancake and Sausage on a stick? Where are those people? And what about Baconnaise?

Eventually the rally ends, and as the crowd thins, Nicole and I finally find each other. All that remains is the final ride home . . .