Jeff and I did two great rides last weekend, but I haven't had a chance to post about them until now. (Guess a busy, busy life beats being bored as hell.) Work this week was pretty brisk, and we are just wrapping up one of our intermittent "get everything done that's humanly possible" weekends -- very important, as they permit us to travel and bike (i.e., goof off) most of the rest of the time.
Last Saturday, September 16, we finally got a chance to bike the Jersey Devil Century. I've been wanting to ride in South Jersey for some time . . . and now that I have, well, all I can say is, "flat" ain't all it's cracked up to be. More on that later.
We actually weren't sure we'd get to bike at all, actually. Midweek, the weather report for Saturday was fabulous. Then it was just "OK." Then it was . . . crappy. Rain, storms. Faugh.
We didn't actually decide to do the ride until Saturday morning. We got up, decided that it wasn't that bad out, and checked both weather.com and Accuweather. AW was much more optimistic, showing mostly clouds and few drizzles, so we decided to chance it. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the Broadway Diner, then sped up 95 to Parvin State Park.
We began the ride about 9:15, not too auspiciously. I'd done something to my left knee the previous Thursday, and right off, it started bothering me. I was determined to do the ride, though, unless my knee went completely on strike (or fell off), so I biked a few miles to see what it would do once I warmed up. It got better, so we pushed on. Well, we pushed on after Jeff turned around to retrieve his right bike glove, which he'd taken off to sign the release forms, and forgot to put back on. (We were only about 1 mile into the ride, fortunately.)
The Jersey Devil gives you a choice of a 25 mile loop or a 50 mile loop. We chose the 50. Around about Mile 18, we wandered into a little town with a small convenience store. We stopped for candy bars and some additional liquid. A couple miles later, we happened onto the official rest stop -- which did have food available (from the Web description, I wasn't actually sure there would be anything more than water). We pushed on once again . . . my knee was doing OK, but I just didn't "have it" -- not every day is a good day, even when you're on the bike -- and as the miles went by, another problem developed.
Headwind.
Serious headwind, as a matter of fact. My friend AM, who trained for the Ironman on these roads, later told me that South Jersey is so flat, there is NOTHING stopping the winds off the ocean. Ouch. The last 15 miles were brutal. I was tired, my knee was starting to ache again, and all I wanted to do was BE DONE.
I'm beginning to think much more kindly about hills. At least you get a nice respite down the other side. I've yet to climb a 15 mile hill, y'know?
On the plus side, as the ride wound down, the sun came out. We never got rained on at all. Now, THAT was nice.
After grabbing some food at the ride finish, we went to PSC to shower and change (it's great having a multiple sports club membership), then decided to meet some friends for dinner at Max's Seafood Cafe in Gloucester City. We got home to Baltimore about 10 pm or so, undecided about what to do the next day.
OK, cue "next day" -- which happens to be Sunday. We get up, decide we don't want to do another organized ride, then decide to head for -- where else? -- Lancaster County, to do a cue sheet ride. This time we chose one called Pretzel Logic Ride, which features a pretzel factory. (Unfortunately closed on Sunday, though.)
PL was a nice ride. Only thing was, though, one of the roads was closed -- Sheaffers School Road, which didn't appear to be *actually* closed, but which did, inexplicably, have a heavy coating of gravel. Oops. Rather than turn around, we decided to do a workaround -- we figured we could find our way back to the cue sheet if we wandered in the general direction of our starting point.
And that is when we came across Farmersville. Which is, you may or may not know, the hometown of Floyd Landis, winner (yes, IMO) of the 2006 Tour de France.
There is, in fact, still a huge sign painted on Farmersville Road:
You may not be able to see, but here is what it says: CV Floyd Landis Winner Tour de France 2006 -10.00 to + .59 USA." I'd heard of the sign, but actually had never seen it before (we've actually never been to Farmersville before, even though we've probably been all around it, all the years we've been going to Lancaster County.
Go Floyd!!! Good luck on your hip surgery this week.
It's so cool -- if that road hadn't been closed, we'd not have stumbled onto this.
And, it turns out that we did, indeed, pick up the cue sheet again, at this interesting intersection:
And here's Cats Back Road:
One thing I've mentioned before is the plethora of Amish schoolhouses in Lancaster County. They have authentic outdoor privys, which are never locked. (It's so nice, not having to find a cornfield . . .):
What, you thought I was going to show a pic of the privy? Don't be silly.
Sunday was a truly lovely day. The weather was spectacular, and I have to say that I have never seen so many Amish out and about, many of them on bicycles. (I just love seeing Amish women on bikes -- dress, bonnet and all. I'd get tangled up and seriously maim myself. And have I mentioned how much I love Lycra??) Families were walking from Sunday services, or from Sunday dinner -- maybe both. Others were out in their little gray carriages. It was exquisitely picturesque . . . just a great day to be alive and on the bike.
No, I did not take any pictures. The Amish don't care to be photographed, and I would not dream of offending them in that way.
In all, with the detour through Farmersville, we did 23 miles. My knee actually felt better than the day before . . . but in the ensuing week, it's been off and on. I did about 40 miles this weekend, in and around errands, but I still have to be careful with it . . . Aleve is a wonderful drug, by the way.
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