Into Frederick!!

Yesterday was an interesting day. It was our ride into Frederick, so I was pretty excited. I was super pumped to show people around the town, but our support van had different ideas. Our van, named Elvis, decided it was a good day to break down. Looking back, it was the best day that it could happen, but it made an 'easy' day a bit more challenging. The ride was beautiful with a few challenging hills and only 55 miles! Due to trying to figure out the logistics of fixing Elvis and making other arrangements to get our stuff from DC to Frederick, we were on the road for 9 hours. But even with the difficulties, the day was a lot of fun and everything worked out!

Our breakfast was provided by our hosts and it was amazing - breakfast sandwiches, fruit, and juice! An alumni from Bryn's trip had also brought cinnamon rolls the night before. It was a feast! We wound our way through DC in a few small groups. My group missed a turn and ended up riding for a while on Connecticut - a busy street with a large hill. We made it through safely and continued climbing out of DC. Our ride was through a lot of nighborhoods in the DC suburbs, but we eventually starting getting more in the country and saw a lot of farmland. The terrain was mostly rolling hills, but we had a few larger hills that were challenging. We found a 7/11 in a shopping center and made that our lunch spot. It was interesting as there was some construction going on. After asking what they were doing, we were told that a car had driven through the wall the day before. Crazy!

I started recognizing some of the roads as we got closer to Frederick, and got really excited. My group stopped out by where I play softball to figure out plans to get our equipment to Frederick. We decided it would be best to go straight to my house and Bryn, Andrea, and Joanna would go down to DC to get our bags/bins and the two girls. Joanna would stay with the van since she was driving the next day and she had a place to stay down there. We were lucky that a. our cars were accessible and b. our group had the correct drivers in it (Bryn and Andrea had parked at my house for the trip). Our group booked it to my house then the three headed to DC.

I lead the remaining group out to The Bicycle Escape  for tune ups (Thanks TBE!! You guys rock!!) and we also got our pictures taken by Jim Jarrell with AJPhotography (Thanks Jim!! The pics are awesome!!). The Frederick Post also came by the host and interviewed us for the paper. We're famous! When we got back from TBE, the girls had just returned from DC with all of our stuff. The timing was impeccable! We had a homecooked meal from our host and I collected dirty laundry. It was supposed to be a laundry night, but since our van was MIA, I got the essential items that needed washing for the next days ride (aka, chamois and jersey) from people and headed back to my place to do some laundry. I got the luxury of showering at home and everyone else used the Frederick YMCA. I went to a local store (Common Market) to pick up some generously donated Cliff Bars. I then headed back to the church (Thanks for the ride roomie!!), and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow (aka, my arm on the Thermarest).

CapRide in the News!
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/business_topics/non_profit/article_fd82b801-042a-5df9-b8c2-bd2b1412cd4e.html

Due to the complications of the day, I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few:

White board with Frederick information!

Andrea on Reich's Ford (near the softball diamonds!)

Our Frederick Hosts!