A gorgeous afternoon biking along the Potomac, the new Wilson Bridge, and National Harbor

This afternoon I went for a bike ride down the Mount Vernon Trail along the Potomac, with the ultimate goal of exploring the newly-openend bike path on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. As I always do, I started on Rock Creek Park, biked through Georgetown, passed the Kennedy Center, across Memorial Bridge and down to the Mount Vernon Trail.

On the Alexandria side of Wilson Bridge, I passed a lovely cemetery and vegetable garden, though Virginia has a lot of work to do around the base of the bridge to undue construction fencing and ugly paved lots that were used as staging space and is now vacant. Once on the bridge, I stopped to enjoy the fantastic views of Alexandria and the U.S. Capitol from the span, reading the tourist placards at three or four bump-out "overlooks" facing north. A signature feature of the bridge is a gorgeous, streamlined "control tower" of glass and stainless steel. Once on the Maryland side, I was impressed by the significant amount of landscaping - and seriously have to wonder how dedicated Maryland is to maintaining all of the fabulous plantings (trees and ground cover), landscaping mulch, as well as acres of brick pavers.

Continuing on the path, I discovered that it wound around to the south all the way to National Harbor, so I decided to take a look. Again, a very nice execution (though some finishing touches remain) - and I wondered again who will pick up the trash that washes up on the riverbanks along the bike path, as well as maintaining the white crushed seashells that comprise the trail once you enter the Harbor property.

Cute detail: there was a carved wooden bench on the Harbor property including two large turtles on the seat. Later, I would spot a real turtle sunning himself on a stump protruding from the shallow Potomac, about 20 yards offshore.

National Harbor was busy with people on this day thanks to the Food and Wine Festival. With all the little shops and hotels, the complex struck me as a larger version Pentagon Row, with boats. I hope the site is successful, as the community has much invested in its success. May I live long enough to see a streetcar from DC out to National Harbor and across the bridge to Alexandria. Preferably with a significant contribution from those who decided to build this thing where it can only be reached by car - and now bike.

The bridge impressed me as the kind of public works project this country used to build routinely: large, modern, beautifully designed, functional. The "V" motif of the massive piers can also be read as the middle of an even larger "M": perhaps a nod to the two states connected by the bridge.

On the way back to DC, I passed more wildlife: a large floating gaggle of geese in Old Town, an armada floating on the river, black necks straight skyward like masts. Soon after I passed National Airport, I spotted movement at the side of the trail which turned out to be a large black snake, 5-6 feet long. I stopped and shooed it off the trail, back into the brush at the water's edge, so that no one would be hurt or startled by it (though in truth I was more concerned that some macho idiot would do it harm).

Love the sun, love the trail, love the Potomac, even love the geese, snakes, and that huge white bridge.

Look Hoos Going to Omaha! Congratulations to the Cavalier's Baseball Team!

This afternoon, the University of Virginia's baseball team defeated Ole Miss on their home field in Oxford, Miss, taking the NCAA Super-Regional two games to one, and paving the way for Virginia's FIRST EVER trip to the College World Series in Omaha!

Congratulations to this gritty team, which seems to be peaking at precisely the right moment, and to the coach who rescued UVA baseball from the grave, Brian O'Connor!

Good luck in Omaha, fellas!

Saying "I told you so" is pretty immature - which never stopped Michael Moore in the past...

I was quite curious to find out the level of glee and gusto with which Michael Moore would rub salt into GM's wounds as he discusses his prescription for the auto giant's future in today's The Daily Kos. On the contrary, I was surprised by how gracious he was: while pointing out many of the General's failures over the years, he did not dance on GM's grave.

While a good hunk of what Moore suggests for the future of GM is pie-in-the-sky stuff, I agree with his basic premise: saving GM for the purpose of building more crappy cars does not serve America's long term interests. Those interests, however, could indeed be served by using this opportunity to re-purpose GM and its laid-off workers, putting them in service of a greener economy by building trains, solar and wind power equipment, etc. I particularly enjoyed this part of Moore's article:

[Let's announce] that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

You can read Moore's full article here.