Flashback Monday: A Video Trip Back To 1987, When Woodsy Reston Was Even Woodsier

Set the controls of the Earth Toned Wayback Machine to 1987, when YouTubes user "Cowboy Frank" recorded a fancy VHS "video tape" of a motorcycle ride through our woodsy nirvana. The picture above shows "Cowboy Frank" driving up (then, as now, as shall ever be) Temporary Road, taking in the breathtaking vista of our favorite "stressful city-like shopping center" ELITE clump of trees while navigating around the shockingly boxy cars that were the vogue then. Of course, given the size and weight of video recording equipment back then, it's a surprise the motorcycle didn't tip over every time "Cowboy Frank" made a turn.

Thrill along to this exciting loop around an even woodsier Reston of yesteryear, from a starting point on Chimney House Drive near Lake Anne, to North Shore to Wiehle to Fairway to (then as now) Temporary Road to Reston Parkway (nee Reston Avenue) to Baron Cameron to North Shore and back home. Mostly you see woods. Lots and lots of woods, interspersed with some of the finest motor vehicles of the K Car era. A few "highlights":

Tall Oaks Stucco Wasteland on the left, invisible then as now. No CGI grannies for another three decades, but there's some rando dude out for a relaxing stroll down Wiehle on the right.

The intersection of Reston Avenue and Baron Cameron, with Home Depot (then Hechinger's? Definitely not Memco?) in the background. Classic big box architecture is timeless. And speaking of which...

Back in the 80s, no big box stores surrounded the then massive four-story office building soon to be home to Reston's tallest mauvecsraper. Which of course means that the Macaroni Grill is still to be, and still to be cut down in the Great Chain Eatery Attrition of the Oughts.

Dammit! We told ourselves we were not going to cry, the end.