I made it to 10,000 miles for the eighth year in a row. It wasn’t easy but I pulled it off. Of the 10,164 miles that I rode, 723 were indoors on various contraptions. After we joined the local rec center, I decided to ride there and use the recumbent bikes for an hour, saving me from the elements. The rec center machines are cruel masters; the feedback from the display screen gets me riding much faster than I do outdoors. At the end of the year, I brought the CrossCheck indoors to try it out on my resistance trainer. It still beat up my body. By comparison, Big Nellie, my recumbent, on the trainer is almost as good as a massage.
The Mule was my bike of choice for most of the year, except July and August when I rode Big Nellie, my recumbent, exclusively. I experimented with an underseat steering recumbent, an HP Velotechnik Streetmachine, and found it just didn’t work for me. I rode it 119 miles before throwing in the towel after tipping over and injuring my right shoulder. I rode my Bike Friday only 201.5 miles. I rode my CrossCheck 1,142.5 miles, mostly during the Spring. That’s about 2,000 or so miles less than 2024. Since then, except for using it on my resistance trainer, it has gathered dust.
My biggest mileage month was April – 1,019 miles – mostly because of the tour I did on the Natchez Trace Parkway. My shortest month was February – 676 miles – no surprise. My mileage during the warm weather months was assisted by hiring a lawn service. I’ve learned that I would much rather ride than mow.
My longest ride of the year was 90 miles which came on the Natchez Trace tour. This is the first year in ages that I didn’t do a century (100-mile) ride. I did ride my age on my 70th birthday, albeit in kilometers. When you get old, kilometers rock.
I did my usual event rides, the WABA Spring ride (20 miles plus 30 riding to and from), the 50 States Ride (62 miles), the Great Pumpkin Ride (62 miles with my rear wheel falling off) and the Cider Ride (60 miles of hurt).
And then there is this:
Clockwise from upper left: Big Nellie, The Mule, The CrossCheck, and Little Nellie. 196,121 miles in all.
So my first goal of the new year is to put 3,879 more miles on my bikes. Check this space in May.
I had hoped to buy a new bike (or trike) in 2025 and get rid of one of my little-used ones but that didn’t happen. I also thought about an inn-to-inn tour in County Cork, Ireland but I let that slide. As for this year, I have no plans at all other than to avoid big metal things.
Going Up Down East – My journal of my 2023 bike tour, a big circle from DC to Bar Harbor to Erie PA to DC. I had forgotten how much it rained. Also, I seemed to do much more walking than any other tour except 2024’s Kentucky fiasco.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. (My first 2025 Christmas present book.) Rick Rubin is the answer to the question: what do Johnny Cash, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Tyler Childers, and Run DMC have in common? He produced all these acts and many more. He claims that when he began producing rap acts as a student at NYU he knew very little about music (he played some guitar in a punk band) or music production. Oddly, this book mentions only a handful of musical artists in passing. It’s more about how you go from a vague idea to final product, one that first and foremost pleases yourself. It’s not surprising that the book is woo woo as all get out, given the fact that he’s been a practicing meditator and Buddhist for over 50 years.
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller My second 2025 Christmas present book, also non-fiction. Miller’s romantic live crashes and burns. She falls into despair. How to climb back out? By studying the life of a world-renown taxonomist who rapidly recovers from one crisis after another. Interesting enough. But when the story takes a series of incredible twists and turns. And about those fish….well, you’ll just have to read it.
Watching
The Beatles Anthology Episode 9 – This new installment tells of how the “Threetles” reunited to make the Anthology series, and rejuvenate two John Lennon demos, Free as a Bird and Real Love. The abandonment of Now and Then, a third Lennon demo is briefly explained. Not worth the time.
Train Dreams – A meditation on a long life through the eyes of Robert Grainger, a logger, a railroad worker, and a hermit who’s story runs from the late nineteen century into the 1960s in the northwestern US. Absolutely wonderful. Great acting (Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, among many others), great cinematography, great editing, great score. On Netflix. Worth every second of your time.
