Just one Trolley Lane Cab Driver Scofflaw Friday

This was arount 7:00 pm.





In the morning it was all clear except for one delivery truck, which I didn't bother to photograph.

Bike Lane or Parking Lot

Today the trolley lane was a parking lot in the morning as well as the afternoon.

This morning, at around 7:20, there were two landscaping trucks completely blocking the trolley lane between the aquarium and the world trade center. The third picture shows the boss man (the guy growing a tumor on his lower lip) and his herd of Mexicans.



The boss man said he was hired by the National Aquarium, and the Aquarium told him to park in the trolley lane. I told him what makes him think the Aquarium has the authority to block a public right-of-way? He was actually very polite, and he said he understood my frustration and he would no longer park there. There is plenty of room for the landscaping trucks in the pulloff on Pier 4.

Just a short ways down in front of the Pratt Street Pavillion is this guy. Note in the second picture, there is plenty of room for him to pull off into the area for unloading trucks. But he has chosen not to do so. I asked him why, and he said if you pull in there you can get blocked in. So instead, he blocks everyone else.



Around the corner on Light Street, right before the pedestrian bridge, is another food service truck. He wasn't unloading, he was just parked there. He has to go past a big "DO NOT ENTER" sign to get where he was. When he saw me taking pictures, he backed out and left.



Now for this evening. The return of the tour buses. This is just after 7:00, in front of the ESPN Zone. He pulled out when he saw me taking pictures.



There was only one cab driver today.



And one idiot woman, who decides to block the trolley lane even though she could go 10 feet ahead into a pull-off area.

Letter to 2KSports about their ad bus illegally parked in the bike lane

I just posted the following on the 2KSports 2K6 Major League Baseball forum, at http://www.2ksports.com/forums/showthread.php?p=716493#post716493

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I commute on my bike through the middle of Baltimore every day. There is one safe and legal route through downtown.

Today, there was a tour bus pulling a trailer parked in the middle of the bike route completely blocking it. Here is a posting on my blog, with pictures: http://thevcblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/bike-lane-or-2ksports-billboard.html

As you can see in the pictures, the tour bus is parked in front of a "NO STOPPING" sign, and the bus is wrapped with a giant advertisement for 2K6 Major League Baseball. And the bus completely blocks the way for cyclists such as myself.

The bus was parked in front of the ESPNZone Baltimore on Pratt Street in the Inner Harbor. It appears that 2KSports is attempting to advertise their video game with this bus.

I find this obnoxious. Just because you want to promote your product doesn't mean you can park illegally and deny everyone else use of the public right-of-way.

This letter will be posted to my blog as well, and sent to the bikehon e-mail list, which is a list for Baltimore bicycle activists.

Any response from 2KSports explaining themselves will also be posted to my blog.

DrewInBalto.

Bike Lane or 2KSports Billboard

Today there was only one cab parked in the bike lane. The driver was ashamed of himself.



But the real problem was the giant tour bus pulling a trailer completely blocking the way.



It appears the illegally parked tour bus is situated in the bike lane so all the customers of the ESPNZone can be made aware of 2K6 Major League Baseball.

Bike Lane or Parking Lot

It was pretty much gridlock on the trolley lane today.

First there was this guy illegally parked in front of the Pratt St. Pavillion. The first picture shows the guy getting into the car. He appeared to be fishing his dinner out of the dumpster by the Cheesecake Factory. He's driving away in the second to escape my camera.



Next there was this cab by the ESPN Zone, who fled when I whipped out the camera.



Right in front of the cab was this car, which was parked with no driver, but a passenger who was pretending I wasn't there.



And last, we have this asshat in his Lexus, who decided to park and talk on his cell phone, even though there was a pulloff just 10 feet ahead.

Today's Scofflaw Cab Driver

This disgrace to honest cab drivers everywhere is illegally parked in a NO STOPPING zone in the trolley lane in front of the ESPNZone. This is just before 7:00 pm. He took off after I took his picture.

