Greensboro to Washington, DC

With traces of frost on the ground and clear sunny skies, I headed out in the direction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  While Mary and Bill had offered a ride over it to Annapolis, it was so beautiful outside that I opted for my original plan of cycling closer to the bridge and then finding a friendly soul with a pick-up to give me a lift across.  I was quite enjoying it, but the 20+mph headwinds made for slow going, to the point where I was going down a hill and if I stopped pedaling I started to go back up it backwards.  Less than ideal for getting from A to B.  After a couple dozen miles, I came across a 'Park and Ride' lot.  Still a good distance away from the bridge, I figured it was a good time to have a snack, slowly oil my chain, and ponder my situation.  I was amidst shoveling trail mix into my mouth when I heard a fellow say, "You've got courage, girl".  Of course, it took about three repetitions for me to catch what he was saying, but I've gotten used to that.

We wound up chatting and, as it turns out, he seemed like a friendly soul.  With a truck, no less!  We got Nancy loaded up and, when his friend joined us, we piled in and headed to the bridge.  These two were certainly characters and I could not have asked for a more fun truck voyage.  Both in their sixties, they were roommates in college and proceeded to give me lots of wisdom and hilarious tales about life, love, and the trials and tribulations of women and online dating.  Awesome.  Once over the bridge, we even made a photo-op stop and then they dropped me in the quaint downtown of Annapolis so I could poke around in the sunshine before continuing my ride.  Thanks for a great time!

I spent a few hours wandering around Annapolis, had some delicious cake for lunch and chatted with a man who teaches law in Washington.  He told me about a photo exhibition that was open at the archives that sounded really neat, so I'll be sure to check that out.

The rest of the ride into the city was quite lovely.  There was a good dozen miles of beautiful secondary highway which, finally, had some rolling hills and twists and turns.  It made me very excited for the rest of the trip through New England.  There was also a good cycling path most of the way into  downtown and I arrived, was reunited with Sam, and we went to our hosts' place.  The rest of the evening entailed catching up on our respective trips and routes and locating delicious Greek-Turkish food.  

In Annapolis

I refrained from posting all the pics I took of Route 450.  Great cycling road!

Quaint cookie shop in Annapolis