An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

This weekend on Saturday Valerie & I did our monthly 5K event, this time in Annandale. At the end of the 5K - a hot, sticky one! Sunday I rode from Swain's Lock to Edward's Landing on the C&O Canal tow path. 30 miles round trip - my longest ride since I started back riding. I kept the gears nice and low on the ride out to preserve my knees (plus did plenty of stretching before starting). On the way back I picked up the pace a little bit but still was a slowpoke by most standards. Riding on a flat, gravel trail means little coasting. The good news is that 30 miles of pretty much non-stop pedaling and no knee problems! My butt is a little sore from 30 bumpy miles, but that's to be expected. In our area you can throw a dart at the map and it's almost certain to hit somewhere with Great Civil War Significance. Edward's Landing is where Gen. Hooker's 75,000 men crossed the river on the way to fight at Gettysburg. This guy crossed the trail in fron...

I do not know the person who wrote the blog post below. I came across her blog because she wrote something about a mutual friend. But she seems to be quite a serious cyclist (for example, it appears that she owns 11 bikes). Yet she is not a slave to pseudo-racer fashion! In fact, in the post linked below she speaks out against doctrinaire bike fashion, saying that regular clothes are fine for local riding. Apparently if you look hard enough there is a sanity to be found among bikey people. http://chasingmailboxes.com/2013/07/31/the-big-confusing-dilemma-of-what-to-wear-while-riding-your-bike-around-town/#more-11288

I have found myself changing jobs on short notice (this is a good thing) with a little break time in between positions. I spent the first part of my downtime decluttering and getting some home projects done, as getting in control of things like clutter makes me feel more in control of life overall, but felt the need to hit the road for a little bit. Where could I go that would offer  a good selection of outdoor activities as well as other things to do? I thought about hopping a plane to Croatia to kayak the Dalmatian Coast and tour Dubrovnik, but there wasn't enough time to organize such a trip. I thought of Maine - great kayaking and cute towns - but gosh darn it, it's still *cold* up there: air temps in 40's/50's, with dry suit level water temps. I have a positive thermotropism - I gravitate toward warmth, not cold. Thinking cap back on. My favorite combination of activities is music and outdoors, which led me to think of ... Nashville. There are ...