This ride was really a combo event - a visit to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, VA followed by a visit with Hal - our newest member that was unfortunately in a car accident a few days ago on 08 April. Hal's car was totaled and he is doing well considering that the car rolled and they had to cut him out of it by removing the top. Not to waste time however, Hal went out and bought a new car today so you'll see that at the end of the pictures below.

Allen was the only WORMS rider today because Woody was out riding to a soccer game followed by looking at some house on the market and Allen couldn't catch up with him. Allen rode down Route 123 to the Quantico area to see the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the town of Triangle, VA. After a nice walk around Allen headed further south to Stafford to visit Hal. Hal is doing very well and we walked around his house to see the kitty cats and dogs out back. Hal and his son Evan are living in a nice area with beautiful Red Bud and Dogwood trees lining the street. The weather was in the mid-60's and Allen's chopper was running very well. After about 80 miles the ride was over but we have some pictures to look at!

The weather was supposed to be in the lower 80's today. Most of us left our homes when the temperature was closer to 50 degrees F and it probably stayed in the 50's until lunch time. There was some amount of clouds that needed to burn off before the sun came out for good around 1100. Be that as it may, we enjoyed a great ride along the back roads from our usual Starbucks in Clifton over to the Wolf Trap area to visit Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. There are some lovely homes on Vale and Beluah roads and it only gets better along Old Dominion Road and Towiston Road. Anyway, we stopped at the Botanical Gardens and spent some quality time looking at the cherry trees and flowers. This really is a beautiful spot and we knew we were on to something because upon entering we found the parking lot nearly full.

After taking a few pictures we headed north again and turned east once we entered the Great Falls area. We lunched at the PaSa Thai restaurant on Route 123 before getting on the George Washington Parkway and heading south-east towards Washington DC and the Mount Vernon area. Overall this was about a 5-hour ride counting lunch and the botanical gardens. Most of us had some chores to complete (like cutting the grass) so the timing was perfect for everyone. We hope to see more WORMS members on the next ride - today we had Rose, Jim, Mike, Hal, Sandra & Allen.