Occoquan Revisited

With the pandemic continuing (with no end in sight), what used to be inconsequential, ordinary rides, continue to make the blog. There is simply nothing more interesting to write about.

Last weekend, Laurie and I rode and met each other at Occoquan Park. It's really pretty down there, I hadn't been in years. In fact, the last time I was there, they were doing construction. Everything was turned up: a new road was being built, new bike/pedestrian paths, a new waterfront, and a new visitor center. Deb, Lisa, Katie and I sat on some rocks and looked out over the water, avoiding the construction all around.

The last time I went I also rode down 123 on the bike path. But while Occoquan has gotten newer, the bike path on 123 has gotten older. I just can't take all the bumps anymore, so on this day, I rode on the road. From GMU to Occoquan is ever so slightly down hill. Plus, I had the wind at my back. When I got to the bridge at the river, my average speed was 16.7 mph! Needless to say, I covered the 20 miles to get there before I expected. Meanwhile, Laurie had forgotten that Occoquan was not at the midpoint of her ride--instead of mile 20, it was more like mile 27. So between me being early and her being late, I waited an hour before she arrived.

At least it was a pretty place to lounge around!

The river

The new sign and part of the visitor center

Probably some kind of pump house. I didn't see any kind of plaque to explain - and no going inside to find out because of COVID, but this was an old building

The new visitor center. All closed up on this day.

The ride to and from the park from 123 is really pretty, AND it's a long ass hill on which you can get going pretty fast. And despite that, it's one of those hills that is just not that hard to ride up. It looks big and long, but the incline is very manageable, so going down doesn't feel like a commitment to later torture.

After Laurie finally arrived, I hung around for about 10 minutes then hit the road. I had 22 miles left to go and she only had about 17? Not sure, but it was less because she was more than 1/2 way through her ride.

Distance: 44 miles
Speed: 14.5 (it was a little slower going home - up and into the wind!)

Biddy Birthdays 2020!

I am hard-pressed to find silver linings for the ongoing pandemic, but perhaps one is that with everyone working from home, Deb, Deidre and I were all easily able to play hooky from work on the first of June to ride our bikes to the Caboose and celebrate our birthdays with a beer.

I'd celebrated with mom and dad, Laurie and Hannah, and the fam the day before--all social distancing on the deck, sharing cake and wearing masks--so I had some new birthday biking duds to wear. Here I am heading out.

I took a pic to show mom that the new shirt she got me fit perfectly.

I suppose now this blog will depict me wearing this shirt in nearly every post for several years because that's kinda how things go with me. Not to big on shopping. :/  But at least for this day it was new and novel.

It's only a seven mile ride for me to get to the Caboose, so I toodled around in the neighborhoods a bit before getting there - enough to make it a 20 mile ride by the time I returned home.

We didn't actually wear masks the whole time we were sitting there, but I thought it important to capture the mood of the day. No sharing of germs. The restaurant requires that you wear a mask to enter and exit the restaurant and to go to the bathroom, so we'd all come equipped. Once sitting, you can take off your mask, but I felt bad for the wait staff. It seems to me we should wear masks as much as possible to help make their workplace as safe as possible.

We had our beers, toasted our birthdays, and (for me, anyway) enjoyed being out and seeing people! Then Deb hit the road. I ended up staying and chatting with Deidre for too long and had to have Claire pick me up at Thaiss Park so I wouldn't be too late for writing group. Woops! That was probably the beer talking. And that's the birthday ride in the time of COVID.