Old College Mates....

One of my dorm/house mates from LeTourneau University showed up on my doorstep Monday night. He's traveling around North America for two months, I'm one of the lucky people on his list. We were both in the DSP or Delta Sigma Si. and from there I went off to Texas A&M, but funny thing is most of my contacts of that era are still LeTourneau friends. 

John and his wife Donna showed up in Brantford Monday night and we had a nice visit. I had just rolled up to my house from a ride with my local friend Greg as they drove up in their van. The evening was just cooling off and we were able to sit in the back yard and catch up, as the dogs showed off in the grass. The next day I had work that had to be done, so we planed for a 3:00 bike ride to Port Dover and have supper. The "girls" did a quick tour of Brantford and walked around Port Dover looking at the shops. The Dover run is a pretty straight and flat run with, 4 "hills" and John's not too fond of hills so he was keeping me accountable to the hills... there a few "false flats" along the way too. Any how to Texas boys rode in the heat and has a good 50 kms (30 mile) ride down to Calahan's Beach House for perch dinner. Sitting out on the back deck we could not have ordered up a nicer evening. The sun was not too hot by this time and as it wend down it cooled off very nicely. Very good seeing old college friends. 

Enjoy and have safe travels on the rest of your trip John.

Out meeting people

Today's intention was a recovery ride, after two harder days in the saddle. So I headed out my normal route, and saw a rider who was going about the pace I wanted for the day. I caught up with him and introduced myself. It was nice riding with an avid cyclist about the same age. Bob and I were able to talk about work, families and cycling. Quite refreshing after being around two 24 year-olds for the last three weeks!

While traveling one forgets how nice it is to have a riding "buddy", and how much you miss all the "homies", that's you  "Brantford Boys and Girls".

Bob was out for about a 2 hour ride, and I was able to get on some roads that I had not been on before, and figured out the roads that I had gotten lost on last Saturday. This was a very good day to get out and enjoy the day between having company on a ride, talking about life at a level my age group is interested, it just made it better. I wish I had run into him last week, as he was telling me how to get down into Washington the "easy way" on a bike. With that information I could have ridden into D.C. and seen the sights but that would have prevented me from enjoying the day with Ben and Cam. Hopefully we can get another ride in when I'm back in the area.

A Fantastic Day for a Ride

We had some time today, not much to do, therefore I mapped out a 96 km ride. Part of the ride ended up being big chip and no tar (or I did not see it), but at the risk of saving tires we took a detour along the bike trail which was the mule trail for pulling barges up and down the C&O canal system. Here we actually saw some cyclist out riding, it was very quiet and shady. We also went past an abandoned Ferry crossing used by the Union and the Confederates, and I also found out that Poolesville had a few confederate son's and a few skirmishes around the area to me this is all pretty cool as I studied Civil war history in University.

Not to mention today was as about as nice of a day as cyclist could ask for, if only the cars were off the road it would have been better.

More Washington D.C.

This time Cam did not join us and it was just Ben and I. We went off to Capitol Hill, then to the American History Museum.

On my ride this morning I went past a restaurant in a small town west of us and they were having a great Sunday Brunch and the smoker was going preparing ribs for the evening rib special... BBQ has to be pursued in the South and if smells good in the morning it's going to be good for supper. All three of us got in the car and headed to Poolesville and the Basset restaurant and sat on the porch and drank REAL iced tea. By the time we went through all the food we were all full.

Now That's what I'm talkin' about!

Yesterday I took direction from an older guy on a nice bike... I ended up lost and in city traffic (not bad traffic, but still in the city). Today I went my own direction and I found country roads... The kind of roads cyclist live for. The thing that surprised me is the lack of cyclist. Even yesterday the "big" group had 15 guys in it. Today I saw a total of 4 cyclist on the furthest most part of the course, their loss.

A short Ride, then into Washington D.C.

This is more of a photo journal today as our ride was a fitness ride more than anything else.

Then the tourist... With Cam Brehn and Ben Clark