A bit more hectic

Sylvie arrived last week and Helen took some time off to do all the touristy things like going to DC, Alexandria and Shenandoah. I also took Friday off so we could travel to Salisbury in the furthest reaches of Maryland where Helen and I were going to ride in the Seagull Century. The Century is an annual 100 mile rambling ride from Salisbury university to the coast.

Because the ride started from 0700 we had to get up, get ready and check out of the hotel before dawn which was a real drag but necessary because the town was heaving with traffic. After a quick head stop we rolled our bikes onto the road and then along the road a bit to get away from the crowd; it's not just cars that cause chaos. There were bikes across the road, groups sat in the middle of the road as well as people pulling away without looking. The lack of cycling ability or road sense goes further as we saw at all the rest stops and I was almost taken out a few times; the correlation with cars also carries over into cornering ability which you would have thought is easier.

There was some serious drizzle but the weather was warm and the sun did shine through eventually even though the rain did not totally disappear. The course did not involve too many junctions and most of the roads were very quiet although there were a couple of busy ones. The rest stops were well run and there was plenty of food and drink to replenish the energy reserves and even banana bread at the seaside stop. We even had priority over the traffic at most junctions and the police were great at stopping the traffic so we could roll through. On the way back from the coast we turned onto the wind which had picked up and mad life a little harder but did not stop us from rolling back into town albeit very weary.

We had a wash up and change in the car and picked Sylvie up from the hotel where she had been stuck all day and headed off home via Denny's for something substantial for dinner. Once home we unloaded the bikes, showered and headed back out to treat Sylvie with a visit to Tiffany's for some live bluegrass. I'm not sure if it was the beer, but I certainly perked up and although we didn't last until 0100 we did make it through two sets before retiring for the night.

We're now sat in Reagan National airport waiting for our flight to Montana, delayed due to snow in Minneapolis, for our next road trip so expect some decent pictures from Yellowstone.

In the meantime, and in way of apology for the lack of pictures recently, here's a video for you - Sweet Million