The BWI Trail area has much less car traffic if you go very early on a weekend. Or from there you could just head down WB&A Road for 2 miles, turn left, and ride around in my 'hood -- it's a great area for inexperienced-kid-riding. :) But it would probably be tough to put together 10 miles worth of road without a lot of (boring) repetition. Have you tried some of the park roads/paved trails in the Avalon area of Patapsco State Park? Very quiet, and pretty. But the trails are kind of narrow, I think; that's another place that I would probably try to hit very early, before the crowds arrive.

The Chesapeake Beach ramble is July 11.

That's what I am afraid of when you leave. Someone is going to have to learn a whole lot of stuff. Road size, car lane size, bike lane size and on and on....

Max, I can vouch for that. I made it back. They really got good "meds" as well:-)

I helped with a beginner ride a few weeks back going from Ellicott city to BWI. Fairly tame roads and trail mix. A pretty cool bridge over a wetlands leading to the Amtrak station @ BWI at the end. You will still have to drive to EC but a decent bike ride. I'll send you the que if you want.

I was a slug on the commute home.

Yeah, well, these days, I'm more the 10-12'er . . . *sigh* It's gonna take some *really* good "meds" to boost me up to just tagging along with the 13-15's! (Good thing they don't hustle you off for blood testing immediately after a club ride. :D)

I'll probably come out, though. I like Chesapeake Beach, and haven't been down there in ages.

Hey All, Sorry to be such a lazy bones about posting.

Super thanks to Isaias and Charlie (and Carl and David) for good ride time on sunday. I had a great time with you. Everyone made it back alive. And, after covering long distances. Hell yeah!

Ride report coming up soon.

(now if I can just get Max. to take the bait on the 11th) rattle, rattle... rattle, rattle.

Speaking of bait... that reminds me--uhhh, Max, I had two pints of Guinness at lunch. The pub in Havre de Grace had a decent selection of beer.

Maybe we can find a similar place in Chesapeake Beach, Bob?!

My roughed-in report of Sunday's Rando Ramble:

http://bimactive.com/ba/journal/post/10783/33515

Nice and thorough report. Mind if I post it up on the Ramble (crediting you, of course)? It's nice to get another voice in there sometimes.
I don't want the blog to get too "cult-of-Bob"

I'll probably just write a short little something of my own and let your report be the main one.

And I'll put up my pictures too. Got some nice shots.

:roflmao:

But instead of Kool-Aid, your minions drink BEER!!!

Mu... hah, hah.
Just a wee little bike ride and then tiny sip of the brew, my dear. Then you'll feel much better.
Look into the eyes of my avatar.

Must . . . resist. Must . . . not . . . look! :D (Seriously, though, your avatar has always vaguely creeped me out, LOL!)

So, I'm gonna vent about some commute frustrations. :mad: My commute home today, due to gate closures (because I worked so late) and construction road closures ended up being 12.5 miles instead of the usual 8.5 or 9.5 (depending on how I go.) It was a lovely evening, so that was nice, but I was feeling kind of crabby and just wanted to get home!

I've been trying a new commute route, which is nicer in some respects than my old one. But there's one stretch of road that is just getting on my nerves (well, the drivers on it are!) It's a great road, lots of swoopy little rollers, fun to ride. For most of it, there is no shoulder at all, and there's even a curb, so emergency escape would be difficult. But, I figured, the speed limit is only 35 (routinely violated, however, of course), and even though there are only two traffic lanes (one going each way), there's a "left turn lane" running down the center. Oodles of room to get around me. But for some reason, nobody moves over enough unless I ride right down the center of the lane.

I'm not used to having to do that, and I'd prefer not to -- I think it makes drivers suspect me of having an "attitude." ;) On other tight spots on my old route, I just have to move a little bit more to the left, in a kind of "hey, I'm here" gesture, and most of the drivers pass me the way they're supposed to -- and *they* have to actually get into an oncoming traffic lane! These guys have a (largely unused) center lane available, but they just won't move into it. :wtf:

I haven't gotten any honks or gestures yet for taking up the whole lane, so we'll see. I've been looking at Streets & Trips, it looks like I could detour around most of that road by taking neighborhood back roads to the left. I'll check that out next time. If it's full of stop signs, it may not be worth it. And that road really *is* fun to ride on.

Take the lane, Maxine. In that situation it doesn't make sense to do otherwise.