Bike Ride Report - Virginia 200k Brevet

Yesterday was the DC Randonneurs Virginia 200k Brevet. Here I am at the end in the pouring rain soaked to the skin.



I drove out the night before and slept in Debra's Element. It was quite cozy and I got a good night's sleep. I like to sleep in the car in the rain.


Another thing that is nice about the Element is it's easy to change out of your soggy, foul riding clothes and dry off and put on nice clean clothes out of the pouring rain. Unfortunately, I forgot and left the plastic bag of stinky bike clothes in the Big OE last night, and Debra's car is pretty odiferous today. I am in the dog house. Since Debra is pregnant, she has become hypersensitive to bad smells. I am in the dog house.

Here are all the brevet riders about to take off from the starting line in the drizzle.


Eventually the drizzle turned into steady rain, but after about three hours it stopped. Most of the ride was very nice.

The first control was at Yoder's Country Market in Pratts, VA. This place is fantastic. They have incredible sandwiches. This is a Mennonite place, or some similar deal where they all dress like Little House on the Prairie.


Anyway, all the food is incredibly wholesome, and it appears to be locally produced. Maybe not the Gatorade, but most of it looks that way.

Behind the store, they have some pens containing future sandwiches.


There are chickens, and ducks, and pheasants, and Guinea fowl.

There are also goats.



I took this picture especially for Debra as part of my campaign for us to move to the county so I can sit on the porch and play the banjo. I was making good headway with this picture ("Is that a BABY GOAT? It's soo cuuute.") But then I pushed my luck.

The next control was at the Syria Mercantile Company, which is in Syria, VA. This is the last stop before the big, steep climb to Etlan.



This is also the first restroom in quite awhile. The restroom is across the street in a big white barn.



It's dark and scary inside. You have to wander way in the back past the spiders and snakes and the Blair Witch to find the restroom. It smells like decaying apples.



The gourds drying from the ceiling are pretty cool, though.

This is what the scenery is like after the climb on Etlan Rd. It's pretty strenuous. You have to use the small ring a lot.


I took this picture to share the view with the other brevet riders, because they probably didn't get to see it. That's because I was supposed to turn a half-mile back. One thing that makes the picture nice is because the view is from the top of a big hill.

I had a big dilemma on where to make the last rest stop. There was a store with a fresh spring somewhere about 20 miles out. I figured I'd stop there, fill up my water in the spring, eat my last banana, and I'd be all set.

Crista and Chuck had a secret control set up at mile 100. They said it was the last control. I looked at the cue sheet, and it sure was. "But where is the control with the spring?" Crista said it wasn't a control, and it was at Laurel Mills, five miles back. I decided to push on to the next store, at Orlean, which was 13 miles away and only 10 miles from the end. Crista asked if I needed any water. I said I was OK. I set out.

As soon as I took the next pull on the water tube, I discovered I was out. Even though I was thirsty and hungry, I was still thinking about riding straight to the end, which was only 10 more miles, even though there were a couple climbs and one of them was really steep. But I stopped, and had a Gatorade and my banana. What's the hurry?

If only. As soon as I got to the big hill, the sky opened. It poured hard the last four miles. I was pretty sure it was just a sprinkle, so I didn't stop to put on my rain jacket. After a very short while, the jacked wouldn't have made any difference. So I rode the rest of the way in and got soaked. If only I had pressed on. I probably would have beat the rain.

Here's the map with the actual GPS track.

You can also look at the track on MotionBased.

Fleche is French for insane

If someone suggests that you ride 226 miles in just 24 hours, run, don't walk, to the nearest exit.

Months ago, a friend suggested we do this ride with a group of Washingtonians., who call themselves the Washington Randoniers. The ride is called a Fleche, which I think it means "arrow" in French. You leave at a specified time, and must complete 226 miles of biking within 24 hours. Along the way, you have to get people at pre-set check points to sign a card, indicating that you were there.

