What? No Strawberry Shortcake?

Yesterday Todd and I rode in the Strawberry Festival Bicycle Tour, in London, Ohio.  

We woke up at 4:00 am to get ready, drive there, and register by 6:30 am.

The route choices were 21 miles, 64 miles, and 108 miles.  Todd rode the 64-mile route. I rode the 21-mile route... TWICE.  Thus breaking my prior distance record of 34 miles.  Check it out on Map My Ride.

The Prairie Grass Trailhead, London, OH.

Where it all begins, ends, and middles, if you're riding it twice.

Todd and I rode together for the first six miles.  Then he broke off onto country roads for the 64 mile tour which made a loop.  The 21-mile tour was linear, along the trail for 10.5 miles to South Charleston and then to a snack stop in town and then back down the trail to London.  This made four 10-mile segments for me, which I figured were doable.  

There were some pretty birdhouses all along the trail.  I spotted an Indigo Bunting.  

I was excited to ride with the trains!

The trains were dumping some pink gravel into a hole in the ground up here for this plant.  I'm not sure what it was or what they make here.  Todd thought it might be salt, if salt were pink.  

I just want to give one word of warning.  Sometimes when everything is quiet, the train makes an unexpected loud noise which may cause a cyclist to jump and nearly fall off her bike.  I'm just say'n.  I heard it could happen.

Then tragedy struck.  I got to the end of this trail (just past the trains) and I didn't see the snack stop.  Turns out I was the first one there and they were just painting the arrows on the road.  I talked to a nice man named Roy, and he told me how to get to the snack stop.  Emergency averted!

The snack stop was excellent.  They had cookies, BROWNIES, M&Ms, Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, strawberries to dip in chocolate, and bananas.  The only thing that was missing was the Strawberry Shortcake.  

They said I was the first one there, which is like winning a race, right?  It doesn't matter that everyone else who left early was riding the 64 or 108 mile options.  We won't even mention that.  There were plenty of people riding the 21-mile route.  I can't help it if they slept in.  The early bird wins the race, or in this case, the early Biker Chick wins the race.

Here is where it all starts and ends.  Everyone that helped with registration for this ride was very nice and also very helpful.  Special thanks to Roy who helped me with directions.  Oh, and I'm already planning Todd's next bike.  See the white bike in the right corner of this photo (halfway behind the trash can)?  I entered a raffle to win it.  If he doesn't want it, I could maybe paint it orange.

This ride was a personal record for me.  It's farther than I've ever ridden before (prior farthest was 34 miles).  And... I also didn't get any flat tires or have any mechanical difficulties.  Maybe it doesn't technically qualify for a post on this blog, but well, too bad, it was still an adventure.