I'm completely jealous of your storybook 50 mile ride. Sounds amazing. The longest I've done on my single is 30 and I'm itching to make it longer soon. Either 35 or 40 in a couple of days. I've gone up to 60 on the tandem.

Your story of riding to your brother's and having him drive you back reminds me of when I was a kid and we went for a family bike ride on the bike trail. The farther we got, the more my parents realized how long it would take to get home if we turned around. So, instead, we rode on to my Aunt's house and she took us all home. Here I was, like 7 years old, riding a stingray, banana seat yellow bike with a basket on it. No gears. We went from Huntington Beach, CA to Yorba Linda. It would have been somewhere between 20 and 25 miles. Little did I know that this would become a huge passion in my future! MANY years later.