Ride For The Feast 2009
Evan and I completed our 140 mile trek from Rehoboth to Baltimore. Our ride on Saturday was very long. We were riding a very heavy bike, a total of somewhere around 325 lbs combined rider and bike. Evan added some power when needed but it was a hard pull all day long, kind of like hitching a U-Haul to your bike. I think the long featureless landscape lulled Evan into a sort of bored state as I just kept turning the pedals. We did have a few moments with the wind at our backs where we became an unstoppable force of nature. You get 325 lbs moving and it’s hard to stop. The last ten miles or so were the hardest with Evan pooped, me exhausted, back, feet, neck, all parts hurting. I’ve been sore all week.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
They take care of you on the ride. Here we’re enjoying our pre ride breakfast at Epworth Church in Rehoboth. But man somebody really let loose on the salting of the eggs.
Evan-Looking like he’s not all that sure about this. We knocked out the first 15 or so real easy, made it to the first rest stop which Melissa, Rowan, and Ian were manning, cheering us in. Melissa and the boys were also at the lunch stop but it seems someone got lost with the lunch, it never arrived, so they didn’t have much to do. It showed up at the next stop. I really don’t get hungry but I stuff my face anyway. Thanks to Melissa and the boys for being involved with this.
Somewhere around mile 70 or 80
Evan and I camped in our tent on the grounds of Chesapeake College. The rain came down all night and by morning was coming down in sheets. We had left our rain coats in the van which was now back in Baltimore. I snagged a few garbage bags. Later Penny from Light Street Cycles gave up her rain jacket to Evan, a good thing as I was concerned with hypothermia.
Here we are rolling into Chesapeake College-not exactly last, along side some of
the more festively attired riders.
We get shuttled across the Bay Bridge for obvious reasons. Once on the other side the rain is much lighter and not much of an issue as we ride towards Baltimore. The group assembles at the Inner Harbor so we can roll into east Baltimore to Moveable Feast as one group. If you don’t know, riding from the harbor to east Baltimore is uphill, but we felt great rolling through Baltimore to cheers. The Harleys that had blocked intersections for our entire ride were still with us clearing our way. Every bike ride should have a couple tough characters on Hogs blocking traffic, nice.
Moveable Feast now has an incredible facility in east Baltimore amongst some of the most bleak streets I have seen. The view from the fourth floor of their renovated factory building is fantastic, if not somewhat disturbing. MF put a great finishing party together complete with a keg, man was that good.
Yah, me in tights.
Americorps volunteers doing what young people should be doing, what I should have done. What a happy bunch of kids in one of the most desperate places.
If you would like to see all the pics from the trip you can find them here.
Evan plans on riding his own bike next year, less boring for him, an ambitious plan but I think he can do it. I’ll probably try to form a team if you’re interested.