Jay Kelly – Noah Baumbach’s tale of an aged actor – played with more than a hint of irony by George Clooney – who agonizes with regret over the life choices that enabled his rise to mega stardom. Despite terrific performances by Clooney and many others (including Greta Gerwig, Laura Dern, Jim Broadbent, and Stacy Keach), the story just didn’t connect with me. For the record, I am no fan of Adam Sandler but he’s really quite good in this.
Nick Johnson’s TransAmerica Bike Tour – On a way-too-cold day I decided to ride my CrossCheck in the basement. To keep me amused I watched this series of videos on Nick’s 2011 ride across the country on the TransAm. His experience was very similar to mine. (And yes the dogs of Appalachian Kentucky made him absolutely miserable.)
Sheelagh Daly’s Trip Across the Wilds of Scotland. This relatively short video tells the tale of Sheelagh’s 10-day solo ride across the Scottish Highlands. Mud and rain and cold and winds and fierce looking livestock didn’t deter our heroine from having an epic journey.
Riding
On the 16th, I managed to reach 82,000 miles on The Mule. As the month wore on, I became increasingly anxious about reaching 10,000 miles for the year. After all, I had twice been surprised my medical calamities in late December of prior years. I pulled it off though, reaching 10,000, for the eighth year in a row, on the 20th. A couple of days later I donated blood as a celebration. Here’s a helpful hint: do not lift weights and ride a bike for an hour before donating. I was knocked for a loop.
For the month I rode 684.5 miles, 168 was done indoors on various bikes: the CrossCheck and the Tour Easy in the basement and the recumbent torture device at the fitness center. I deliberately took it easy after the 20th, reaching 10,164 by year’s end. Instead on some days I went for long walks with my trusty cane.
I read a couple dozen books this year. There were no duds in the bunch but these five books were the cream of the crop.
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow is a 1,000 page biography of America’s “first celebrity”. I’ll admit it helped that I had toured the Twain house in Hartford, Connecticut recently, but the book stands on its own.
Truman by David McCullough. Another 1,000 page biography by the master of popular American history. It deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize.
James by Percival Everett. This is a re-telling of the Huckleberry Finn (which I also reread in preparation). Very clever and insightful.
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. A history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. Absolutely riveting. It literally gave me nightmares.
WhyFishDon’tExist by Lulu Miller. Miller is “stuck” after a failed romantic relationship. To get unstuck she researches the life of a remarkable scientist with an uncanny ability to overcome tragedies. What she learns about him, about American society, and about herself is mind blowing.
Watching
Looking back I was surprised at how many good shows, movies, and other things I watched in 2025. Here’s an abbreviated list of the best.
The American Revolution – A six-part, twelve-hour miniseries on how the US came to be. Another gem from Ken Burns with collaborators Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt.
Say Nothing – A nine-part miniseries based on the book of the same name (see above). Excellent but disturbing and depressing.
Andor Season 2 – Star Wars for grown ups. The prequel to Rogue One (which I also watched). Way better than that sounds. Featuring Diego Luna, Fiona Shaw, Stellan Skarsgard, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, and Adria Arjona.
Michael McIntyre, Showman – A Netflix stand up special. Absolutely hysterical.
American Primeval – A tail of blood and hate and deliverance from director Peter Berg. Taylor Hirsch, long left in the dust after playing Tim Riggins in Berg’s Friday Night Lights, makes a stellar protagonist.
Train Dreams – The life of Robert Grainger, a logger, a railroad worker, and a hermit who’s story runs from the late nineteen century into the 1960s in the northwestern US. Absolutely wonderful. Great acting (Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, among many others), great cinematography, great editing, great score.
A House of Dynamite – Kathryn Bigelow’s latest masterpiece about the 19 minutes after a nuclear warhead is launched toward the US. It is told from three perspectives: the military, the White House, and the President. Whoa.
