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Sunday 23rd
64 miles
8hrs
Trip total 135 miles
Today was supposed to be another hot one so we lathered up with sun screen before we pulled out. Yesterday Susan got burned on her shoulders and I was a little sore in places as well. The first 19 miles was through shady tree covered country roads though, and the sun was no problem. We rode through the townships of Quantico, Mardela Springs, and Athol. What a name. We even rode down Athol Road. But good things can�t last and we finally came to highway 50.
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50 is the east/west equivalent of highway 13. It is a divided 4 lane with high speed traffic, but it too has an 8-10� shoulder. Today was the end of a big car show in Ocean City and the cars zooming by us was like a rolling car show. At least the cars were cool, but the road was hot.
Today was going to be another ninety plus day and I was worried about leg cramps so a slow place with plenty of stops was going to be the routine today, plus plenty of Gatorade. We Pulled into the KFC in Cambridge with 36 miles down and took about a 45 minute break. |
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Taking a break along hwy 50 |
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We were sort of worried about crossing the bay bridge out of Cambridge. It was almost two miles long and the shoulders were a lot narrower than the ones we had been riding on. Finally we just sucked it up and took off. The bridge was our first climb of the trip and we cranked up to the top with show cars still whizzing by us. We didn�t relax until we crossed the bridge and rode back on those nice wide shoulders. We still had about 8 miles on highway 50 before we turned back on the quiet country roads to Oxford. We were both happy to make that turn. |
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the bridge out of Cambridge |
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Oxford is a small town of a few small shops and antique stores, and a very active pleasure boat harbor. It is also home to a great homemade ice cream shop and a very shady town park, both of which we took great pleasure in. We spent about two hours exploring Oxford, eating ice cream and just lying in the fresh grass. During this time we had many folks walk up wanting to talk about our bike and our trip. A big orange tandem pulling a trailer is not something people see very often and it always attracted a crowd. We also got some good info on where to stay in St Michael, our final destination for the day.
Around 4:00 we decided it was time to ride down to the harbor for the 15 minute ferry trip toward St.Michaels. The ferry rate was $3.50. The guy collecting the fare had to check his book, but they did have a rate for tandems. After disembarking we rode our last 7 miles to the Best Western and got a room. It was about 5:00 so we decided to ride the 1.5 miles into town and look around.
St.Michaels is the most touristy of anywhere we had been, so that meant plenty of shopping. That�s all it took for Susan to decide to spend the next day here. It had a couple of nice pubs as well, so I was happy. We stopped for a pizza on the way back, and that was the end of day two on the road. |
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eating ice crem in Oxford |
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