Pedaling for Patriots

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/21/fridays-intriguing-people-11/

We found out late last week that the Washington Post was going to do a story on our ride!  Yesterday, we did a photo shoot while riding on a back road.  It was a little cold and rainy but we had a great time.  We think the story may run tomorrow or Friday, but we haven’t yet gotten the official word.  We are thrilled to know that the Memorial Fund will receive this publicity!

50 miles in 4 hours!  We rode the W&OD trail and boy, is it easier than riding on the roads!

We were doing a 20 mile ride today and were on the Loudoun County Parkway (4 lane divided road through neighborhoods) for part of the ride.  There was very light traffic and we were on the far right side.  A woman in a mini-van, with 3 small children in the back, came up from behind and started laying on her horn, rolled down the window and gave us the middle-finger!  What is THAT all about???

you have to dodge chickens and horse poop!  We had a great ride today, starting in Purcellville, through Waterford, Lovettsville and Hillsboro.  We climbed Short Hill Mountain at the end of the ride.

We saw buffalo(!), a HUGE black snake (about 6 ft. long), a skunk and a fox – along with those chickens and horses.  We had a great lunch at the Lovettsville Pizza and Subs (http://www.lovettsvillepizza.com/) and walked around Thrifty Sisters Treasures (http://www.thriftysisterstreasures.com/).  We also tried the Clif Shock Roks, a protein bite about the size of a grape.  The chocolate-chip cookie dough flavor isn’t too bad, although it tastes a little like a malted milk ball mixed with a jellybean.

The hills today convinced us that we definitely need a bike with more lower gears, so we have an appointment on Monday at The Bike Lane in Reston (http://thebikelane.com/) to look at the Surly Long Haul and get a proper fitting.

We got an interesting phone call today, so we may have some exciting news next week.  Please keep checking back for more information!!

We did a 20 mile ride today after being off the bikes for a week, due to travel (Rob) and medical stuff (Kim).  We left at 8am and the temperature was about 48 degrees!  We biked a route past Bull Run park, towards Clifton, thinking we would miss rush hour traffic.  Boy were we wrong!  People were generally considerate, but there were a few who did not want to share the road (Silver BMW driver – the horn honking was particularly rude!).  We’re getting better at shifting going up and down hills, although Rob still thinks we need more gears in the lower level.

This past month has been a whirlwind of training, buying bikes and equipment, and learning all sorts of new things! We are now averaging 40 mile daily rides 4 times a week. We will kick it up to 50 milers later in May and 60 milers with 5-6 rides per week in June.

Rob has mastered changing rear tire flats (3 flats on one ride!) although he needed some technical help from both YouTube and our local Performance tech.

We are still wrestling with our choice of primary bikes for the ride in terms of the ability to climb long grades and mountains. A recent group ride to the Occoquan Regional Park (with the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia) highlighted these difficulties! Therefore, we are looking at adding a Surly Long Haul to our stable of bikes.

We are officially launching this site on May 1, 2010.  We appreciate your support in making this trip successful and your important donation to the CIA Officers Memorial Fund.