Beginning in the rain at 8:00 a.m. on Suturday, we left Dewey Beach. From there, it's about 100 miles North, toward the East, into a relentless headwind. Wind so storng that it seemed I could get off an walk faster.

Dinner was followed by crossing the C&D Canal. And then the hills started. Up to Oxford Pa then down, accross the Susquehanna. The moon rising over the river was amazing. More hills, then, well, more hills, until we got near Baltimore City.

Through the City. Even the crackheads weren't up at 3:00 a.m., when we cruised through. Those few haunted souls out wandering were so shocked by the sudden appearance of four cyclists that they didn't have time to react. Hope no drug dealers were puched into unconsciousness by addicts ranting about hallucinations involving bikes appearing out of nowhere.

We had to be at our last time stop, on Route 32 by 6:00 a..m We motored from Baltimore to a 7-11, where we got the attendant to sign our score cards, incidating we got there in time. To say that he had a puzzled look is an understatement. You no doubt see some strange folk at an all night convenience store, but four weary people on bicyles was probably a first for him.

We made it to the finish in College Park. Conveniently, right by Sampson's Diner. Great oatmeal.

230 miles of headwinds and hills. To quote the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Ozz, the next time I say I'm thinking about a 24 hour bike ride, "talk me out of it." JIM

Bike Ride Report - Fleche

Saturday and Sunday, I rode a Fleche. 230 miles. 24 hours. Dewey Beach, DE to College Park, MD.



A Fleche is a Randonneur event traditionally held on Easter. You make a team and ride a point-to-point route. All the teams for your club meet at a common destination at the end, where everyone collapses and falls asleep. The rules say the route has to be at least 224 miles, and the last 25 km have to be in the last two hours.

Here is my intrepid team, which is named "Team Torque". That's me, Bill, Lynn, and Jim, from left to right, as we are about to set off at 8:00 am, after a hearty breakfast at the Sunrise Restaurant, in Dewey Beach.



Note how I am wearing a cheap red bike helmet, instead of my usual fancy silver one with abundant ventilation holes and aerodynamic sculpting. That's because I left my bike helmet at home. I had to procure a new one the night before from Wal-Mart. It is very frustrating shopping at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is supposed to excel above all other retailers at knowing what their customers want. So I go into Wal-Mart, and in the bike helmet section is a bike helmet with NEON ORANGE FLAMES across the front! RAT FINK! BIG DADDY! YEAH BUDDY! I was so excited!

Well, not so fast. The flames across the front helmets are only available in children's size, years 14 and under. I tried to jam it on my head, but it was just no use. My head is just too fat. Stupid Wal-Mart. If Sam was still alive, there would be helmets with neon flames across the front for everyone. At least the boring helmet I wound up buying only cost $17. It has a helpful sticker inside with a big arrow on it saying "This is the front." I suppose Wal-Mart does still know a little about their customers.

Back to the bike ride. When we set out, there was a headwind, and it started to rain. The rain stopped after an hour or so, and then it cleared up for the rest of the ride. However, the headwind persisted for the next 120 miles, and it blows hard on the Eastern Shore, whcih is flat and often treeless.

Our first control was Nascar Al's, a country store east of Greenville, DE. The sky is clear and the wind is blowing.



Headwinds are not so bad for me on my recumbent. They took a toll on the rest of Team Torque. Here is a picture from Sudlersville, MD, where they have a monument to Baseball Hall-of-Famer Jimmie Foxx in the town park. I was waiting here for the rest of them to catch up. Jim was back there somewhere fixing a flat tire.



This was about mile 70. Despite the headwinds, we had a 45 minute cusion at that point, but it was down to a 10 minute cushion by the time all repairs were complete and all hydrations were consumed at the Citgo a block over.

This is the bridge over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, in Chesapeake City, MD. Yes, we have to ride over this narrow bridge with no shoulder and flimsy looking guardrail that is very, very high above the water, even though one might think a charming small town like Chesapeake City would have a picturesque low bridge.



