The miracle of back streets (which, oddly enough, includes 34th St.)

As someone with an incredibly crap sense of direction, I tend to stick to my guns when it comes to routes.  Hence my love/hate relationship with Massachusetts Avenue and, to a lesser extent, Wisconsin Avenue.  So while what I'm about to say might sound really dumb to some, it was a point of pride for me.

I discovered how to get home without using Massachusetts, and I didn't even have to look it up on Google maps!  Given that I've lived in DC for nearly 6 years, you'd think my navigating skills would have kicked in before now, but you'd be wrong.

 Pennsylvania Avenue is a disaster sometimes.  The bike lanes are a great idea, but sometimes you just have to shake your head and sigh/cry at the shenanigans that occur along that street.  Cyclists seem to make it their mission to run the red lights at all sorts of bad times, and I saw a car almost plow into a guy who tried to cross against the red on 10th St.  While I was still in my early biking stages, I got hit by a cab crossing Penn on 12th St., and this past spring, a cab made a u-turn in front of me and made me fall off my bike.  Granted, I was biking down the lane on one bike while holding another bike (we call it "ghost riding" and it's what you have to do when customers are dumb and leave rental bikes unlocked outside of the World Bank....long story for another time), but he still shouldn't have turned in
front of me.  In general, streets named after states are approximately 62.5% more stressful than the smaller streets.

Anyway.  It was delightful crossing Mass on 15th Street and being able to use the bike lane for awhile...I turned onto P (but really it could have been any street...and I know/think there are one-way bike lanes on Q and R, but I always forget which lane goes which way), took it through Dupont, took the bridge, and huffed my way up Wisconsin into Glover Park.  Ta-da!

That all being said, climbing up to Observatory Circle and cutting over is probably easier...but it's good to know I have options.  I feel like I have unlocked a chestful of secrets, and it is very exciting.