Distance: 65 miles
Weather: Sunny and hot; high of 85+
Company: Me, myself and I
Well, mostly. Towards the end, the alive part seemed like it was definitely coming into doubt. But on Monday, I actually biked 65 miles in one day, on one ride. Not surprisingly, challenges abounded.
My route was adapted from a route provided by a previous Climate Rider. I needed to add on about 5 miles each way to get me from my house to the starting point and back. Except it turned out to be quite a bit more than that. First, I ended up taking the long route without thinking about it. Then, completely misinterpreting the Google map, I turned right instead of left, not realizing it until the road I was on intersected with completely the wrong road. Thank goodness for GPS on iPhones.
Feeling like quite a schmuck, I turned around to at least find myself heading downhill. But the entire time I coasted, I had a sense of creeping dread. For what goes down must inevitably come up.
It didn't take terribly long for my dread to catch up with me. Gazing upon the first major hill, I actually swore out loud. It was like looking up Mt. Everest. And somehow, I knew that it was even higher than I could see – the top was not actually the top, but instead continued on, winding up the road further. This was a hill my car would have trouble climbing. But instead of giving in, I sighed to myself, laughed a little, kicked my bike into a low gear, and started the long slog. Sadly, it was to be the first of many. Who knew you could fit so many hills into one route?
The one saving grace of this route's hills is that they are fair. Unlike the steep, annoying slopes peppered with sharp turns and other hazards, like those on the National Institute of Health path, these hills put their cards on the table. They said, "We are hills. If you do not conquer us, we will defeat you." And in the end, I did. I didn't walk a single hill. On one of the them, I took a very long time to pass someone walking, but I never actually got off my bike.
After a sampler of the hills at 20 miles, I stopped at a convenience store. The friendly owner, who seemed to be associated with the nearby "chaat shop" as well, thankfully allowed me to use their bathroom. It was grungy, as I expected a convenience store bathroom to be, but charmingly decorated with a 1970s Ben and Jerry's poster. Also, they had shampoo instead of hand soap.
Riding away from the shop, I had two unpleasant realizations – that I got hit in the mouth by a barbed insect and that I didn't have my wallet with me. Of course, the second realization occurred just as I had descended a large hill. Naturally, I freaked out a little. Remembering that I had put my wallet in my jersey, I was afraid it had bounced out into a ditch, never to be seen again. Hiking back up the hill was shockingly easy, because so much of my attention was focused on scanning the side of the road. Thankfully, my fears were dispelled when I found my wallet in the bathroom, right where I had taken it out to ensure it wouldn't fall out of my jersey pocket. Ironic.
From there, I rode through Potomac, the land of Houses that Are Entirely Too Big for Any One Family to Occupy. I think you could fit 7 or 10 copies of our house in some of them! A few were rather pretty, but many were just depressingly showy. Greek-inspired columns work in the National Arboretum and Monticello, but not in suburban Maryland.
I hope for the sake of all involved, that this is not a single-family house.
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