Test Ride

Scott wanted to try a test ride to his office so I ducked out of an SCA household project day early so we'd have enough daylight for the ride. We followed the path I'd taken for my bike ride to Jenny Craig that one time and then continued on along Elden Street under the toll road and up to Scott's office. That. was. terrifying. The walkway under the toll road was pretty narrow although, we were able to pass another cyclist going the other direction, but it was tight. When we got out from under those bridges and past the access road, the sidewalk disappeared and we found ourselves careening downhill on a loose dirt path full of large (not small gravel-sized) loose rocks. ACK! Busy road on our left, sharp drop-off into a drainage ditch on our right, madness straight ahead! We did safely arrive at Scott's place of business and I told him his commute sucked. A lot. We decided to try a different direction for the return trip.

We took Sunrise Valley -- OMG, the hill was almost like the Rte 28 bridge! -- up to Monroe/Van Buren. That seemed safe enough except that the sidewalk zigzags across the FOUR LANES AND TURN LANES ROAD a couple of times. WTH, Herndon?? Why do you hate pedestrians? I would have just said "screw it!" and stayed on the road, but Scott doesn't feel as comfortable on surface streets as I do. So, instead, we played a much more dangerous game of Frogger-on-wheels. We continued on Van Buren to Spring on to Old Town Herndon where we hopped on the trail. I'm so grateful we both had head- and tail-lights because dark was coming on quickly.

The rest of the trip home was a breeze. Crestview to Sterling is mostly downhill and we FLEW home. At one point, I wished I had a speedometer to see how fast I was going. Something hit my leg hard enough to hurt at that point. I assumed it was a frog -- I don't know... some kamikaze frog playing Frogger on the trail, perhaps -- or a bird. Scott told me afterward that I should think smaller and go with "bug". There's no mark on my leg today, so I'm still mystified about what I smacked into. Of course, my sweaty-and-sunscreened neck was covered with little tiny gnats and whatnots. Ew. Thankfully, there were no gnats or whatnots of any size stuck in my teeth.