After several fits and starts, the ride finally wound its way to the agreed target: the National stadium!

When we got there, there was a bonus: It was GAME DAY, and the area was choked with car-driving yuppies from the suburbs! Contrary to city advice, the area was swarming with baseball fans all seeking places to park their cars as well as crowds from the Metro.

The cops directing traffic tried desperately to "wave us on" right past the area, but we hung a u-turn for a second pass after barricades 1 block away blocked our final approach.

Soon, there were a LOT of cops responding-to an unrelated incident south of M st in the neighborhood there-a neighborhood of color police have been trying to get baseball fans to avoid. one after another, police vehicles horned their way past the ride-hopefully to bail out some wealthy baseball fan who got his ass kicked while invading someone else's neighborhood.

Local residents in communities that have survived the wave of evictions the stadium brought cheered the ride as we passed. People were out on their stoops, children in the yards, you name it.

It seems that after the sheer hell that the stadium has imposed on the neighborhoods, we get cheered everytime we go and make life a little harder for the baseball "nationalists!"