Fish in a tree. No really, fish in a tree.

On a moonlit cycle past the great monuments of DC we came across the best commemorative mark of them all: fish in a tree.

The roof makes you safe, but the bike makes you free.

Getting a bike was the second most important thing I needed to do when I arrived: find a roof, get a bike. The roof makes you safe, but the bike makes you free.

Finding the roof:

I spent a week of trekking from house to house: visiting, and smiling, and nodding - at bathrooms, fixtures, and fridges bigger than 3 embracing sumo wrestlers. I found myself a suitable bed or two: an air bed which stayed inflated through to morning, and an airbed which deflated by sunrise. Memory foam in the Dupont hotel, a soft and squishy number in Minnapolis, a vast mattress in Norristown, and a cosy bunk in Chinatown.  My most permanent mattress is second hand and queen-sized: it sits atop a small double bed fame with its sides hanging off the ends like the muffin top falling out of a fat girl’s skinny jeans.

Finding the wheels:

In the 8 weeks that I have been in the States I may have slept in an abundance of beds, but I have only sat on one saddle; a black road bike called Gravity.  

On Friday 6 May at around 4.30pm my black Gravity arrived in a large cardboard box, “them bikes are popular” the UPS man in brown said.  I opened the box and laid the pieces out on the floor. I removed the remaining plastic wrapping and called a bike boy I’d recently met. By the time I’d gone to the corner shop to buy us six Corona’s he’d fixed my internet bike all together. 

The roof makes you safe, but the bike makes you free:

This bike that’s been the most constant thing in my last few weeks and it has allowed me to see the city in a whole new way. I can reach areas I probably wouldn’t quite make it to otherwise, and I can speed through dark streets at night. My bike can take me to work in ten minutes, but it can take me away from the city for a few hours.

Like all the most important things in life, whilst my bike has made me free -  it has also left me floored a few times: my headset collapsed next to the Washington Monument, and I’ve had a Friday evening tussle with a tram line and the concrete. Gravity and I haven’t gotten off to the best of starts.