maxine

It *was* fun, I had a great time! Yeah, I think we've exhausted the entertainment value of riding up and down Coastal Highway so maybe the necessity of riding somewhere else will be my incentive to finally get my fat/slow/old [bleep] to go a little faster!

(Speaking of which . . . I think it might be possible to ride from OC to Chincoteague without going so far inland -- Google says you can run straight down the barrier island from Assateague. I'll be camping at the Assateague National Seashore July 28-31; I'm going to bring a bike and check it out.)

I overslept on Saturday morning and got off to a far later start than I had planned; the drive to the park & ride was horrendous, traffic-wise. I was soooo happy to finally get out of my car and on the bike, and I was tickled to be keeping up with the bumper-to-bumper traffic on MD 404. I averaged 14.5 mph for the first 37 miles . . . and then the headwinds hit. My average for the whole 80 miles ended up being 12.0. Between the wind and the heat, with which I don't cope especially well, those final 15 miles or so to NR's hotel were really wearing me down. I guess carrying 20 pounds of stuff didn't help matters any, although at least this year I was doing it on the lighter Airborne (my Trek 520 is still in the shop.)

I had headwinds for almost the whole ride back, although they weren't as strong as the ones I'd hit coming down; my return average was also 12.0.

Just for you, GB, I'll try to get some photos up on Snapfish or Flickr.