Because it was a short ride.
I live just 5 miles from George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation (and nearby Presidential library and old distillery), which is really a beautiful area. It is open to the public for a fee, and often busy. It is neither a National Park or Monument but is owned and maintained in trust for the people of the United States by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union (MVLA), a private, non-profit organization. Weird huh?
I used to run by there and take the GW Parkway north toward DC which runs right along the Potomac River and that is quite scenic too. You pass and can see old Fort Washington across the river in MD, built there for cannon blockade of the Potomac narrows. I'd hang a Uey before Old Town Alexandria traffic, and just run back the way I went. It's all a slow cruise. It's also a great ride on a warm night when a full moon lights the river (except if full summer, you become a human and bike bug target for millions of them zoning in on your lights, requiring a complete wash the next day).
But because it's always so busy and touristy, it has been some 10 years since I had been over there even once. Working on my bike, and needing a little followup shakedown, I decided to go again. It wasn't bad for traffic, just medium bad.
It didn't take long to discover another reason I stopped taking that ride (and completely forgot). Because of the river, that road is constantly subject to harsh swings in temperature, and while the surface is good (and you can't see it at all), the road is heaved up and down the whole way, and at 35-45mph it is a back, neck, jaw, and testicle jarring washboard ride. Ouch!!
Still, I enjoyed it. And in 10 years, I might do it again.
