Like a prospective home buyer measuring the windows for drapes, Spring made an early appearance this weekend, which made for two pleasant rides. The winter weather has kept my miles to an embarrassingly low level. How low you ask? This weekend’s 57 miles of riding represents almost one third of my mileage for the year. […]
Category: Fauquier County
Dress Rehearsal
On this, the third of the my eleven furlough days, I made my way across the county line on a 51-mile journey that was to serve as my dress rehearsal for the upcoming Tour Of The Towns Century in two weeks. I’ve been trying to avoid the roads that the century will be on just […]
Furloughed
The government of the United States of America, in its wisdom, has decided to furlough many of its civil service employees. Monday was my first of 11 furlough days, amounting to a 20% cut in pay for the next three months. The silver lining about being on leave without pay for a day is it […]
An Abandoned Store And A Surprise Meeting
This Sunday, I decided to check on a sad sight I observed earlier this year – the abandoned Handymart on Elk Run Road. The Handymart was always a welcome oasis in rural Fauquier County. It was 20 miles from home, which was a nice distance to have a waystop for an emergency drink on a hot day. […]
49 Miles
My birthday came this week. Cycling tradition dictates that I am to ride my age in miles on my birthday. Unfortunately, I had to work that day and there are other traditions such as the eating of cake that I was compelled to participate in, so the ride did not occur on the exact date. […]
Drizzle
I ran eight miles on Saturday, which is a not insignificant distance for me. I followed it up with 50 miles on the bike on Sunday. That was less of a challenge but it still made me grateful to Dr. Stewart Adams (UK), the inventor of Motrin. There was a steady drizzle on Saturday’s run […]
Wilderness Campaign 200K ACP Brevet
See the fancy title I used for this ride? I can do this because I am now officially a Randonneur and entitled to use the arcane acronyms of this exclusive club. Here’s how it happened: We gathered at the Caribou Coffee in Bristow to register, pick up our control sheets (more on that later), prep our […]
The Last Day Of Winter
We’re setting the clocks forward tonight and the weather forecast for tomorrow and the next week is fantastic. I have therefore officially declared today to be the last day of winter. To commemorate the event, I set off for Fauquier County in the hopes of finding a route connecting Catlett to Nokesville without using the very […]
Chancellorsville
I got ambitious yesterday. Aided by my wife, who transported me and my bike 30 miles to Fredericksburg, I headed out to the Chancellorsville Battlefield for a look-see and then a 55-mile return trip, the first 20 miles I had never traversed before. I had been wanting to do this trip for several months and […]
Midland
The Reston Century is in two weeks and today was no day to ease off on the miles. So I rolled out of my driveway at 9:45 AM into 85 degree temps and 85% humidity. Good times. I wanted to stretch my distance a bit and decided to make for the small town of Midland, […]
There And Back Again 