Well, I hope none of our faithful blog viewers have been insanely worried over the last 10 days wondering if we fell off the planet!
The last three days of the ride were both brutal and wonderful. We enjoyed more wildlife, scenery, fresh air, friendly folks, time with friends and good food!
Tuesday night after our last blog post we made our way to Ft. Frederick State Park where we had a beautiful camp site set right beside the Potomac River. Contrary to the River's condition in D.C., it's a beautiful, clear river at this spot, and served as our only shower for the night. While we swam in the river, Fred worked up an amazing dinner....nothing less than "Mashed Potato Sundaes." This was a margarita glass filled with garlic mashed potatoes, topped with beef fillet tips in brown gravy with a side of fresh squash and other vegetables. Nate had purchased two massive pies during the day which we also devoured.
Wednesday was a 50+ mile day. All in all, it was a good day but we did encounter our only detour (5 miles on a hilly, paved, windy two-lane road without a shoulder) and our first flat tire. The detour was hot and made us very thankful for the shade provided by the trees along the rest of the trail. The day ended in Harpers Ferry where we stopped to check out the cute, historic town and have ice cream (again). We then pedaled a few miles to a youth hostel where we were delighted to find hot showers and Fred bustling around a full service kitchen. We camped outside but had access to all the facilities inside which was a treat. Dinner for the night? Pork loin (mmmmm....), fried green beans with onions and roasted red potatoes. We were all pretty tired by this time so after Brad fixed Lisa's flat, we called it a night early.
Thursday was our shortest day. We were in need of a break by this point, so were glad for the rest. We slept in past 7 (wahoo!) and then Fred made full use of the kitchen, cranking out pancakes, eggs and sausage. We hit the trail mid morning and had a relatively leisurely 25 mile ride to White's Ferry (with a lunch stop along the way and another swim in the river).
We camped our last night outside of Leesburg, Virginia. We were so close to home we could nearly smell it, but we knew we would have to pedal hard to make it in by the 11:30 meeting time on Friday. We swam in the pond, played basketball with some local kids and enjoyed a big steak dinner followed by lots of stories, laughs and memories around the lanterns (no campfire that night). Amazingly, even though it was the last night of our week together, we were all still friends!
Enough chatting, time for some pictures! Some are from previous days as we didn't get to post many on the road.
Day 1 - Little did we know at this point we were still riding uphill!
Our resident mechanic working on Lisa's tires. He was a good sport about helping everyone.
Ah, the tents. We learned to set these up and take them down in record time!
Chef Daddy Hammon whipping up rice pilaf our first night. Mmmmmm!
An early morning departure on Day 2. This campsite was WONDERFUL!