I always take the whole lane, but I'm OK with drivers suspecting me of having an "attitude". :)

@Max - or, maybe you need a brighter and more obnoxiously blinking tail light that's aimed up into motorists eyes. I think my Dinotte does this for me when I run it blinking while commuting.

I remember being in back of Josh on a M2M ride coming home after dark. His Dinotte was set to the same blinking mode as I usually use for commuting. That light could cause seizures--almost! It messes with your brain.

A motorist in a 2 ton vehicle with a seizure behind me on my bike.....hmmm;-)

Got into work just ahead of the rains. NOAA report for today was rain showers followed by rain. Why not just say rain.

I was talking to my daughter last night about my leg cramping during the ride. She said current knowledge says that too much hydrogen is in the muscle and NOT lactic acid build up. I think she then said the heart can't get it all out(I could be wrong here). She also said it is important to keep moving or it would lock up. That's why Carl kept cycling with his cramps while I was moaning on the ground. She said to massage it manually if you can't move which I did do.
@GB what was the name of Hammer capsule you gave me? They have a zillion different products.

Edit: check out this fork from a bike ride on the C&O recently, halfway down the page. Caused by a stick, all parties were ok.
http://tinyurl.com/pgh-dc

I just find it weird that on two roads, so close to one another, the general driver reaction just seems so completely different. It's not that they don't see me; I know they do (I've just been trying this new route out within the past two weeks, so I haven't had any dark commuting on it yet. Not to mention that uber-Fred, hi-viz yellow Illuminite reflective vest that I wear 24-7! :D)

I've been slowly and reluctantly admitting to myself that I should get better lights before the summer is out. I'm doing the "24 Hours of Booty" in Columbia again this year (and they've moved it to the end of August), so maybe before then would be good. I just like how *easy* my current Cateye setup is -- everything is self-contained, no wires, no battery packs, I can switch the lights between both bikes in the blink of an eye. And the light is actually fine -- when I'm on roads that are already somewhat lit up, and/or that I know really well. (Which is pretty much my whole commute route.) Otherwise, though, things can get a bit iffy, and I have to slow down.

Think of it as a multi-ton-motor vehicle bug light that repels.

:eek: That must have been quite the stick! I ran over a stick yesterday, and I winced, waiting for disaster as it swirled around in my spokes for a second, but then it was spit out. That bike shop sounds awesome!

I have to run the hard copy of the newsletter up to the printer in Windsor Mill after work today, before they close, so I drove -- so I won't get soaked by the "rain showers followed by rain." :lol:

Ouch!

I agree about All American Bicycles in Damascus. I had a broken RD cable during a club ride in that area. AAB took me right away.

GB's avatar in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QmeZoNXqHM
(I watched a zillion hours of this show when I was young. Can you tell?) :D

I am skipping this month for writing a ride report and letting Isaias' post tell the tale.
http://randoramble.posterous.com/bbc...e-06-june-2010

Here are my pics from the ride: http://randoramble.posterous.com/charmed-27

^^^^^^^^^^
Ah-so... nothing like not-so-modern Japanese sci-fi-kabuki

Hey Max, what route did you take from Kent Island to OC last year?
I am planning on riding with Isaias down to OC on Friday and heading back early. I might take the lower route and try to hitch a ride across the bridge. Any thoughts?

GB, I'll dig it up for you when I get home tonight. More or less, though, it was Google's "walking" directions from the park-and-ride at US 50 and Route 404 to 16th street in Ocean City. I skipped the Kent Island part, too, because I didn't want to deal on that ride with the crossings of US 50, and the bridge over the Narrows. But Bike Washington has a DC to OC route that starts on Kent Island, just past the Bay Bridge.

http://www.bikewashington.org/routes/beach/index.htm

http://www.bikewashington.org/routes/beach/out.htm

The Google route to OC that I used was different than this one, though -- the Google route was more of a straight shot, cutting diagonally across Delaware. I liked it for the most part, though 404 is busy (but with a big shoulder.) The towns are spaced out pretty conveniently.

As another alternative, here's the link to routes that the SPP used to and from Stevensville just below the Bay Bridge:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=1#post9203394

Man, where has time gone to? That holiday is almost here!

I think this will be the route for 2010:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...-to-OCMD-Route

I just fixed the endpoint so that we wind up at the front door of the motel instead of the tennis courts next door.

*So* precise! :)

:wink:

Too bad you're not coming this year... oh well,... :( Bob and I will have to go out and visit the ponies all by our lonesome.