This Thanksgiving the tradition of the pre feast ride continued. This year was special in the fact that my long time friend Dave rediscovered his bike and came to ride. Even better he brought his 14 year old son with him, this was to be Alex’s first real ride on a real road bike. Prior to this he has always ridden kid’s bikes. Myself, Dan, Dave, Alex and Jon all headed out for our ride. It was not three miles into the ride Alex learned that once you ride off the edge of the pavement don’t ride back up the pavement because it won’t end well. It ended with Alex taking a tumble onto the pavement. Other than a little raspberry on his face he was no worse for the wear. It happened a block or so from his house, Alex latter said “I’ll have to drive by that spot everyday as a reminder.”
Thanksgiving Ride 2008
The exciting thing is Alex finished the ride and now wants a road bike to ride on a regular basis. So maybe another road biker has been created. It is also a great way that he and his Dad can spend some time together. Hopefully they will get some riding in next year and invite Mom and the little sister along.
After Alex’s “gravity check” we continued our ride and met up with more of our friends John and Tammy who were out on their fixie’s and finishing up their ride. We all headed south down the bike trail towards Annapolis. From there we headed to the Overlook and World War II Memorial where John and Tammy headed back towards town and we headed to Sandy Point via St. Margaret’s road. At this point the weather was warming up and so were the legs. As we crested the hills on the way up St. Margaret’s Dave realized how much he lost in his fitness level. I mentioned to Dave it is amazing how long it takes us to create our fitness and how fast we can lose it.
We were riding my standard 20 mile route which takes us out the College Parkway access roads to the Bay Bridge. The traffic was crazy on RT 50 with a backup you would typically see in the summer. I guess everyone was headed somewhere for the feast. There were lots of inconsiderate people on the road with a bunch of them trying to use the access road to “beat the traffic” to the Bay Bridge. I don’t think it really pays. After we stopped on the overpass to admire the traffic we turned for home down the access road on the North side. Here we picked up the pace for a steady tempo towards the “barn”.
It was a great ride with friends, a nice 20 mile loop that has lots of options to make it longer. I plan on creating a cue sheet with some photos along the way. I did take a few pictures that I have posted in the Gallery.
Ernest
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