Ride and Row Again

So Saturday turned out to be a really nice day here in Virginia so Ann and I decided to take advantage of the day with a bike ride. Normally we try to get away as early as possible, but while the day dawned nice and sunny it was a bit chilly. We waited a while for it to warm up before we headed off to the trail. We left home around 9:00 and we were on the trail by 9:45. Daughter#2 has our minivan so we are borrowing her car complete with bike rack.

We did our usual Rt 28 to Leesburg ride. It was still a little on the cool side and both of us wore long sleeve shirts. In addition, the wind was blowing a bit briskly during our ride. It never seemed to be an in your face type wind so I'm assuming it was more of a cross wind, but it was hard to tell. For the most part the trail is pretty well protected against the wind. We rode out to Leesburg and stopped at our usual place - the Douglas Community Center. During our break, Daughter#1 called on my cell and Ann took the call. I'm not sure what the deal is with the hugging herself. For the past two weeks there have been what looks like large family picnics going on at the Community Center's picnic pavilion area. Large commercial type BBQ's and the works. Smells delicious, but no one has invited us for lunch. Dang.

I tried to get a picture of Ann pedaling along, but with our digital camera the time between when you push the button and the actual shutter operation made it near impossible. I have a picture of her front tire and that about as good as I could get. In this picture, that is Ann way far down the trail on the right. Also when I was taking this picture, my bike fell down underneath me and the chain popped off. I managed to get it back on myself with out too much difficulty.

Finally a little after noon we were back on at the car and I loaded the bikes back up for the ride home. The ride back was much faster than the ride out. I don't think Ann's heart was really in it and oh the moaning and groaning that ensued when we made our first stop 3 1/2 miles into the ride at Ashburn Road. If I would have let her, she would have turned around and gone back to the car. Fortunately she persevered and made it through.

We passed on the Old Dominion Brew Pub for lunch as I'm still restricted from drinking until Thursday and it seemed a bit pointless. Instead we stopped and picked up a sub to split for lunch. After filling our tummies, we proceeded to take a nap.

Sunday they were calling for rain, but when I woke up there was none showing on the radar so after getting the laundry started I headed over to Sandy Run to go rowing. I was the first one there, which was a bit of a surprise and also a pain because I had to unlock everything, open up the bay door and drag the rack with the singles out by myself. Usually there are a few out at first light, but maybe the forecast kept them in. The water had much less debris than last weekend, but still enough, especially big pieces, that I had to be constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't about to collide with anything. I managed to miss everything, but I have a sore neck from all of the turning around. Overall it was a very good row. I did 11 miles and didn't feel like I was about to die getting out of the boat back at the dock.

After coming home and showering an eating a late breakfast, I really wasn't feeling all the good anymore. I couldn't figure out why and then it dawned on me - I had missed drinking my usual Coke in the morning and was suffering from lack of caffeine. I'm not a coffee drinker like Ann is or a tea drinker like my Dad and Mom were so Coke is my morning drink of choice. I actually prefer Pepsi, but their bottle size is all wrong. I don't want cans and 12 oz isn't enough. Their next bottle size up is 24 oz, which is way too much. It's stupid so a 16 oz Coke it is. After I downed it, I felt 100% better. I then had to run off and do the grocery shopping since Ann seems to have some irrational fear of the grocery store and we needed food for the week. After that task was completed we watched the movie Lions into Lambs. It was just ok. Normally I would say any movie with Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep is a can't miss, but this one did. After that fun filled weekend, we were in bed by 9:00 because we are old. Geez it was still twilight outside. We need to work on that.