We had dinner at the Bohemia Cafe, which was yummy. Here is Team Torque gathering our Iron Will and Nerves of Steel to face the bridge.



As it turns out, the bridge had no traffic to speak of and was just fine. And we had a lot of fun sharing scary bridge stories. It seems both Lynn and I have ridden into Charleston, SC from the north on US 17, which is about as bad as a bridge can be on a bike.

Soon after this it got dark, and so I stopped taking pictures. Right after Elkton, it gets hilly, and it's pretty strenuous. We had a control in Quarryville, PA, at the Turkey Hill Dairy Store, which was a big hangout for rednecks in pickup trucks.

We rode through Harford County on MD 165, which has a smooth, wide shoulder, and was very smooth going. We stopped for a break in Jarrettsville. I think this was about 2:00 am. This part of the ride is pretty foggy. We realized that we were going to be very hard pressed to make it all the way to Arlington on time. The headwinds and hills in Pennsylvania had taken a toll.

Luckily, Lynn knows all the rules, and she explained that as long as we rode the required 224 miles and had a 22 hour control more than 25 km from the end we would succeed. Our planned route was 240 miles, so it would be possible for us to move the control up to some place past 209 miles, and then ride 16 miles to the first available convenience store. What a lifesaver. We decided to move the 22 hour control from the 7-11 in Calverton, MD to the 7-11 in Annapolis Junction, MD. Our cushion went from -20 minutes to 40 minutes.

After this, we went into Baltimore via Glen Arm and Perring Parkway, which is by far the easiest way into the city from the northeast, in my opinion. It's very scenic too, and a shame we did it at night.

While Jim and I both live in Baltimore, and can deal with inner city neighborhoods, Lynn and Bill had expressed some concern. If you go Hillen Road to Harford to St. Lo Drive to Wolfe St, you are going downhill through all the bad areas. Unless you have some kind of mechanical problem, like when Lynn's headlight bulb burned out at the intersection of Hillen Rd and Harford Rd at 3:00 am on Saturday, and we spent 15 minutes getting it fixed. (She wound up borrowing one of Bill's. Go team.) I didn't think it was an appropriate time for me to explain that the corner of Harford and the Alameda a block down was one of Baltimore's most notorious drug corners, and the big flashing blue light on the phone pole marks the location of a police surveillance camera.

The camera seems to be doing the job. The corner was deserted.

We rode through Fells Point and Little Italy, and stopped for a break at the 7-11 on Light St. in Federal Hill, as deranged homeless madmen pounded on the street signs at the corner of Cross St. By the time everyone was finished with their coffee (Lynn), goo (me) and Cheddarwurst (Jim), we had no more cushion, and I told everyone no more messing around, we have to put the hammer down to get to the 22 hour control by 6:00, and it's not flat either.

Team Torque came through. We hammered up the hills on Annapolis Rd in Westport, and pounded through the nasty littly steep rollers on River Rd. We zipped along the two mile flat stretch of Race Road, and clawed our way out of the Patapsco Drainage Basin between 100 and 175. We plunged past the prisons on Brock Bridge Road to arrive at our 7-11 with 10 minutes to spare. (Jim, amazed, noted we just did 18 miles in 1:45. There is 1200 feet of climb. It's my commute.)

This was mile 213 on my GPS. We had a strategy session to figure out the easiest way to knock off the last 17 miles. We were all pretty spent. Lynn was monosyllabic. Gratuitous hills were out of the question. We decided to do Brock Bridge to Montpelier to Cedarbrook and then Odell Rd. to Edmonson to Sunnyside to Rhode Island Ave. If we could make it to the top of Cedarbrook, it's pretty much all descent from there into the Anacostia watershed.

