Saturday, May 31, 2014

Days 4-7 A full week in!

Day 4 – 32 miles
Day 5 – 36 miles
Day 6 – 35 miles
Day 7 – none

Today we rest a lovely, well appreciated rest. This week's total distance was 208 miles.


On Day 4, after leaving Wayne, Brenda and Lisa's house, we rode to the York Heritage Rail Trail. Along the way, we passed a Taco Bell...and could not resist. I haven't eaten at Taco Bell in about 8 years. It was different. York County from the vantage point of the Rail Trail is pristine and heritage is the right word for it. So many historic buildings, fields, rivers, streams, wild-lands, old bridges, etc. What a special trail it is. I loved every moment of it. At around 4 PM, we passed over the Mason Dixon Line. The night was spent in the Bee Tree Reserve which was wild and perfect. Shortly after arriving, the temperature began to drop sharply and the wind picked up, which it continued to do until the rain began after we went to sleep.








Day 5 – The night before was challenging. While getting settled, Naomi pooped herself and Etienne was super cranky. He didn't go to sleep easily and we all went to sleep feeling very sour. Waking up, we found a steady downpour and chilled air. Riding on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail yesterday, we noticed a lot of muddy spots. With this rain, we didn't know if our road bikes could ride on it at all. After getting some road directions from my father-in-law, we began riding with much hesitation around 10 AM.

We did cross back over the rail trail and found that it was gravel again, so we traded the hilly, difficult roads for a downhill, flat, straight, 10 miles of trail. At 12 PM, we stopped at the Monkton Bike Cafe and had an amazing lunch and impromptu play date with some new friends. What an uplifting time! At 4 PM, I fell and hit my head pretty hard (thank goodness for helmets). I got to add a few more scrapes and bruises to my legs and arms. Then I stood, on the side of the road, with my husband, head throbbing and legs shaking from adrenaline, in the rain, and we got a phone call. It was a reply from a www.warmshowers.org email. We had a place to stay for the night! With new determination, we rode fast and energetically for a little over 20 miles. After making great time, we arrived in the town of Westminster and visited Race Pace Bicycle Shop. We spent the night (in a warm bed!!!) (after a warm bath!!!) with our new friends Sean and Barb. It was a pick-me-up for all of us, and we were exhausted. Unfortunately, Etienne did not sleep well that night (a rare occurrence) and we slept in well past our usual 5 am wakeup, to give ourselves some love.

Day 5 – While getting the bikes packed up, our new friend (Naomi says he's from Les Miserables) from the bike shop, brought his little boy Eli over while riding around on their bikes. Naomi got to ride a kids bike and played for about an hour or more. After leaving, we rode 35 miles on a ridge (MD 27-S) of rolling terrain, constant easy to moderate up and downs, without any flatlands. Today my knee got a little sore, but that went away after a while. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny, breezy, blue skies with puffy white clouds, rolling hills, fields of gold and green, swaying in the breeze, orchards, etc. You get the picture! It was nice, we kept a good pace, and got a bit of sunburn (yikes). The sunburn is healing nicely, and is almost ceasing to be red. It is getting brown, fast. Today we should be getting our sun-hats in the mail, and I am very excited to have some nice protection for my nose!



We arrived at the home of our friends Steve and Jenny. Now we get a full day of rest, and set out tomorrow morning. This last week was enlightening, affecting our balance, patience and mental status'. We are feeling so revived in life, by a slower pace and by the necessity of communicating with other humans around us for all of our needs- emotional, physical and spiritual. I can't believe we waited so long to go all-bicycled-out.