MS 150 Bicycle Tour - Washington DC

I had a great trip to our Nation's Capital. I flew out with my sister-in-law, Tara, to visit my other sister-in-law, Jennifer, who lives in Alexandria; just a few minutes south of DC. All of us signed up for the MS 150, a bicycle ride on May 17 & 18, 2008 which raises funds for Multiple Sclerosis. It was great!

Feel free to view my album on Shutterfly and read my daily reports below.

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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tara and I headed for the Salt Lake airport this morning and arrived at the Reagan airport shortly after 4pm EDT. Jennifer met us at the airport and we met little Coco (short for Coconut), her new French Bulldog puppy. She's super cute and reminded me of a little alien piglet. :)

Rather than dealing with the hassle and expense of shipping my bike to DC, I reserved a bike rental from a nearby bike shop. The bike I rented wasn't quite as pretty as my new set of wheels, but it should work just fine. It's a Bianchi Elle; snow pea green with cool floral designs, so it's still somewhat girly. :)~

We got a tour of Jennifer's town home and met her roommates as well. One of her roommates had just graduated from law school, so she was hosting a little party and BBQ at the house, so we got to enjoy some great BBQ and homemade desserts tonight. It was delicious!


Friday, May 16, 2008
Earlier this week, Tara found out that she had strep throat and a sinus infection to boot. So, despite a couple of shots at the doctor's office and prescriptions for antibiotics, she was still feeling pretty crappy. We slept in and got off to a slow start this morning—which was perfectly fine with me. I am more than happy to sleep in whenever I can! Tara cooked some delicious pancakes for brunch and then we were off to see the sights. Jennifer had to get some work done, so she dropped us off at the Arlington Cemetery and went back home. Tara and I went straight up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where we were able to see the changing of the guard just a few minutes after we got there. (They do it every hour.) I'd never seen that before, so it was a very cool experience. We also got to see them change the wreath that was sitting on the walkway. I'm not sure if it's there all the time, or if it was something special they were doing for Memorial Day since the wreath's had names from different elementary schools on them, but it was pretty neat to see. A couple of officers brought out a new wreath, did a small exchange with a couple of students from the school, and then another officer played Taps on the trumpet. It was very moving.

After we walked around the cemetery for a while, we walked across the bridge to see the other monuments that were nearby. We saw the Korean War exhibit, WWII memorial, Vietnam memorial, and the Lincoln memorial. It was getting late in the afternoon, and a bit chilly, so we headed back to the metro station to catch the train back to Jennifer's neighborhood. We had dinner at a delicious Southern food restaurant where I enjoyed a wonderful combination of pecan chicken with orange chutney, and mashed potatoes, butternut squash, and cheesy grits on the side. Of course, knowing that we're riding 100 miles tomorrow, we HAD to get dessert! So I treated myself to a decadent fudge brownie sundae. Perfect! :)


Saturday, May 17, 2008
We got up at the crack of dawn (maybe even earlier) to hit the road to the starting point of our bike ride. It was about an hour away in a town called Purcellville in Virginia. Tara had a fever yesterday and was feeling pretty crappy this morning, so she wasn't sure if she'd even be able to ride. But, she was determined to try a few miles at least. She had shipped her bike out a couple weeks earlier and raised $300 in donations for the event, so she wanted to at least try and ride with us. She made it to the first rest stop and decided to call it a day. Poor girl! She rode back with Eric (Jennifer's fiance) to hang out at Jennifer's for the rest of the day. I was glad we could ride a few miles together though.