Which is what we did. We were coasting down Rhode Island Ave, with plenty of time to spare. Where Rhode Island ends in Berwyn Heights, we were still a mile short. We cut over on Paint Branch Parkway to Route 1, and headed south looking for the final control. And there it was, just south of the University of Maryland campus, and right in front of a big hill, the gleaming glass brick and polished metal nirvana, the end of the road, Plato's Diner. With a sausage and cheese omelet for Bill and a big piece of pie for me.

Here we are, after conquering the Fleche.



Lynn totally saved our butts. If she hadn't explained how we could adjust the 22 hour control, we would have rolled into Arlington 30 minutes late with 16 unneeded miles.

Here's the map, with the GPS track for the route as ridden.

I've also uploaded the recorded GPS information to MotionBased, the link is here. You may need to register, I haven't tried linking to them before.

Bike Ride Report - Ocean City to the Bay Bridge

Sunday Jim and I rode from the Ocean City to the Bay Bridge. It was 110 miles, headwinds the whole way.



Jim didn't make it before dark. I went on ahead and we drove back to pick him up. Recumbents are great in headwinds.

Here is the start of the day. If Blogger would post the picture right side up, you would see that the road from Ocean City to Dewey Beach is very scenic.



What the picture does not show is it is about 40 degrees out and we are riding right into the teeth of a 20 mph headwind. It was a long way to breakfast.

This is the Sunrise Restaurant in Dewey Beach. This is the official starting point of our Fleche next week.



They have yummy omelets. I rode 90 mile from here on a ham and cheese omelet, two Gatorades, and a goo shot.

This is "Nascar Al's", which is the first control on our fleche. It's proper name is Al's Country Store. When there is a Nascar race going, you can hear the TV blasting from the street.



Be advised Al does not have public restrooms, but he does have good hot ham and cheese subs.

So the way this worked was my wife Debra went to Ocean City with Laura, our hostess. (Here they are in Iowa.) Jim and I could bail the day before in the pouring rain, because we got Debra to agree to drive my car back to the Bay Bridge to pick us up on her way home.

When I had just crossed 50 and was about two miles from Graysonville, Debra calls me on the cell phone.

"I ran out of gas."
"Where are you?"
"I thought the temperature on the speedometer was the miles left of gas."
"Did you notice that there were 50 miles left all the way across the Eastern Shore?"
" "
"Where are you?"
"I may have gone across the Bay Bridge."
"It's pretty hard to cross the Bay Bridge and not be sure about it. Where are you?"
"I went over a bridge."
"Was it the Kent Narrows Bridge?"
"OK, I see the sign behind me. It was the Kent Narrows Bridge. What should I do?"
"Get the gas can from the boot and go get some gas."
"I don't know where the gas station is."
"Well, sit and wait until I get there. Maybe a good samaritan will stop and get you some gas."
"I don't want to sit here for two hours!"
"I'm only 20 minutes or so away. Do you have the blinkers turned on?"

Then there was about a ten minute discussion of how to turn the blinkers on.

Luckily, she was out of gas right next to the Kent Narrows Trail. I only had to fight my way through 20 yards of brambles and jump across a stagnant ditch to retrieve the gas can from the boot.

The gas station was about a quarter mile away off the next exit. I rode back to the car on the shoulder of 50 one-handed carrying the gas.



Note Debra doesn't see me coming because she is reading the paper.

Anyway, I finished the ride. Here's the route. This is the fleche route from Dewey Beach to just beyond Greensboro, MD.

Randonneur or Cyclotouriste

Jim and I had a big plan to prepare for the fleche next weekend by riding from Baltimore to Ocean City this Saturday. Friday night I predeployed my car at the west end of the bridge to ferry us across. There is a park and ride on the east end of the bridge, so leave the car there and ride on to the beach. Sunday we ride back to the car.

That's the plan. If we were good randonneurs we would finish the ride at all costs no matter what. However, it was pouring down rain all day. Right before we got to the bridge, the cold front responsible for the rain came through, the rain fell harder, the wind picked up, and the temperature dropped from the mid 50s to the mid 40s.

