One of our favorite street signs

Usually, I’m the one moving slowly in the morning.  On most days, Mollie literally springs out of bed in fast forward mode (I, for the most part, try to politely ignore her until I’ve managed to have some coffee and shake the cobwebs from my brain).  On our last day of serious riding, however, Mollie was dragging her feet.  I’m not sure if it was the prospect of the 47-mile day ahead of us or the fact that we would be picking up our car–and that meant our adventure was nearly over.  Or perhaps it was just our aching legs:  In the past week, we had pedaled our way from Frederick, Maryland down to Charlottesville, Virginia and then made our way back north via Fredericksburg, Clifton and Middleburg.  We had traveled 260 miles or so on bikes that weighed nearly half as much as we do.

Ending things in style: French press coffee and ice cream sandwiches at Volt

It was a perfect day fall day for riding and during the second half of our route, heading from Purcellville back to Frederick, Maryland, we retraced roads that we had followed on our very first day on the trip.  Hills that had seemed nearly insurmountable seemed to fly by and I was able to take in the landscape that only a week earlier I had been too tired, wet, and grouchy to appreciate; for me, this was the first day where everything seemed to click into place.  The twinge in my knee had faded and while my body was sore, it had also adapted to my bike (which I have yet to name, but is feeling like it might be Gertie).

We stopped a few times to refuel with snacks–apples and fruit leathers in Purcellville, crackers and scones in Taylorstown–but otherwise rode uninterrupted over a neverending series of rolling hills.  My Garmin Edge told me we had climbed more than 2500 feet by the end of the day, and as we coasted into downtown Frederick, the computer burst into a mechanical song of congratulations: We had finished our route.

At Volt, our not so trusty gray station wagon was waiting for us–along with French press coffee and ice cream sandwiches, the perfect end to a near perfect day on the road.