May 29th Memorial Day Ride reports

[DeniseGoldberg]

It was a good riding weekend for me too - even though I overdid it by not taking a rest day before the weekend. I managed 44 miles on Saturday, 50 miles on Sunday, and 40 on Monday. The ride that was the real prize though was Sunday's. I drove to Salisbury, MA, and then rode along the coast to Portsmouth, NH and back again. Although I really prefer that road in the off season (there were a lot of people out, a lot of cars!), it's still a beautiful ride.

Of course I was accompanied by my camera - pictures from my ride can be seen at http://denise.smugmug.com/gallery/1503825. I particularly like the guy with the penny farthing (I think I stood and talked with him for about 20 minutes, an interesting break. And yes, I did suggest to him that he wear a helmet rather than the "period" hat that was perched on his head.). And I loved the mute swans. When I approached the swans, they were standing on the side of the road, but they made their way back into the water. Those are big birds - made more obvious when they were standing. (When I looked up info on mute swans, I found that they are listed with a length of 55-62 inches, 140-157 centimeters. I assume that means from their tail to their nose - whatever it is, it seemed that their heads were even with my shoulder!).

--- Denise

[Nanci]

Love the swans! I think the penny farthing guy deserves a break on the helmet, considering the rest of his oufit. Maybe there's a way to build one inside his hat!

[GLC1968]

DH and I did 42 miles yesterday. We took a chance on a new route in a county east of us and it was very pretty. It was a lot of hills, but nothing too terrible. My sit bones were still killing me from Saturday's ride and this ride had way too many roughly paved roads for my liking. (I think they call that seal and pebble?) The 95 degree heat also got to me...but SportBeans to the rescue and I was able to finish strong. Good to finally have a chance to start getting used to the heat!

[DeniseGoldberg]

Love the swans! I think the penny farthing guy deserves a break on the helmet, considering the rest of his oufit. Maybe there's a way to build one inside his hat!

You may be right, but he admitted to me that he had fallen on that bike and had dislocated a shoulder... He also said that he knew he should be wearing a bicycle helmet.

And the swans are just amazing.
--- Denise