Day 29: Roll over Washington

This morning we first had a riders meeting to discuss our Roll over Washington and our visit to the European Union. There were around ten ROAM posters to be signed by all the riders and handed to the support team as a thank you. Finally I collected a number of photo's for the slideshow tonight at the EU.

After that we left in the morning to go to the National Mall and look at the Washington monument et cetera. Only we were told to move by a person in a uniform at every spot where we stopped and parked our bikes. Parking on the sidewalk. No, not allowed. Just a bit further on the grass? No, not allowed either. When I asked whey 'that thing' cannot be parked on the grass I didn't receive a real answer. And when I asked not to touch my bike a got mouthed off and I was told that they would 'tow' it if I didn't tone it down a bit. A real friendly city that's for sure. Apparently these were guys with small d*cks.

The whole ride we only had about half a hour of rain. Today we were less fortunate because it was raining all day long (on and off). Because we had to eat we got some fries at the joint just again where we could take shelter under the little roof. Very cozy. Biking in the city isn't fast. Average speed was 8.4 km/h the first 45 minutes. We went back to the total and had some more food at Cosi. Only it took forever (about 10 minutes) before it was ready (it was a hot sandwich). That's when we received the word that Marcel has been in a accident on the way back to the hotel. At a red light he overtook a bus on the right side when the light changed. Suddenly a SUV came from the left of the bus and hit Marcel from behind at high speed (the car was trying to overtake the bus to make a right turn). Marcel rolled over and crawled out a bit confused (he wasn't addressable). The ambulance took him to the emergency room of the hospital at the hotel and a couple of hours and some scans later he was dismissed. Apparently he was very lucky and only had some scratches in his face. In the evening he attended the EU reception. The story wasn't finished because the driver from the SUV turned out to be a Secret Service guy and he would give up his name. Mark (who borrowed Thomas' bike and was riding behind Marcel) called the boss of the boss of his box and got the information he needed. I'm not sure how the damage et cetera is handled but we'll probably read it on Marcel's blog.

At the reception we all got a bite to eat and something to drink and Josef's bike was place in the room where we dried it (it was still raining). The rest of the bikes had to wait on the sidewalk outside. After the usual talk from both ambassadors (US and Germany) Josef told something about the tour and added that we are not extreme athletes, just regular folks who biked a lot (to work and other tours). Also Mike thanked Josef and handed him a sign of the highway we have ridden on the most, US-12.

After the bikes were put back in the parking garage we went to a mexican restaurant. They had very good ribs with good cause and our group ordered a pitcher of margaritas.

Finally something about the total amount of kilometers and the amount raised for Villa Joep. The total was 5167 kilometers (excluding the kilometers before the start and riding our bikes back). This makes the total amount of money sponsored 1624.80 euro. Now all I need to do is collect the money.

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