Baseball. I watched dozens of Washington Nationals games, both in person and on TV. Utterly depressing how a team with such promise utterly failed to deliver. Fortunately, my interest in baseball was redeemed by an absolutely amazing World Series and The Comeback: Red Sox 2004, a three-hour documentary about the 2004 Red Sox post season with commentary from (among others) Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Affleck’s memories matched mine to a T.
May It Please the Court: Our daughter Lily took two months off to study then crushed the Connecticut bar exam! She was admitted to the bar in November at a
ceremony before the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Trolls: The day after the bar ceremony, my wife, daughter, and I drove to Rhode Island to check out four troll statues. This might be the coolest thing ever. When is the DC-area going to get some?
Natchez Tracing: I signed up for a nine-day, van-supported tour of the Natchez Trace Parkway with the Adventure Cycling Association. This road goes over 440 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. No commercial traffic, no stop signs, no traffic lights. Perfect weather and 14 other riders whose sole objective is to have fun on two wheels. Not half bad. The hardest part was the 16-hour drive home.
70 Years: My personal odometer passed 70 years in August. Over the last three years the effects of aging have started to creep in, but I am still on the green side of the lawn.
Speaking of the Lawn: When my lawn mower died this Spring, I decided to hire a lawn service. Given the fact that the best mowing days are also the best riding days, this should have been a no-brainer years ago. The cost was reasonable. Also, it was entertaining to watch the crew mow the lawn, something that took me over an hour, in less than 15 minutes.
Crash, Crash, Crash: For the first time in memory, I crashed my bike three times. The first one was during a traverse of the empty C&O Canal at Riley’s Lock. It looked easy but the incline on the opposite side of the canal was much steeper than it appeared. Fortunately. the only thing that broke was a wee bit of plastic on my right brake lever. My next crash came when I was test riding an HP Velotechik Street Machine, a two-wheeled recumbent with underseat steering. I false started in front of two friends and fell to the side, with my right foot entangled in the pedal. I hit flush on my upper right arm causing a sever shock of pain to shoot from my shoulder to my elbow. (I also cut and sprained my left ankle.) I decided not to buy the bike. My third crash happened on The Mule as I was finishing a day ride on a very hot day. My head was down as I slogged up a slight incline near home. I hit the back of a parked car. Doh. Although I fell to the left, the deceleration caused a sharp pain in my injured right arm, setting back my recovery from the previous crash by a week.
Ahhnald: When the $70-million renovation of our local recreation center was finished, my wife and I signed up for recreating. We both do weight training two or three times per week. She also does yoga classes. I rude recumbent bikes. The weight training has helped stabilize my messed up back. Also, my damaged right shoulder seemed to improve markedly.
Another 10,000 Miles: For the eighth year in a row, I rode 10,000 miles. I also perfected the art of the late afternoon nap. Coincidence? I think not.
Carpal Diem: I had carpal tunnel surgery early in the year. I was back to normal in a couple of weeks.
Getting the Band Back Together: I did four bike events this year. The highlight of them all was my 17th (?) 50 States Ride. (I’ve lost count.) We had a great posse with Chris, Michael, Kevin and I joined by Sara, and Neena, as well as the long awaited return of Domitille, and Timothee.
And as is tradition, the 11th highlight of the year….
It Is The Heat After All!: Whoever said “It’s not the heat it’s the humidity” didn’t live around here this summer. We had multiple triple digit heat waves. To add to the mayhem, there were windstorms that brought down beaucoup trees, killing two motorists near my home.
Most people around here have probably already forgotten that this summer was peppered with heat waves that made going outside an exercise in stupidity. (Didn’t stop me though.)
Ah, the joys of summer
Lately, we’ve been dealing with what you might call the polar opposite, frigid air with no end in sight. Temperatures have been running 10 to 15 degrees F – and I mean F – for the last couple of weeks. I should be basking in 50 degree weather, borderline riding-in-shorts weather. Instead, I spend a good ten extra minutes finding layers to layer and sticking toe warmers in my shoes. I have not yet broken out my balaclava and my winter overboots, which I usually use only in January and February, but I can hear them calling from the dresser filled with winter gear in my basement.
