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.