Back when the Nationals played at RFK Stadium, I used to occasionally ride my bike to day games. A few weeks ago, I went my first bicycle ride to Nationals Park one Thursday afternoon after work to buy some tickets for an upcoming game. I don’t like paying “conveinence” charges and did not want to deal with driving into the District or parking and getting on Metro, so this seemed like a good way to get two things done at once.

I parked over at Gravelley Point, near National Airport and off of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and rode up the Mount Vernon Trail to the 14th Street Bridge pedestrian/bicyle crossing. After getting off the bridge, I followed the trail past the Jefferson Memorial up to Maine Ave. This route isn’t marked and has lots of tourists, so keep your wits about you and the speed low.

At Maine Ave. I turned right and followed Maine Ave. SW under I-395 (Southwest Freeway) and past the waterfront. There were several signs indicating the bicycle route to Nationals Park which was a welcome sight, even though I had the general idea of where I wanted to go. The signs continued around the curve the turns Maine Ave. into M Street SW. Prior to South Capital Street, signs directed me to turn right onto 1st Street SW (I think). Due to one-way streets, I was directed to turn left on P Street SW instead of O or N Streets. The advanced sales ticket office is in the team store near N and Half Streets SE. I locked my bike up on one of the bike racks, of which there were many, and went into the team store to buy my tickets. I went to gmaps pedometer and made a map of my route.

I asked dl004d about biking to the park from his part of the city, Brookland in NE, and he was kind enough to share his experience with the bike valet parking:

If there’s a nice bike route from upper Northeast D.C. to the ballpark, I haven’t learned it yet… so I just weaved around city blocks until I arrived. I looked around for the valet parking but couldn’t find it. There are bike racks on the sidewalk along the stadium, which would have been just fine with me — but since I knew there was valet bike parking, I wanted to find it.

I talked to stadium employees at all ends of the stadium and no one knew the valet bike parking existed.

But although no one at the stadium seemed to know it exists, it does. Finally, I found it — it is located in Red Garage C, located on N St. SE.

I pulled up and they took my bike away and left me with a ticket (just like a car valet would do). After the game, I turned in my ticket and my bike appeared. It rained during the game, so it was nice to have my bike in a covered place (they store them in a fenced-in area of the parking garage).

This begs the question, what is the proper tipping etiquette for the bike valet?

Overall, I was happy with biking over to Nationals Park as it was easy, quick and I enjoyed riding past the waterfront. I look forward to continuing the practice. I may even use the bike valet.