So, on average, it’s been a run-of-the-mill year weatherwise. Now if we could just work on the variance we’d have a meteorological hoedown, statistically speaking.
Thinking ahead to decent riding weather in December I took Big Nellie and The Mule in for service. They are ready to rumble. Then snow came. Just an inch but enough to make me wary of a crash, a circumstance that my beat up right shoulder wants nothing to do with. I brought my CrossCheck inside and mounted it on a resistance trainer. I managed one hour before the boredom and intensity of my workout damned near did me in.
The snow, all one inch of it, melted in a day so I’ve been riding outside. I have about 20 miles in me before I start raging at the weather gods and dreaming of spring. (Just four months to go!)
Then it occurred to me that our newly renovated rec center has stationary bikes. I tried the recumbent model our and really liked it. You can mount reading material or plug in your phone for entertainment. It even has a fan to keep me from overheating. I did an intense workout, expecting to ride for an hour before the digital fitness overlords terminated my session with an automatic “cool down” feature after 30 minutes.
Why not?
Today I mixed and matched. I rode The Mule 7 miles from home to the rec center then rode a half-hour session on the rec bent. Next I lifted weights for a half hour before a second session on the rec bent. Then I went back outside to discover that the temperature had dropped during my time inside. Windy 34 degrees is not my cup of tea but The Mule and I managed to do another 10 miles before headed inside for hot soup.
All of this is aimed at my inane goal of riding 10,000 miles this year. Entering December I had 520 miles left to go. Given the weather, holiday festivities, and shopping, I felt the goal was going to be a serious challenge. So far so good. I have 319 miles to go with 23 days to go. In 2017 I finished the year less than 100 miles short of 10,000 because my cardiovascular system gifted me blood clots for Christmas.
The frigid temperatures have brought out the weirdness in our local critters. I have seen more vultures this week than I have all year. This may be because I’ve been riding Big Nellie with it’s panoramic view combined with the lack of leaves on the trees. I saw four vultures along the Mount Vernon Trail at Dyke Marsh the other day. The other day there was the big snake in my backyard. It turned out to be a harmless garter snake but it was very feisty, trying to bite whenever it was approached.
Say hello to my not so little friend
Today, I spotted this sign in New Alexandria about a mile from the rec center.
Stick season has arrived in the DC area. I’m adjusting to riding in 40-degree weather rather well but the winds are a bit of a challenge as always.
Watching
The World Series – On a par with the very best baseball games I’ve ever seen including the fabled 6th game of the 1975 Series that resurrected baseball’s popularity. The 2025 Series was so good that my wife (not a big baseball fan) watched most of it with me.
A House of Dynamite – Kathryn Bigelow’s latest masterpiece about the 19 minutes after a nuclear warhead is launched toward the US. It is told from three perspectives: the military, the White House, and the President. Whoa.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps – The latest Marvel movie. Orders of magnitude better that A House ofDynamite. Not! When the best thing about the movie is the set decoration (early 60s NYC meets The Jetsons), you know you’re in for a long two hours.
Say Nothing – A nine-part miniseries based on the book of the same name (see below). Excellent but disturbing and depressing. I had nightmares after watching this.
The American Revolution – A six-part, twelve-hour miniseries on how the US came to be. Another gem from Ken Burns with collaborators Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt. Your school history lessons will seem utterly incomplete after watching this.
Ryan van Duzer’s Natchez Trace Tour – Ryan rode the Trace in October. It was fun to re-visit the ride I did this spring.
Riding
I rode the Cider Ride with Chris, Michael, and Kevin. The No-estrogen Ride. First time I’ve ridden one of these with just the boys in forever. I knew I was in trouble when they dropped me on the first hill at the half mile mark. Still I slogged my way through 60 miles. This was the longest ride of the month.
