OK, so today started out with me snapping awake at 5:30 AM to the feeling of a tooth floating around in my mouth; one of my temporary crowns had come off. I ran to the bathroom where I managed to pop it back on, but with the adrenaline flowing there was no way I was getting back to sleep - just as well, since my goal was to be out the door seven-ish and getting out the door quickly in the morning is not one of my strengths (in contrast, Valerie can wake up at 7:30 and still manage to get out the door by 7 😅). Why was I leaving so early on a Saturday? I was participating in the Great Pumpkin Ride in Warrenton, VA. The GPR is an annual Halloween-weekend fundraiser which takes riders through lovely fall colors in rural Fauquier County. The ride offers three lengths: this year, 24, 49, and sixty-something miles. Every year a group of us BikeArlington/Freezing Saddles riders coordinate costumes for the ride. In past years we've been Muppets, Mario Brothers and Hello Kitty characters, among others. This year we decided to be a swarm of bees in support of our friend Sarah "Bee", who is going through some significant health issues (Sarah's last name is not actually "Bee" - but it starts with the letter "B" and she has long built something of a personal brand around the "Bee" thing).
Since I'm still recovering from what might be a stress fracture in my left tibia, I parked my car and hobbled over to the check-in wearing my surgical boot. Along the way, two different people made the joke of "I guess you're not riding today!" and were taken aback when I said I was. I'm not cheating on my recovery by riding - my doctor said from the get-go that I could continue to do non-weight-bearing exercise like cycling. I was the first of the BikeArlington group to arrive (thanks to my loose tooth wake-up call) but others were arriving by the time I finished my check-in.
Part of the fun of doing this as a group is checking out everyone's costumes as they arrive. After registering I went back to the car to put ono my costume and ditch my surgical boot for cycling shoes, after which I made my grand entrance - a bee outfit complete with bug glasses (and matching striped socks!). We all hooted and hollered over each other's costumes. Everyone looked great, and the group (there were more than a dozen of us) really stood out even more than usual with the mass of nearly identical costumes - strangers were even coming up to us wanting to take photos of the group! I know from past years that our group has a reputation for our mass group-themed costumes, as we're the only participants doing anything like it. We had a good group of bees, and a few additional riders with more subtle bee themes - such as jerseys from Marlyland Meadworks, which feature a bee logo (mead is made from honey). A few people decorated their bikes with flowers, and Sarah Bee had a stuffed bee along for the ride on her bike rack. As usual, Sarah's husband HF showed up with an outrageous inflatable costume.
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| Robyne and I share a costume laugh |
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| Swarm! |
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| Swarm! |
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| We are some *killer* bees! |
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| Sarah Bee and HF |
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| Pre-ride swarm photo |
Most of the group were doing the 49 mile ride; I was one of the exceptions - with my still-healing leg, I didn't want to do a ride that long. Ken was doing the short ride as well, as were two other people I knew, but when it was time to start Ken had disappeared (Strava later revealed he had taken off earlier) and the other two hadn't yet shown when we started our ride (again, Strava later revealed that they had been ten minutes behind us). For the first ten miles or so all three routes ran together, so got to ridde with the "swarm"; since I hadn't started with any of the other 24 milers, once the 24 and 49 mile routes split I was on my own.
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| Resting my leg |
I didn't bring my surgical boot with me on my bike, but did bring one of Valerie's fold-up canes in case I had to do any extensive walking. At the rest stop I must have been quite a sight - dressed as a bee and jauntily walking with a cane.
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| Rest stop snacks |
For the rest of the ride after I split from the "swarm", I was sometimes in close proximity to other riders, but as I had in fact started a little early for the 24 mile group (I started with the 49 milers at 9:30, while the 24 milers weren't supposed to start until 10:00), the 34 mile route was pretty sparsely populated while I was riding it, and for extended periods I was on my own with no other riders nearby. I must have been quite a sight, just a guy in a bee costume bicycling by himself through the Virginia countryside.
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| Bees in the countryside |
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| Pretty fall colors |
One piece of good news: I only saw one pro-Trump sign, and a pretty modest-sized one at that. This contrasts with the huge barn-sized banners which were common a few years back. Maybe people in this swing county, which sits on the border between red and blue Virginia, are coming to their senses. That would be nice.
After a total of 24 miles of pretty Virginia countryside, I rolled back into Warrenton. Unlike past rides, I didn't miss the rest stop at the end of the ride (which is actually located a little off the trail and is easy to miss - there aren't even any signs indicating it's there). Unlike the mid-point rest stop, which offers a wide variety of snacks (pumpkin soup, various pies, fruit, trail mix, bananas, bagels, and more), the food selection at the finale is pretty weak: ham or turkey wraps, bananas, chips, and water. I hung out for a while, eating another half banana and some water, and waiting to see if anyone else would show up. Eventually, I moved along.
I wanted the ride to count as a coffee ride for the ongoing "coffeeneuring" challenge (there'll be a separate post about this), so after dropping my bee suit at the car (but keeping the glasses and antennae!) I went first to Deja Brew Coffee to try and grab a cup, but the line there was very long and slow moving, so I left and went to Great Harvest, where I got a coffee (quite good!) and a free sample of their rice crispies treat desert, which I ate outside, enjoying the the sunny and unseasonably warm weather.
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| Coffee after the ride |
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| Me, a Bee! |
On the trek home I stopped at the WaWa in Gainesville, where I gassed up the car and, more importantly, picked up a soft pretzel. Pretzel vendors were a standard feature of my New York youth (mostly from street vendors also selling roasted chestnuts and dirty water hot dogs), and here in Virginia I long for a good soft pretzel - and WaWa is about the only place offering even mediocre soft pretzels.
A pretty day in the Virginia countryside, a chance to get some exercise without cheating more than a little on my stress fracture recovery, and as usual, we were the stars of the show. Not a bad way to spend an unseasonably warm October day!
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