Started off the Memorial Day weekend with a 53 mile cycliing loop, from Davidsonville down to Deale and then back up on a different route than I've done before. Many nice, small country roads around Lothian before connecting back to the usual roads back into the Davidsonville Park & Ride. We've been having rain every day for weeks, so I got out early to try to take advantage of what looked like a gap in rain clouds on the radar.
It stayed cloudy and cool, but dry, as I biked into Galesville, where a church group was cleaning up the cemetery and a women's art group had set up easels on the town dock to paint the shades of grey as the clouds reflected off of the West River. From there it was small country roads down to Deale (above) where they could have painted similar scenes on Rockhold Creek where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. I saw other groups cleaning up other cemeteries - a great Memorial Day tradition.
One of the roads to Deale is on the route to the town dump and I had to dodge many pieces of brush that dropped off of the trailers the many homeowner SUVs were pulling to the dump, but no close calls - very courteous drivers, outside of not strapping down their loads!
At about the 40 mile mark I was pushing up a small hill and a large group of multi-hued cyclists was coming downhill in the opposite direction and I figured it had to be a Potomac Pedalers ride - sure enough I heard Kelly yell out "Hey, John" - apparently they were doing a ride from Southern High School to Chesapeake Beach that started later.
I got back to the start just as rain started - perfect timing for a nice 53 miler.
On Sunday, Carl and I stopped in at the Maryland FM Hamfest and then did an old favorite hike nearby, 4.2 miles around the McKeldin area of Patapsco Valley State Park. Loads of people there - I guess we haven't often hiked holiday weekends there.
Lots of horsies out, too - many with people on their backs. Thankfully, none of the horses left piles of political statements on the paths.
All of the recent rain made the trails quite muddy but also made the small falls much more impressive.
The time of year, combined with all the rain, also made for a bumper crop of blooming mountain laurel, though the McKeldin area doesn't have that many of them.
When I got home, apparently Carole had gotten mad at the washing machine, because it has been refusing to actually fill up the drum for the rinse cycle. She denies this, but allegedly she retaliated by beating on it with her Manolo Blahniks and washer emptied all the water onto the laundry room floor. I should have done a longer hike, as I arrived just in time to take over the grunt work while Carole tottered away to an exercise class.
All in all, a nice weekend with a bonus day off coming to be thankful for the efforts of those who have enabled me to enjoy all this, other than the mopping part.