May weather sounds the clarion call to rediscover the Great Outdoors. Birds are all atwitter, lawnmowers are abuzzing and motorcycles, well, motorcycles take me back to the days when the Olney Ale House was a rural destination. Tucked into a fork in the road where Route108 meets Dr Bird, it was a biker bar /hippie roadhouse in the middle of nowhere; the kind of place Arlo Guthrie would've loved.
The first time I went was for my friend Lisa's 14th birthday. Her mother raved about the fried chicken all the way there, and she was right. It was worth the trip- not just for the food but for how cool it was. When I lived in College Park, it was the Great Escape from suburbia. Half the fun was riding on those winding country roads and getting lost trying to find it again. Then we used to sit outside under the great old tree that shaded the beer garden and the parking lot and watch the motorcycles roll in. The ale house is still there- fairly unchanged on the inside, but the ex-burbs have taken most of the farmland and woods away- and the bikers, too for that matter.
Warm weather also bring on the phenomenon known as out door music which is hard to miss all over this town and mostly free. This Saturday alone (lord willing and the creek don't rise) you can watch The Magic Flute/ "opera in the outfield" at National's Park. (How amazing is that?) There's a Funk Parade going on all afternoon down on U Street. Out in the 'burbs The Rockville Art Fest features live music including King Soul from 4-6. Or catch my friend Doug Stevenson and his Spades bringing a honky tonk kind of thing to the streets of Adam's Morgan.
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