We decided to be something other than randonneurs on that day. We decided for us bike riding would be a pleasant, enjoyable experience, and if bike riding meant riding 8 or 9 hours soaked to the skin in wind rain and temps in the 40s, well then we'll just drive the last 90 miles to Ocean City. We were cyclotouristes.

I met Jim for breakfast to start at Sam's Bagels in Federal Hill. It was raining out.



Jim has his own special ways of dealing with the rain. Those are plastic grocery bags on his feet. This is a guy who claims to be embarassed to be seen riding with a guy on a recumbent (the "goofy bike"). He said he's not afraid of the Eastern Shore Fashion Police.



Here's a picture of the B&A trail in scenic Harundale.



Here is where we gave up. This is the parking lot of the gas staion at the east end of the Bay Bridge.



The gas station has Cheddarwurst! That did the job lifting our spirits. Also, changing into dry clothes helps. The bag has about 10 lbs of soaking wet fleece.



Cyclotouristes get to drink whiskey with pretty girls at the end of the day. Debra my wife took the picture, so don't worry.

Bike Route or Cab Stand II?

It's Friday night, 8:00 pm, and there are three cabs blocking the Trolley Lane.

Here's cab #1.



This is cab #2



The stupid looking kid is the driver of cab #2. He describes the stupid looking fat guy as his supervisor.



The stupid looking fat guy is driving cab #3, shown here:



The kid was nervous when I started taking pictures. The fat guy was unmoved. There are no police to be found.

Cobrabike back on the road!

My poor old SRAM X.0 derailleur that gave out on the Richmond Roundabout last weekend is now replaced with a brand new 2006 SRAM X.0 derailleur!



It's so nice.

List price: $265.00
Speedgoat price: $235.00 (speedgoat.com, my fave Internet discount bike part source)
eBay "Buy it now" from some random guy: $170.00

I love eBay. And it was in my hands in 3 days. Still hard to justify when the Buy it now for an X.9 was only around $55. Ooooh carbon.

This weekend is the last chance to get ready for the Fleche. Jim and I are riding to Laura's beach condo in Ocean City tomorrow. From here. This means I have to predeploy my car to the west end of the Bay Bridge.



Tomorrow we drive over the bridge, and leave the car at the park-and-ride on the other side. Then Sunday we ride back and repeat the process.



It's 32 miles from the parking lot by Jamals Rt 50 Bay Bridge Discount Liquor Mart to home via the B&A trail, if you go out to the entrance to Sandy Point State Park so you can take a picture of the bridge.

Debra and Laura drove out to the beach tonight, so they will be well prepared to fix us margaritas when we arrive tomorrow.

Bike Route or Cab Stand?

This was in front of the Pratt St. Pavillion at 6:45 this evening.



Another cab driver who thinks the bike lane is his cab stand.



He wanted to know why I was taking his picture. I told him how he was illegally parked, and blocking my way, and I'm putting his picture on the Internet to document his lawbreaking behavior. He cursed me out, but did not move out of the way.



There were four police cruisers a block or so up by the World Trade Center. Three of them were transit police. They said they write tickets all the time, but they were on a call at that particular moment and so they could not give the cab driver a ticket.

Bike Ride Report - Richmond Roundabout

Saturday I rode the "Richmond Roundabout". It was 175 miles.



This is a DC Randonneurs' training ride. It's a big loop around Richmond VA. The Fleche is in two weeks. This is good practice.

Here is the scene from my room at the Motel 6 at 4:15 am. The ride starts at 5:00.



The TV is tuned to the Weather Channel, which showed nothing on the RADAR. The forecast was for showers, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, albeit with a stiff headwind all afternoon.

Here are my intrepid fellow riders just before 5:00 am, wearing all required reflective gear. This is behind the coffee shop in downtown Ashland, VA. It's just a short ride from the 6.



The morning highlight is crossing the James River over the big bridge with the scary metal deck that makes your tires weave back and forth. No shoulders here for a couple miles, either.