I rode 787 miles in 24 days during November. I took the CrossCheck out for a 20-mile ride but otherwise the whole month was on The Mule. Big Nellie spent the month in the shop for much needed maintenance. I dropped The Mule off for work yesterday. This will give me a jump on bike maintenance for next year. Also, my local bike shop’s service area is dead so I get The Mule back by mid-week.
For the year, I’ve clocked 9,479 miles. Just 521, or 16.3 miles per day to get to 10,000. Fingers crossed.
Reading
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. An account of the dystopia that was Belfast during the Troubles in the 1970s and later. Absolutely riveting. To quote dialog from A House of Dynamite: This is insanity. This is reality.
Mediocre Follow-Up (The No-Name Tour) – My journal (created from posts on this blog) of my 2019 tour from Northern Indiana to San Francisco. I was surprised over and over again at how my memories seemed to get all jumbled with time. And how much I walked to get over mountain after mountain after mountain.
Connecticut Road Trip – We took a four-day mini-vacation to Connecticut where we witnessed our daughter get sworn in to the Connecticut Bar, saw some awesome trolls in Rhode Island, and had dinner with friends we hadn’t seen in over a decade.
Last Thursday my wife and I drove to Norwalk, Connecticut to visit our daughter Lily. With me behind the wheel, the drive, especially the 30 miles on either side of the George Washington Bridge was quite a shock to my two-wheeled brain. It boggles my mind that people do this crossing on a regular basis.
Some Good Eats
Once we recovered we drove to nearby Wilton for dinner at Orem’s Diner. This place has been in business for over 100 years and is always packed. For good reason.
On Friday morning we drove to West Hartford for a late breakfast at another diner, Sally and Bob’s. We ate here whenever we visited Lily when she was in the University of Connecticut’s law school in Hartford. The diner is an institution and well worth its reputation for good eats.
Lily’s an Attorney!
Our next stop was the Connecticut Supreme Court building where Lily and a hundred or so other folks who passed the Connecticut Bar exam this summer were sworn in, officially becoming attorneys. Woot! Suffice it to say, we were wicked proud of our baby girl. After the ceremony we attended a reception across the street in the Capitol building.
Attorney Lily at the Connecticut State House
More Good Eats
We drove back to Norwalk and had dinner at a local Italian place. Both the pizza and the rigatoni ala vodka hit the spot. Oink.
Saturday began with an obligatory trip to Dunkin Donuts. I honestly think there are more Dunks than cows in New England. They are everywhere. You could entertain kids with a Dunks version of Eye Spy. For some reason Dunks in New England is much better than Dunks in Northern Virginia. Sadly the Dunks in Norwalk did not have honey dipped sticks which were my go to when I lived in Providence. Nevertheless my tummy was happy for the ensuing two-hour drive to Rhode Island.
Trolls!
Primed with caffeine and sugar, we drove to Rhode Island to check out some of Thomas Dambo’s trolls. Dambo is a Danish artist who uses recycled materials to create these incredible works of public art. Rhode Island has five (with a sixth in the making). We checked out four of them.
The first two were in Ninigret State Park near Charlestown. This is located near some beaches on Rhode Island Sound so it’s a good idea to go when the beach season is over. The first troll was Greta Granit. It’s off the road about a hundred yards down a well maintained windy path through some bushes. The second troll was located a half mile away just off the road near a small observatory. Erik Rock sits comfortably next to Little Ninigret Pond.
Greta Granit
Erik Rock
Our next troll was next to Browning Mill Pond near Arcadia, Rhode Island, about ten miles to the north. We had to walk about ten minutes on a path along the water to find Young Boulder, sitting in the woods looking out over the water.
Young Boulder
Our fourth troll was Iver Mudslider near Belleville Pond in North Kingstown another 10 or so miles to the east. Getting to Iver involved a half mile trek down an unpaved road. It was well worth the effort. During the walk we passed the site of another troll in the making.
Iver Mudslider
Dambo’s trolls are all over the world. This map will help you find them. We met people who go all over checking them out. Now that I think about it, a troll bike tour would be an excellent excursion. Hmmm.
