~16.2 mi @ ~14.8 min/mi

"Hope", counsels sidewalk chalk on Sligo Creek Trail, as Danger Man and Roadkill trot downstream "Looking for adventure / And whatever comes our way." Cars speed along the parkway and scrape metal as they bounce over a speed bump. "NKRC" reads the shirt of a fast neighborly runner. It stands for "Northeast Kingdom Running Camp" in Vermont, and he's on his way to climb the fence and do 12 x 1000 meter intervals on the local high school track. His marathon PR is 2:36 at Richmond. "It was a high 2:36!" he admits, modestly. Awesome!

"Frogger, anyone?" We cross busy New Hampshire Avenue, where pastel rocking chairs at the bus stop tempt (just as they did G-ji & Tassie & Slow-Twitch five years ago). A garden-globe unifies the pathside flowerbed. On the line between Montgomery and Prince Georges County we pose for boundary pics.

"Candy!" chortles Roadkill at the sight of brightly-hued M&M's scattered across the sidewalk near North Capitol Street. "And here's the torn bag they came from!" Danger Man averts his eyes to avoid witnessing what happens next. Less litter remains after we pass. Taco Bell is not yet open but a 24-hour McDonalds offers cola for rehydration and caffeine.

"Get down, you fool!" quotes Danger Man, alluding to (likely apocryphal) words of Oliver Wendell Holmes to Abraham Lincoln, as we survey Ft Stevens where the President came under fire in 1864. An elderly couple on Missouri Avenue flash friendly V-for-Victory signs and cheer us along.

"And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street!" Roadkill reaches up to get ripe fruit (plus purple juice-stained fingers) in the home stretch. Danger Man awards him a fist-bump at the parting of ways.

(trackfile) - ^z - 2019-07-01