Pit Stop Reviews

[DCLiz]

Since it's hard to tell which pit stops have what, I thought we could start a thread with different reviews/descriptions? Maybe next year WABA could encourage pit stop organizers to post more details, such as what kinds of things will be raffled off?

Freedom Plaza
The good:

• Loved being able to practice putting my bike on a bus rack. Will feel much more confident about trying this in real life.
• BicycleSPACE adjusted my rear derailleur!
• Free bicycle valet!

The bad:

• Very few vendors/stands. It was unclear whether this was weather-related, or just due to the general decline of this pit stop.
• No raffles or cool giveaways, at least not when I arrived at around 8:40ish.
• Coffee was put away by 9 am. Nothing left for stragglers. Granted, the volunteers had been out in cold, wet weather for a looong time.

National Geographic
Wow, I wish I had come straight here! Not only were they able to move it indoors, there were a lot of vendors, and good raffles. They raffled a number of awesome National Geographic jerseys. Plenty of coffee and grub, even at 9:30.

How about you? Which pit stops are must-visits?

And of course, thanks to all of the organizers and volunteers and vendors who braved this morning's weather.

[lordofthemark]

Canal Park

The good - plenty of vendors for an out of the way pit stop - In addition to WaBa, we had BikeSpace, the Marriot, and the Capital Riverfront BID
- It was dry, thanks to the location next to Park Tavern
- Giveaways including water bottles and patch kits. Not as much as the big pit stops, but this is Canal Park

The bad - No coffee this year (last year only decaf was left by the time I got there
- Raffle? Was there a raffle?
- No USDOT picture this year. Because rain.

[dbb]

Although there was some weather related compression of space, Rosslyn was quite busy.

Dirt was staffing the WABA booth and was giving away burrito coupons.



Rosslyn likely had the most orderly bananas in the history of BTWD



BikeArlington and the Arlington Bike Advisory Committee were out in force. Megan and Jakob were working the crowds.



And perhaps the best (or at least the most appropriate) cycling shoes were seen this morning.

[mstone]

probably not a good year for pit stop reviews, because things were definitely off from normal at several I went to

[Mikey]

Only 2 for me this year,

Rosslyn -
Everyone I knew was here. Everyone was in good spirits, and the coffee was good. Plus some nice swag.

Georgetown- First year for me coming here
Definitely the Foodie stop - chocolate croisants, cupcakes, fresh granola, yogurt, gormet juice, etc, and coffee. Nice second breakfast.

I then stopped off at Swings to say hi to the regulars, and rolled by Freedom Plaza unimpressed, so I didn't stop.
Looking forward to this afternoon.

[DismalScientist]

Rosslyn-

The good:
Local politicians don't think Rule 5 applies to them.

[sjclaeys]

Rosslyn was swell, lots of people, swag and goodies. Crystal City was great because I won a wind breaker.

[Fast Friendly Guy]

Karen B and I got to Rosslyn around 7ish and the tents were ample to keep volunteers and cyclists dry. Tables well-staffed (Pete B at the WABA table) Didn't see Tim Kelley, but someone said he was there.

A variety of bagels, bananas, coffee, granola and energy bars (though didn't see Kind Bars). There were lots of friendly volunteers eager to pass out swag!
Notable booty this year: Azalea-pink BTWD 2014 T-Shirts, BLINKIES (red and white light), high quality Bike Arlington cotton baseball caps, Variety of Bike Arlington plastic bike water bottles, Black T-Shirt for those interested in Car Free/Light, Revolution Cycles tune-up station manned by Pinkie, Katie, Daniel, etc,

sightings:
one eighth
Steve Claeys
Bob Cannon
Dana (dbb)
Greg B
Pete B

Missed:
Shawn D
Cyndi J
Chris R
Vincent
Dickie
and the usual FCC2 bunch

[Dickie]

I had to be at the shop early this morning so I skipped volunteering this year and jetted to work. I had time to stop off at the Balston stop and bumped into americancyclo, guycontinental, GB, Dread, and Tim. Great free coffee and bagels from JavaShack, grabbed my free bottles and shirt and headed off. Spotted bobco coming in and gave him a thumbs-up. Stopped to chat to the Bikentic folks on the WOD and that was about it for me. Missed out on most of the swag and goodies, but seeing folks out there volunteering and riding in such crap weather made me really happy and warm.... I give the stops I saw the big thumbs up just for being there... you all rock!

[vvill]

I started off volunteering at Ballston where there seemed to be a dearth of early riders given the number of volunteers, but it was still good to see TK, Megabeth, Steve O, Steve A, CR as well as some other BikeArlington staff. From there I trekked over to CC whilst I shared an MVT mile with OneEighth and saw Dave K and jpetty. After that it was back to Rosslyn to say hi to Dirt where enroute I saw jopamora and then jrenaut. Of course at Rosslyn I ran into a bunch of others... Mikey, mikoglaces, dbb, bobco. A few of us (culimerc, dcv, MattAune) joined together to ride over to FCC for my third? coffee of the day just to warm myself up - there were already a few regulars there, including Bilsko. In previous years I've stopped at Georgetown, Freedom Plaza and Nat'l Geographic but this morning got too cold between getting repeatedly wet, warming up, cooling down.

Didn't worry too much about swag collecting, though I did pick up an extra BA water bottle for a colleague who's out of town.