Old Friends
We ran out of time so we skipped the troll in East Providence and headed back to Norwalk. After cleaning up we headed out to dinner at Barb and Andy’s, friends who live in nearby Westport. We hadn’t seen them in over 10 years so we had a splendid evening of fine food, wine, and conversation.
More Orem’s, a Beach, and the Drive Home
On Sunday morning we headed back to Orem’s for breakfast. The place was packed but apparently Connecticutters eat fast and we only waited ten minutes for our pancakes and eggs. Fortified, we headed back south to Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk. We only stayed a few minutes as the cold wind off Long Island Sound convinced us we were underdressed
At the Beach. Not Too Crowded..
We said goodbye to our new attorney and headed back. We made it across the bridge smoothly, mostly because my wife was driving. Near the southern end of the New Jersey Turnpike, the road lined up with the setting sun. The road turned away and the sun set just before we were incinerated. The remaining 120 miles involved super strong cross winds. I believe the weather gods want me back on two wheels. And so I am.
Posted an album of troll pictures on my Flickr page.
Yesterday I took part in the Washington Area Bicyclists Assocation’s Cider Ride. This annual event is about 13 years old. There are three routes; I rode the longest, 60 miles. This is a relatively flat ride, involving only 2,000 feet of climbing. After riding through residential neighborhoods in Northeast DC, participants hook up with the Anacostia River Trail system. The route has used these trails for 11 years after a couple of unpleasant forays in early December on suburban streets.
This year’s version was held in cool and windy conditions. There was no rain but temperatures didn’t seem to crest 60 degrees until the last third of the ride.
I rode with Chris, Michael, and Kevin. Despite the fact that Michael was riding on a bum knee, he kept pace with Chris and Kevin who seemed comfortable rolling along at 15 miles per hour. I decidedly was not. I woefully lagged behind, bothered by a mystery noise coming from my front wheel when I applied my brakes. The first pit stop came at 13 miles at Proteus Bikes in College Park, Maryland. There, a mechanic found the cause of my aggro, a small burr on the right side of my rim. He filed it down with a sanding stone and all was copacetic thereafter.
With my companions itching to ride on, I snarfed a half a donut and a small metal cup (provided to all participants) of warm cider. The next pit stop was 23 miles away. As someone who gets about 15 miles to the donut, I regarded this as a challenge.
After the first pit stop we headed north into the Beltsville Agricultural Preserve where federal farm scientists work on such farm things. (I am a city boy so you’ll get no insights from me.) On the north-ish edge of the Preserve we turned east onto Powder Mill Road, a two-lane highway with smooth pavement and wide, paved shoulders. A couple of miles later we turned into the grounds of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge where the access road wound through pretty darned amazing foliage.
We turned around and headed back the way we came taking a meander through suburban Edmonston, Maryland. At this point we began to whine about the winds which seemed to be headwinds no matter which way we turned.
Pedaling right back into the Agriculture Research Preserve, we headed straight across the mostly barren landscape on the cleverly named Research Road. Because of the shut down, a gate blocked our way but we gingerly rode in the grass around it. Take that, Congress!
Alas, the rest of Research Road climbs up the biggest hill of the ride. Just before the top we came to a gate that is always closed (to prevent commuters from cutting through the Preserve, I guess). Kevin and I walked through the narrow gap around the gate.
We rejoined the speed twins, Chris and Michael, who were waiting patiently at the top of the hill and rolled down to Pit Stop #2 at Buddy Attick Lake Park in Greenbelt. This pit stop is known for serving apple pie but there was no pie this year. (No loss. I’m not a fan.) There were donuts and cider, and plenty of bees competing for the refreshments. I had an entire donut and a cup of cider, thankfully without getting stung or swallowing any of my flying friends.
After the pit stop we returned toward the Anacostia River trail system, Along the way we passed a MAMIL (middle-aged man in lycra) who had crashed in the bike lane. He was being tended to by tow other riders so we soldiered on. Back on the trail system my youthful riding companions dropped me like a marketing call. Thankfully, they waited and led me into Hyattsville where there was some low speed congestion getting onto the Trolley Trail.
