Shakedown Cruise
Yesterday’s adventures were: 1. Get back on my bike after many months of not able to use it; find out if I retained fitness enough to make a ride. 2. Try out my companion’s brand new Riese and Muller Vario as first time transition from her e-trike. She had not ridden this bicycle since taking it home from the dealer three months ago.
Mission accomplished. Not without both parties experiencing some trepidation about what would happen.
What a day to be out riding! Weather perfection comes in many flavors and this was one of them. Call it vanilla. The launch was at Edwards Ferry, upstream on the Potomac some thirty miles above Washington, DC. First leg to use the towpath of the C&O canal to reach Whites Ferry. The US Park Service had in recent years converted this few miles of trail from a muddy, rutted sad remnant of the towpath to a smoothly almost paved-like surface. There would be nothing to interrupt our exploration of our bikes, no cars of course, or anything else of concern. Interestingly, we noted an unusual number of cyclists on the towpath—unusual because this was an ordinary week-day. Must be the Corona lifestyle effect.
Here, I should report that neither of us experienced difficulties riding, and instead were joyful in the experience along this delightful stretch. It was all level through mostly woods with occasional views of the river off to the left. Not so grandly scenic as we often see from photos from the contributors here on EBR, but still worthy as exceptional cycling.
We found a picnic table for our sandwiches that overlooked the General Jubal Early ferry hauling cars across the Potomac between Maryland and Virginia. We considered going across ourselves, but decided to stick with the plan to return to our car via a remote road through the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve.
Now this became another kind of bicycling. Farmland. Packed gravel. Vistas of early-growing crops that extended way over to the Virginia palisade along the Potomac. Wooded stretches. Only one car crept past us the whole way, its dust wafting off to the side. As a city slicker I was taken by the crops that we only see in supermarkets. Growing right there beside us. I had to take a picture of some “bountiful wave of grain” that existed only in imagination. What is this? Wheat? Oats? Rye? We city slickers are so ignorant.
On return to the car, we had covered fewer than a dozen miles. I was happy to note that months lacking pedaling exercise wasn’t debilitating. Well, even though this whole foray had been over level ground, I was a bit tired. Not too bad, I convinced myself. My companion nicely “mastered” bicycling while becoming acquainted with the complications of ECO-TURBO along with variable ratios of gears.
He rode a fancy Giant "aero road-bike" that must cost him as much as a very good e-bike. How jealous I was I would not able to ride such a bike anymore...
The ride is going to be interesting and give me a chance to stop for taking photos. Łęczyca and Tum sport a lot of Romanesque architecture (especially the ancient church in Tum where the devil Boruta left marks of his claws on the wall), Piątek ("Friday"), which is the geometrical centre of Poland as well as numerous manor houses and palaces collectively known as "Castles of the Łódź Land". I'm excited! If only the weather allows...
