desperate (biking) housewives

For most of us, growing up means having a job and plenty of responsibility. Not much time for all those fun and spontaneous activities you used to do when you were a kid. But once in a while, you find yourself ditching work, having perfect weather, wonderful company, and your most favorite activity in the world (that you can afford) - biking.

It all started with RickyD and one fateful night. He was looking at his very cool wife Jojo and he was hit by this intense feeling of guilt...err, i mean gratefullness...for all the times Jojo let him spend time with his bikes instead of quality time at home. So he thought that maybe, he'd organize a bike ride on the C&O for Jojo and her biking girlfriends. Unfortunately, Jojo has plenty of girlfriends who ride bikes and Ricky didn't think he could serve eight women on his own...geez! How hard can that be? So, he decided to enlist the partners of all the girlfriends and in the end, it was eight women, 7 guys, and Sagada. The guys carried all the camping gear, cooked all the food, and made sure that there were plenty of smores for the campfire.

So on a glorious November 7, four cars packed with bikes, paniers, tons of camping gear, pasta, and gatorade made a convoy from Bek's house in Columbia to Cumberland. It must have amused (and frightened) some motorists to see four overstuffed cars one after another and at times attempting to cut each other off.

We made it to Cumberland around 11am and our crew (husbands/boyfriends) started getting the bikes ready. Since this trip was to show their appreciation to their partners for letting them ride on weekends instead of doing house and lawn maintenance, the guys reiterated that they will do all the work and all we have to do is ride. That was soooo nice of them. We really should do this more often :) So here we are at Cumberland getting ready for our first 35 miles of riding to Stickpile camp ground.


Rose, slowly, step away from the little guy...


Morning by the riverThe camping spot is pretty nice. The porta john doesn't really stink (at least the first day) and the river is just behind us. In no time, Steve managed to have a roaring campfire and the guys started making a pasta dinner. The next morning, i woke up early to watch the fog lifting from the river. The autumn leaves were falling and I was even able to catch a few. Those early hours were so quiet and peaceful it was priceless. I went back to the camp where the guys had started to prepare breakfast -pancakes, eggs, bacon, coffee (bailey's optional) and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the road.


In my dreams...More picture taking and off we go. The trails are very pretty as it is now the peak of the fall season. It's like riding to Rivendell and hoping to meet Legolas on the way (fine, i'm a Tolkien geek). We usually rode side by side so we can talk. Guys talk about bike components all the time but us women talk about more important stuff...like toilet paper alternatives, lyrics to the songs of Spandau Ballet and other 80's songs and of course- world peace! We were having so much fun it was almost sad when our ride ended at Hancock. This picture in Hancock is my fantasy race picture. That's me in front and Bek way in the back... in real life of course it's the other way around.


Rickyd as mule.And as in all good things, this trip must also end. This post was tardy but better late than never. So to our significant others (in alphabetical order) Erin, Jason, JoeP, JoeW, Mike, Ricky, Steve, and Sagada, our undying gratitude for a fabulous time. Thanks guys!