The Trolley Trail took us back to the Anacostia River trail system, around Lake Artemesia (which we rode around on the way north), and south to the final pit stop at Bladensburg Waterfront Park. Michael’s knee was starting to hurt so we made short work of the refreshments and headed south on the east side of the Anacostia.
Now Michael’s knee might have been hurting, but Kevin and I still couldn’t keep up with him and Chris. Our travels took us south on the east side of the Anacostia then back north on the west side. Here we rode around the skeleton of RFK Stadium which is being razed for a new football palace. We took the C Street protected cycletrack (which looks like it was transported from a European city. So nice!) on the gradual climb up the east side of Capitol Hill. After playing with cars for a half mile or so we picked up the 1st Street Northeast Cycletrack and connected with the Metropolitan Branch Trail which led us mercifully to the finish.
We convened for post-ride pizza (thanks Chris and Michael) and liquid refreshment at Metrobar, a repurposed Metro subway car.
I drove home with the expectation that I would fall sound asleep during the deciding game of the World Series. I glad I didn’t.
Thanks to the volunteers and WABA staff who woke up early to check us in and endured bees galore at the rest stops. Thanks to Chris, Michael, and Kevin.
And so ends my event riding season. I am pooped.
Getting ready to head back south at the Patuxent Research Refuge
The view at Buddy Attick Lake Park
Amazingly bee-free shot from Buddy Attick bee farm. Photo by Michael.
Michael’s snack at Bladensburg Waterfront Park. Photo by Michael.
We ate all the pizza! (L to R: Michael, Kevin, me, Chris). Photo by Michael.
I struggle with October. The weather is nearly perfect for laying in a hammock. Alas, I don’t have one and wouldn’t want to have to deal with one (storing, cleaning, hanging, etc.). So I mostly just ride. My legs are starting to feel the effects of over 8,300 miles of riding in 2025. My body seems to be hanging on by a thread of a tendon, I suppose. My right arm is still barking at me despite my attempts to strengthen it. My back is a disaster area. What I wouldn’t give for the recuperative powers of my youth.
Riding
This month’s event ride was The Great Pumpkin Ride. I’ve done this about a dozen times. It’s hard to beat Virginia countryside in the fall. I did this year’s ride on Big Nellie. All went well except for the fact that my rear wheel started falling off, proving there really is a first time for everything.
I followed that 63-mile day with a 51-mile ride to see the foliage in Rock Creek Park. Otherwise it was a run of the mill month of riding reaching 901 miles. I’m at 8,692 miles so far this year. Will I make it to 10,000 miles again? Stay tuned.
I also started doing 2- to 3-mile walks with my trekking poles. My back holds up and the poling action seems to be helping my shoulder.
Reading
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman. Yet another Thursday Murder Club mystery. Osman writes them; I read them. No complaints. Breezy, clever, and funny. A good way to pass the time between baseball playoff games and bike rides.
Watching
Baseball. I’ve seen most of the playoff games including Shohei Ohtani’s game for the ages against the Brewers. I’ve seen a couple of 10-RBI games, one by Fred Lynn and the other by Anthony Rendon. And I’ve seen plenty of 10-strikeout games. Seeing someone do both was a bit mind boggling. The 2025 World Series is one for the ages.
The Comeback: Red Sox 2004 – A three-hour documentary about the 2004 Red Sox post season with commentary from (among others) Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Affleck’s memories matched mine to a T. After the Sox won the 2004 World Series, I stopped watching baseball for a couple of years. Nothing could match the Comeback. (Until the 2019 Nats pulled some magic of their own.)
From Rails to Trails – An in interesting historical account of how rail trails became a thing. There are a few good ones within 200 miles of home but my local area has three non-rail trails – Mount Vernon, the C&O Canal Towpath, and the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail (and it’s northern extensions along the Anacostia tributaries). The documentary didn’t mention my favorite: the Great Allegheny. If you haven’t ridden it, you really should.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 