Here is the scene from first lunch, which for me was a Wendy's at a truck stop around mile 70. The good part is that every table has a phone with a data port and an outlet so truck drivers can look for work. this is good because I could charge up my GPS heart rate monitor.



But I should have gone a half mile farther to the Subway like everyone else. I just wasn't keen on the idea of All Subway All Day. However, Wendy's was staffed by complete imbeciles. Every single order taken by the 16 year old at the cash register was messed up. The lady ahead of me got cold gravy and biscuits. I ordered a large chili and a bacon cheddar baked potato. "I'd like both of them hot," I helpfully suggested.

Well, it turns out Wendy's has banned gooey yellow cheese. I said OK, I'll have it plain. But no. Plain costs less. This caused about a 20 minute delay while the entire staff of Wendy's tried to figure out how to make the cash register change the potato to plain instead of with historical gooey yellow cheese. They wound up giving me my money back along with a potato.

I blame it all on trans fat.

Here is what the scenery looked like most of the day.



I took that picture because a half mile back down that hill was where I was supposed to turn. I'm sharing this with the rest of the riders, because none of them probably saw this particular stretch of road.

Second lunch was at Subway at mile 114 (116 for me). I decided to stop being a nonconformist. It was yummy. I charged the heart rate monitor some more.



But right before I got to the Subway, disaster had struck. I felt the cable give way when shifting gears, and I couldn't shift into higher gear. Uh Oh.

Closer inspection revealed that the cable was just fine. The problem was the return spring on my derailleur had broken.



Well, this sucks. If you click on the picture to get a bigger view, you can see the broken spring inside the quadrilateral.

Because I want to be a good randonneur, I finished the ride. In first gear. For 60 miles.

This essentially gave me a three speed. In the big chainring, I would spin out around 13 mph. On the middle, it's about 9 mph. I didn't bother with the little ring, which is about 16 gear inches, and of no use for grades less than 15%.

(Yes, I know I could have adjusted the stop points for the derailleur to get a higher gear or two. What fun is that?)

So I set off. Mary G. and Paul D. left just after me, and soon passed me. I met up with them here at the nasty nasty country store in Vontay.



It seems that if you stand around outside, giant swarms of flies come. Paul and Mary fled just after I got there. They couldn't take it. Then they charged me $2.19 for a regular 20 oz Gatorade. I can't really recommend this place. I'm notifying Zagat.

This is where it started getting dark. I passed Paul and Mary where they were pulled over putting on their reflective clothes and setting up their lights. I pressed on, and put on my own reflectors and lights about 5 miles later at the store where you turn on to Old Ridge Road. I went into the store to throw away my empty $2.00 Gatorade bottle, and as I was coming out, Paul and Mary passed.

For the remaining 25 miles, I could see their tail lights in the distance, getting farther and farther away. I wanted to catch them, because it was dark, and because I was worried about missing the turn to Blunts Bridge Rd, which is 7 miles from the last landmark on the map. It is nice to have company in the dark. But I couldn't catch them with only first gear, there was no hope. Sometimes I gained a little ground on long climbs, but as soon as it flattened out, I would spin away at 13 mph, and they would pull away.

I got into Ashland a few minutes after they did, enough for them to witness me wreck on the gravel in the parking lot.

My fancy GPS heart rate monitor lasted the whole ride with the couple refreshes when I stopped to eat. I set it to start a new lap when the derailleur broke so I could see how much speed I lost as a result.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. I averaged 13.6 mph before, and 12.2 after. And since I spent the last five hours of the ride coasting most of the time, I was in pretty good shape at the end, and not too tired at all today. However, despite wanting to go find some dinner and compare stories with everyone else, I fell asleep as soon as I got out of the shower.

The total was 178 miles in 13:40 pedal time, and about 15:30 clock time. I also recorded a pretty ridiculous 8569 feet of climb.

Here is the map recorded by the eTrex.