June 25, 2021 Woodlawn, MD(Baltimore) —> College Park, MD – 28.4 miles

In contrast to yesterday’s ride, which may have been one of my favorites, today’s ride was my least favorite to date. The route included approximately 20 miles on Hwy 1, which did not have the best shoulder or riding conditions. In hindsight, I probably would have opted for a longer alternate route with better road conditions. That being said, the good news is that the total ride was only 28 miles and the traffic was not too heavy for the most part. This got me to College Park early and gave me most of the afternoon to prepare for what I think will be a challenging ride tomorrow. I say challenging because there are many many twists and turns as opposed to long stretches on a single road. All the twists and turns offer the possibility that you will miss a turn and have to spend time getting back on track, especially if roads are not clearly marked. The good news is that at the end of the day I will have the opportunity to take a rest day on Sunday after 8 straight days of riding – and my body needs it.

About a mile from my motel I came up to a gentleman on the sidewalk who started waving and yelling at me. My normal reaction in such circumstances is to ignore and keep riding. But there was something different in his body language that made me stop. He seemed happy to see me. Turns out his name was Mike and he was so excited to see someone on a touring bike. I know how he feels. Mike has some bike touring experience in the US and Europe. He told me he taught classes at REI and asked if I needed anything or if there was anything he could do to help me. Said he might have water in his car. I thanked him, but was fine since I was less than a mile from my motel and about to end riding for the day. Mike gave me his contact info and said to call if I needed anything while in this area – another example of the “kindness of strangers”. I later texted Mike with the blog link and have already heard back. So…to Mike – thanks again.

This afternoon I started looking at possible routes to Charlottesville for next week and began having some misgivings, primarily due to the lack of services between potential stopping points. Plus the poor riding conditions today caused some worry that I might encounter the same in rural Virginia. My Adventure Cycling map indicates that most of the roads through the old Appalachians of central Virginia are narrow and and have no shoulders. Also, as I have mentioned, I have not seen other people on touring bikes going my way and this gives me some pause when I consider continuing alone toward Charlottesville and beyond with little in the way of services and limited accommodation options. So…I am praying for discernment over the next few days. An alternative would be to continue on the East Coast Greenway route which I think would be more like what I have experienced so far. Then head over to Atlanta at some point. Or, I could always head home sooner than I originally planned. I think I will have a better idea if I sit with it for a few days.

I plan to get an early start tomorrow as I anticipate it will be a long and challenging ride, given all the twists and turns in my cue sheets. However, I do anticipate Washington will be pretty bike friendly and the payoff at the end of the day will be the pleasure of spending some time with my cousin.