What rain?

The weather forecast for this weekend looked pretty bleak -- strong chance of rain, with possible thunder storms (in April !!).  Just as well, since we've got the wedding in two weeks, and there are lots of chores to do to get the house ready.  But I took my IF along with me, just in case. 

Friday night was promising -- stars and a bright moon, without much wind.  And I woke up Saturday morning to full sunshine, with temperatures on the lower 50s.  So, with Susan's OK, I got myself out for a Spring ride.  Unfortunately, no photos -- although I dutifully charged the battery on Friday night, I forgot to put the battery in the camera on Saturday morning.  But the route I rode is a familiar one -- into Oxford, the Island Creek loop, through Trappe and then home, 34 miles, just as the clouds rolled in.

It's mid-Spring on the Eastern Shore.  The woods are fully leafed out, and most of the the blossoms are off the trees.  The lilacs are in bloom, and some of the dogwoods still are flowering.  There were lots of wild flowers along the sides of the roads -- yellow, blue, and white.  Many of the fields have been planted with hay and soybeans, and I saw several large fields being turned over by large "diskers," probably for corn.

It was "Oxford Day" in Oxford, with a 10K run, a parade, and a dog show.  For me, that meant the town was crowded, so I didn't ride all the way down to the ferry dock.  It took me close to an hour to feel fully warmed up on the bike, but overall it was a great ride.  It gave me plenty of time to think about my plans for the group bike ride on the weekend of the wedding -- you may have gotten an email about that this evening.

Spring, Two

Finally, Spring in Easton, and everything is in bloom -- daffodils and forsythia, apple and cherry blossoms, and wild flowers everywhere.  A mist of green on the trees, as they start to bud.  Perfect for a riding  Despite having a bunch of painting to do -- getting the house ready for Elizabeth and Matt's wedding -- I went for a nice ride each day last weekend.


On Saturday, I rode with Kathy, and we did the Oxford/Island Creek/Trappe route -- which I've ridden (and written about) before, but may never have mapped -- for around 35 miles.  We started at around 8 am, and it was a overcast and a bit cool -- even with arm covers, I was cold, without full fingered gloves.  But the sun came out, and the winds stayed down, for a great ride.

                                                 We've had a lot of rain on the Eastern Shore, and many of the fields are covered with standing water.  (I have a picture of one of this in my last blog entry).  It will be interesting to see how this affects the summer crops.  The drainage gullies along the side of the roads were full -- so full that there were ducks swimming in them.  Unfortunately, the ducks wouldn't cooperate for a photo.  But one of the "oreo" calves did.

Kathy's a great riding partner, strong and steady.  She grew up in Oxford and works in real estate/insurance.  Kathy knows a lot about what's going on on the Eastern Shore.  She told me that one of the big farms out on Island Creek Road had been foreclosed -- a 50 acre cattle farm.  I knew the place -- they had a nice corral, with a few horses, along the road.  Kathy said that the cattle had been sold off and that the bank was trying to sell the farm.  The family that owned the place ran a big landscaping company -- a father and sons operation.  They did a lot of work for local developers and grew (too) quickly during the boom -- bought up a lot of equipment a lot of equipment from Las Vegas landscaping that got caught on the front end of the bust.  One Friday, the owners showed up and took the truck keys from their employees -- they were out of business, 100 folks lost their jobs.  Very sad.  During the boom, the farm would have sold for more than $6M.  The bank initially listed it for around $4M; Kathy said you could get it for $1.7M.  Very sad. 

Here's the link to the route:  http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3683573

On Sunday, I rode solo.  I rode out to Bellevue, past Bella Luna, one of my favorite restaurants, to the ferry dock, and then around town.  Bellevue has a working dock and a largely African-American population.  There was a family with a Chesapeake retriever on the beach, throwing sticks in the water for the dog to fetch.

After riding through Bellevue, I took a bunch of side roads, out Ferry Crossing Neck and Deep Neck Roads.  These are nice, quiet roads for cycling, but not a lot of nice water views -- big estates, with private roads, kept me away from the water.  But the trees were in bloom, and the views across the open fields were beautiful.  Not a lot of wildlife -- the field on the way to Bellevue, which usually has a flock of wild turkey eating the scrub -- was empty. 

This was a nice ride, but I wouldn't recommend it for a first (or second) ride on the Eastern Shore --  not a lot of water views, and the "there and back" routes aren't the best.  But there's no such thing as a bad ride on a sunny day on the Eastern Shore.

I've mapped the Saturday ride before, and here's the Sunday route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3623373