Jennifer, Michelle (Jennifer's roommate),and I continued on, aiming for the 100 mile finish. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. We passed a lot of farms and beautiful homes, and I learned what “rolling hills” really means. It was like a roller coaster, mile after mile, up and down. At first it was pretty fun. We'd cruise down the hill, get up to 25-30 mph, make it most of the way up the next hill, shift down and reach the top, then repeat. For a while we kept a pretty good pace, but then our legs started turning into spaghetti. Each rest stop was a welcomed site where we could wolf down some orange slices, banana, potato chips, etc. in an attempt to rejuvenate our muscles and give us the energy to continue. Since we got of to a bit of a late start, and were having a hard time keeping a steady pace with all of the hills, it wasn't long before we were at the end of the pack. The volunteers at the rest stops kept telling us that they were going to keep the lunch stop open until everyone made it through, so we were glad to hear that we could get some real food soon. For whatever reason, lunch was at mile 67 (a little far in my opinion), so we were hurtin' at the last couple of rest stops before lunch. So, at the last stop, about 10 miles before lunch, we called Eric to come and pick us up at lunch rather than the end of the route. Plus, it was getting pretty late in the day and we knew we wouldn't be able to do the full 100 miles before they started closing the route. So, we continued on to the lunch stop to meet Eric. When we were about a mile and a half away from the lunch stop, we came upon a T in the road. The signs and arrows that we'd been following all along the route were nowhere to be found.... eeek! We had no idea which way we were supposed to go. Luckily, there was a sag wagon on the corner so we asked them which way lunch was. With a somewhat concerned look on her face, one of the volunteers explained that they had started to take down the signs because they had to reuse them for the next day's route. Doh! She told us how to get to lunch, but then informed us that they had closed the lunch stop about 1.5 hrs earlier because they were told that the last of the riders had already gone through. Doh!! We new that there were more people behind us, so there were obviously some communication issues between the volunteers at the various rest stops. So, long story short, we ended up catching a ride with the sag wagon back to the last rest stop that we were at. Eric picked us up there and we headed back home.

After we got home and showered up, we went out to dinner to reward ourselves for the day's ride. We were excited for The Cheesecake Factory, and little Coco came along as well. A lot of the restaurants have outdoor seating, so people bring their dogs to dinner and just sit outside with them. It's great! Well, we arrived at The Cheesecake Factory and learned that they only had outdoor seating for 4. Since there was 5 in our group, we decided to try another nearby restaurant with outdoor seating. They had a larger table, but it was going to be an hour wait for it... so we moved on to try another place. After a third attempt, the troops were getting restless, and Eric made a very sweet offer to take the dog and grab a table himself at one of the restaurants so the four of us girls could go to Cheesecake Factory and we'd just call him to pick us up when we were done. Too nice! So we took him up on it and headed back to Cheesecake Factory. We had a great meal, but as it was wrapping up, Jennifer got a call from Eric. He had forgotten his cel phone at home and had spent the whole time walking around trying to find a pay phone to call her. He hadn't eaten yet and was calling to say he'd just wait at the truck. Poor guy!! I felt so bad for him, he hadn't eaten all day and was probably exhausted from driving back and forth from the bike ride, and then had to wander around looking for a pay phone. Awww! We ordered a slice of cheesecake for him, so hopefully that helped cheer him up a bit. It was a long day!


Sunday, May 18, 2008
We were up bright and early again today to drive to the starting line of the second leg of the ride. Poor Tara felt worse than she ever had, so she stayed behind to get some rest. Luckily Sunday's ride was only 40 miles, so we figured it would be much more bearable. The seats were pretty sore for the first few miles, but then the bum goes numb and it's not so bad. :) The sky was mostly cloudy, and we got a few rain drops throughout the ride, but all in all, the weather was perfect. The route was still full of rolling hills, but they weren't as dramatic as the day before, so the 40 miles went by pretty quickly. We had an average speed of 13 mph, which is pretty good with the number of hills and flat stretches that we covered. We made it to the finish line by 11:30am where Eric picked us up just as it started to rain. Phew!!

We headed home, picked up Tara, and went straight out for lunch. We went to a little pub-like place that served fish and chips. I think that's the first time that I've had real live fish and chips—it was delicious!! We went back home and ended up taking naps for a bit. We pretty much just vegged tonight and watched a movie. We were all pretty tired. I was, however, able to move my return flight up a day, so I'll be going home tomorrow instead of Tuesday. That will be a lot better because I was worried about missing my classes again. Plus, I miss Jimmy and the “kids” too. :)



Monday, May 19, 2008
Well, it's official. I caught a bug somewhere along the way and I've got a sore throat. Noooo! Oh well, I loaded up on Airborne and DayQuil yesterday, so hopefully I can kill it soon. Jennifer headed back to work today and Tara and I just hung out at her house. We played with Coco for a while and then I packed up my stuff. Michelle drove me to the airport and I'm actually typing this as I'm flying home. So far, the flight is okay. Since I booked my seat so late, I'm in the second to the last row of the plane, right next to the lavatories. Great. When you're feeling crappy with an oncoming cold, it doesn't help to have to smell bathroom for several hours! And, on top of that, I'd like to strangle whoever decided put games on the little touch-screen on the back of the seats on the airplane. There's a kid sitting behind me who's been thumping on the back of my headrest for the last 2 hours. Aaagh! Oh well, what can ya do? I had a great time and hope that Jimmy and I can make a trip out there one of these years.