Time to Hang Up the Bike?

It's been quite the summer so far! I've been getting out on my bike a few times a week and just signed up for a 63 mile ride in early August. Since both girls were gone this week, I decided to run up to Dad's and go for a bike ride with Nan. She's posted a few times about a ride that she's done with a pit stop for iced lattes. Sounded good to me! So yesterday I loaded up my bike and the dog and headed North.

I got to Dad and Nan's, ate some lunch, then we changed and got ready to hit the road. Little did we know the adventure we were in for! We headed out for Mt. Joy and the cute coffee shop that had nice cold drinks. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride, not too hot and not humid. Off we went, down the roads, through the medical campus, out the other side and off to Mt. Joy. I really liked riding there, even though there was some traffic, it wasn't like around here at all. Plus we got to ride by corn and wheat fields, through a small town or two, just more enjoyable than riding at home with the distracted drivers speeding by.

So everything was rolling along fine, up and down hills, through town, until just past a traffic light. Nan ran over something, no idea what, and got a flat tire. Good thing is that she had a new tube, all the tools she needed, and lots of experience helping GE change his tires on the bike trip. Fortunately, getting her tire off was way easier than getting GE's off. So a while later, tire was changed, Nan was quite a bit dirtier, and we were back on the road. Off to the coffee shop. When we got there, Nan got cleaned up and we got our cold drinks and were able to sit still for a few minutes while we enjoyed our drinks.

Time to head home. We set off, got a mile or so down the road and Nan realized that she left her camelback at the coffee shop, decided she'd go back later and get it (hopefully she remembered!). Tooled back on through the small towns, up and down the hills, back to the medical campus. Sigh, then not good things happened. We stopped at a traffic light on the far side, were going to make a right turn to go over the bridge and head the last few miles home. I have no idea what happened, but when the light turned green and I set off, I found myself on the ground. Like I said, I have no idea what happened but I had blood running down my leg and a scrape down my arm. At first I though I was ok to keep going the rest of the way, but smarter heads prevailed and Dad was called to the rescue. When he got there, we loaded up the bikes and headed to the urgent care. Let me tell you, this was the swankiest urgent care I've ever been to, not that I've been to a lot but it looked a whole lot nicer from the outside than any other I've seen and was really nice inside. Good news, the nurse and PA I saw were really nice as well. The nurse got my leg cleaned up, at least the blood trail down my leg, then the PA cleaned the cut on my shin and stitched me up, then she cleaned up my arm. Both got wrapped up and I was good to go.

Right now my leg is sore and depending on how I move it, it hurts more. I'm keeping it elevated and iced as needed. My arm should be ok in a day or two. I'm hopeful that by Wednesday I will be feeling well enough to get out for a bike ride. I think I'll probably go out to Prince William Forest Park and ride on Scenic Drive, along the flat part. I don't think I'll be ready for hills by then.

So between having infected bug bites on our bike trip, an infected bug sting (when I took Whitney to camp), and now scrapes and stitches from a bike accident, I'm ready for winter to start. Snow is soft and I can't hurt myself, right?

A Hidden Gem

We live very near a hidden gem - Prince William Forest Park. It's a national park, a large park (for our area, small as far as national parks go), a great place to camp, hike, and bike. We've camped there many times and done some exploring of the creeks and woods. Recently, we've been going there a lot to bike. There's a loop road and the first half of it is one way with the other half of the road set aside for bikes/runners/hikers. This part of the road is relatively flat although gently sloping uphill. The second half of the loop has some great downhills along with the uphills. The best part about this ride is that it's mostly in the shade and there's very little traffic. We have a national parks annual pass so it makes it an inexpensive getaway to a great place to ride.