I rode through the Jug Bay Wetlands with the WWO women today. Beautiful day to get out. In fact, it was really the first truly pleasant riding day of the year. Twenty-eight degrees when I woke up, but 67 by the time the ride was over. And bright blue sunny skies.
Here is the crew about half way through.
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| L-R: Jessica (taking the pic), Rebecca (1st timer), me, Babs, Susan, MaryAnne, Lynda, Linda, Catherine. |
Lynda, who cranks up the hills in sneakers volunteers at a zoo and loves anything animals. So we stopped for a pic of this dog on the mailbox. This was just the first of many "Beautiful Gray Barns," which prompted Jessica to dub the ride, "The Tour de BGBs."
Our first stop, for a quick snack, was at the Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary. They had real bathrooms which is always a plus!
I spotted a bald eagle at some point. Of course, no pic, but it was beautiful. It turned in front of us to show us its beautiful bright white tail.
We sat here and had a snack. But I didn't eat because I only had one bar, and I wanted to save it for lunch. I had the big fat energy bar Connor brought me from Hawaii. He said it would be delicious, and I knew it had big chunks of carob in it, so I couldn't wait to eat it!
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| Apparently there was a dead turtle by the water that the vultures were flocking around. |
I thought this church history was interesting, but also wondered about how it says founded "after the Civil War" which makes me think 1866 or 1867, but this is almost 30 years later, in 1892!
This old place looked absolutely sparkling brand new. This house has a very attentive owner! Would love to see the inside.
I was laughing that perhaps this sign was for us! Is was a bit of a slow ride - I think the average speed was 11.8mph. But that was also due to so much stopping. Still, it was a good pace for early spring and just stretching my legs.
Who knew there were so much beautiful forest just east of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge? I've never really explored Prince George's County--esp. on bike. There were several moments where the bare silver trees were in beautiful contrast to the bright blue sky. This picture doesn't do it justice.
Ah, we have finally arrived at our lunch spot! By the time we got here, I was absolutely starving. Only had a shake early--at 8am-before leaving home. By now it was past 1pm and we'd ridden over 20 miles.
I stopped here to call Claire and be sure she was ok after breaking a light fixture with her foot at synchro practice and crashing glass all around her head and body. Two stitches later she was ok, but disappointed to be injured. We're just glad it wasn't worse.
After this, I got to stretch my legs a bit to catch up to the group. Couldn't have ridden that hard the whole time, but it was good to get in a solid sprint before the day was up.
Miles: 38
Avg spd: 11.8
