OC10

We had another memorable 2 day bike ride to Ocean City and back.

On Saturday, we had 14 riders on the outbound leg for OC10 with temperatures hovering in the mid to upper 30’s at the ride start. Everyone was bundled up pretty well with the exception of Dan who was brave enough to start out with his exposed, non-shaved, hairy legs. This was Dan’s first ride to OC and we had a few more first timers – Dawn and Beth, who were preparing for an Ironman and used these miles as additional training. Tom G also made his first start but made a planned turnaround at breakfast.

Just as we arrived to start getting dressed and getting bikes put together the owner of Ram’s Head told us we could not park there because they had had an incident in the lot the night before and he didn’t want to risk damage to property. So we ended up in the high school parking lot just down the street.

14 riders headed east into the cold, but warming temperatures. We had no incidents, but a couple of trying moments as we crossed the normally scary intersections of Rt 50 and Rt 301. I’m always happy when we have these points behind us.

We stopped for breakfast at Dave’s Place in Ridgley, Md a little after 10:00am.

Clint has devised a great system for getting us in and out of there quickly. He calls in the order 30 minutes before we arrive so it’s basically on the table when we arrive. We battled a headwind most of the way east to Ridgley and when we left 40 minutes later, the wind was still there. John Bodine was good enough to meet us there with the team van and it allowed everyone to take off layers for a more comfortable ride without carrying everything in pockets.

After breakfast we started thinking about lunch. Isn’t riding great! We had another 40 miles to go before that, however – right into the wind. The best you could hope for was to wheelsuck for the whole way, but we all needed to do some time up there. Dan, however, I believe, took most of it. We arrived in Milton DE and the Iguana Grill

around 2:00pm, but not before John B redirected a few of us to his new discovery – the Dogfish Brewery.

Wow, what a great discovery! So after a great lunch at the Iguana Grill, 9 of the remaining 13 riders (Tom went back home) went back over to sample the beer. What a great place. Janet bought a Dogfish Cycling Jersey and Clint and I bought a case of beer. We left it all for John to checkout at the register and the rest of us got back on the bikes and gave chase to the other 4 riders – James, Parice, Dawn, and Beth.

We caught James whose crankarm came off about 105 miles and was in the process of completing repairs when we arrived. We caught everyone just short of OC, but dark quickly enveloped us and we arrived at the hotel in the dark at just about 5:30.

John and Janet hosted the happy hour like they normally do and then we were off to our favorite Italian restaurant, Lombardi’s. We had a great dinner and filled up on food and laughter. Parice ordered Ice for dinner. Still not quite sure what she was doing with it, but it sure was fun. I think she got frozen peas later. Then ice cream. Hope it helped, Parice!

Day 2 started with breakfast at Denny’s and had our same waitress, Grace, who always takes care of us and always gets it right. It was John’s turn to ride today and Janet would have team van duty. We left at 8:00am but this time with 7 riders. We lost Beth, Dawn, Parice, Jim Ruppel, and Mike Binnix on the return. The forecast was for warm temps all day. At the start it was 49 and quickly warmed into the 50’s and then into the 60’s after lunch. We averaged just under 20 miles per hour through the first 36 miles. I’m not going to lie to you, they almost killed this fixie guy a couple of times.

We had a great lunch at Jimmy’s where we arrived about 30 minutes prior to what I had anticipated due to our average speed. Janet arrived shortly after us with Mike B who was along for the ride in the Van on his way back to his car. As usual, great food and company and after a quick change of clothing, we were off and riding again. We had some headwind, but Dan was a real trooper and spent the greatest amount of time at the front.

We arrived back at the high school before 4:00pm and the good news is that everyone who had left a vehicle there found that it was still there.

We still had a few cold ones left in the coolers so we drank them while watching a student driver learning to park in the high school parking lot. At least WE weren’t drinking and driving! The Pistachio eating contest lasted about 30 minutes while we all wondered if the school cameras were documenting our party.

Thanks for the memories to all who made the trip a wonderful experience. I’m looking forward to OC11 next year. The End.