Cycling around the world for Peace

During our two week stay in Washington , DC and its suburb, we were able to plant 3 peace trees and visit several of the museums. We had to leave this fine city and head south while the weather was still cooperative with us.
Initially we had to get to Alexandria , Virginia which is located just on the outside of DC to its south. We had a short but challenging distance to travel. We decided to take advantage of the sun shine run back to DC and take few pictures and film and officially say farewell to the city.
On our way out of Washington, DC we had to go over Potomac River, the natural border line between DC and State of Virginia, and go through city of Arlington before reaching Alexandria. We also had planned to go to see the famous Arlington Cemetery where the high ranking people as well as political-historical figures and soldiers of many wars have put to rest.Suddenly upon our arrival to the cemetery, Ja’far rear tire blew up (((PAAH))) due to the wear. It was so loud that shortly after, one of the security police officers that heard it, approached us to find out what caused that noise. We tried to patch the damaged area of the tube since we did not have a spare tube. We knew if we were able to patch, it would be a temporary one that won’t last long.We were extremely upset and angry. We could not locate any stores for miles. We decided to take turns and quickly see the cemetery and take pictures so we can get out and look for tube as soon as possible before dark.Need to add a note, and that is after September 11 incident, the security has become much stricter in US. In public buildings or sites, bags or luggage’s can not be left unattended. With this in mind we could not leave our bikes with bags attached to them in any area and needed to have one us stay with them at any given time, whether it was a museum or the cemetery

روز اول می بایست خود را به شهر الکساندریا در ایالت ویرجینیا می رساندیم. مسیر کوتاهی بود ، به همین خاطر سعی کردیم تا یکبار دیگر به مرکز شهر واشنگتن برویم تا در یک روز آفتابی عکاسی و فیلم برداری کنیم. تقریبا کل راه را در مسیر بسیار زیبای دوچرخه سواری بودیم تا اینکه به قبرستان اصلی شهر (آرلینگتون) رسیدیم.

Not far away from the cemetery we found a metro station. We had learned in Europe and in US as well, the metros and the buses have special places designated for bikes.After a relatively short ride we arrived to our destination in Alexandria. We begun leaving the metro station in order to go to our friend, Avin’s store so with his help, find a close by bike shop. While we were walking away from the station, noticed two bike riders approaching us so they could get to know us. They greeted us and as soon as we said that we are Iranian and left Iran some 8 months ago, suddenly John, one of the cyclists, joyfully said; “I knew it”, “Through BBC website I am familiar with your trip”. He also knew that we have banner that everybody signs it. Apparently his sixth sense gave him a “gut” feeling about who we were.John and his friend George had recently pedaled around Japan and plan to do the same thing but around USA this time. Within minutes we became old friends and as soon as they learned we looking for a bike shop they escorted us to one of the well known stores in that area. We picked a quality tire and after installing two tires and tubes, they did not allow us to pay for them and bought some chocolate for us as well. They were sure in their future trip some one will help them the same way. It was a strange coincident and we can not explain it.His exact words were, “ I am glad that I am helping you guys and I believe in our future trip, at the time of need, others will help us”  This was the sentence sincerely stated from bottom of his heart with all his feelings. We will never forget this. Indeed “what a small world” and how close, we, the people that may never see each other, are to each other

The day after, we left “old town” Alexandria for Woodbridge, Virginia. A 40 Km ride to totally get out of DC and its suburb within the “beltway”. The weather was not too cool, in fact relatively warm and partly cloudy. Half of our trip was in area designated for bikes so we were more relaxed. We arrived at George Washington house, the first president and father of USA . We will definitely write in more details about this popular president as well as his personal house/museum.
After the special bike trail ended we entered into a busy road called US-1 or Route-1. We pedaled few kilometers on this road but we were looking to find an alternative road to go to Woodbridge, VA. After seeing a wrong sign or wrongfully seeing a sign we entered into a WRONG road. Minutes later we realized that we are going nowhere. Decided to use an exit ramp get us back to route-1. At the end of our path we came to some signs saying ROAD CLOSED, STOP,  DO NOT ENTER and some barbed wires. At this point we were frustrated and trying to get back to main road, assumed the signs are for automobiles and bikes are OK to go through. As soon as we crossed the line, we don’t know what happened
Within minutes 3 Police cars appeared and stopped near by and asked us to go toward them. Shortly after we noticed that they are not regular police but Military Police (MP). They had their revolving lights (beacon) on and situation looked like movies. Before any questions, they asked us for our Identification cards or Passports. We were very scared 
Apparently we had entered in to a military base by mistake, but how? We don’t know either. For the Mps it was also interesting to find out how we got in! After some interrogations and talk on their two way radio inside their car, they realized that we are really lost. From then on they became nice to us. They were so surprised that we were from Iran and have been traveling by bike for over 8 months. They kept on repeating, “Are you guys crazy?”. At any rate we got lucky and we continued our trip. We were so nervous at those moments that we forgot to ask the MPs to take some pictures with us, perhaps it was not allowed. NO PHOTOGRAPHY? ? May be not