Post-ride - Washington, D.C.

I was so pleased to spend some time with Sarah in Washington, D.C. before returning home. Sarah, Brianne, and I were best friends in junior high and whenever I see Sarah I am reminded of how much I miss her and why I love her so much.

It was probably also best for my health to relax at Sarah's before confining myself to an airplane seat for the ride home. I think Dave might have preferred to get me back sooner, but I was pretty much in staring at the wall phase for a couple of days after riding. My body was completely confused.

I woke up on Thursday morning when Sarah and her roommate Meredith were getting ready for work. It was confusing to not need to jump up, wash my face, pack my tent, and jump on my bike. I thoroughly enjoyed lounging in bed. By the way, Sarah had the world's most comfortable air mattress. I totally loved this thing. I could use it as a regular bed. Anyways...

After moving to the couch, I watched some TV and wrote the Day 0 and Day 5 blogs. Meredith was headed to New York on Friday, so Thursday was my only day with computer access. I ate some leftover cheese and crackers - yum. I also did some laundry and hung up my tent to dry in the shower. Eventually I needed more substantial food, so I walked down to M Street and got a latte and muffin (apparently that qualified as more substantial food). When I got back I showered and started to get ready for the Nationals' game that night. I was walking to Dupont Circle to meet Sarah at work, and we would take the subway from there.

My back was definitely bothering me after riding, especially when I walked. It really wasn't too bad, considering. Most significantly I felt very tired. After stopping to buy super glue to fix my glasses (they broke the night before), I made my way slowly to Sarah's work. I really appreciate the efficiency and ease of subway systems, and I really like the D.C. subway because it isn't at all intimidating. We made it very quickly to the game, but it started to rain.

Meredith and I walked around looking for vegetarian food, and settled on burritos and beer. We ate and waited through the rain delay. Finally we decided there was no way the game would happen, so we went home (pretty funny, but okay since the tickets were free). I was just glad that the rain came the day after my ride!

At home we relaxed and watched TV. It was glorious. Seriously.

After another pleasant night sleep, my Friday was very similar to my Thursday. I got up and relaxed on the couch, hanging up the other half of my tent to finish drying. Eventually I walked down to M Street for food. That afternoon I met Sarah at work again, and we went to the Sculpture Garden.

I was so proud of myself. First we saw the Typewriter Eraser, just like the one at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Then I correctly identified a Louise Bourgeois spider - dude! It's like I've learned something! I also spotted a Calder. So, apparently I only know artists in my park, but that is still progress!

We took some wine and snacks, but then we got rained on. We decided to head home pretty quickly. Still, it was a fun adventure!

That night we had dinner with Gavin (Sarah's boyfriend) and relaxed. The next morning they would be headed out to Pennsylvania and I would catch the Amtrak to Baltimore for my flight out.

Everything went smoothly on the way home. Amtrak was easy and pleasant. The shuttle to the airport was waiting for us when we arrived. My flights were on time, and my luggage made it through. Dave picked me up - and I was so incredibly happy to see him! He took me home, where he had food and flowers. It was great.

I was pretty sleepy after getting home, but I had a wonderful time on Sunday apple picking with Dana, Blake, Brianne, Danielle, and Erin.

It's taken me a long time to feel normal again. I had numb spots on my fingers and toes for weeks, but they are finally almost better. Getting my energy back has also been challenging. Now I have my bike back and reassembled, so I guess I wil bike again someday soon! I haven't done it yet.

All in all this was a great experience. It was incredibly challenging, but I met wonderful people and I am so proud of myself for what I have accomplished! Thank you to everyone who supported me. I couldn't have made it without you! The thought of everyone behind me was an effective motivator that helped m through when the road was hard. I hope that this ride was a success, in that I had directly and indirectly reminded people about the importance of climate change - I truly believe this is a key issue in the years to come. Again, thanks to the many people who have been a part of this experience.

Signing off,
Jackie

Baltimore, MD to Washington, D.C. - Day 5

A reminder about this post...since the blog is almost complete!

FINAL DAY OF RIDING - 66 miles, 60 before 2pm

Why they scheduled the press conference for 2pm on a 66 mile ride day (also the last day) I will never understand. My group of girls had been arriving at about 4 to 4:30pm into camp, which would mean that we would have to 1) leave at first light and 2) keep a good pace to make it in time for the ending press conference on the senate lawn. I was definitely annoyed.

We got up at 5:30am to find our tents covered in heavy dew and the sun still not risen. We got ready, disassembled our tents, ate breakfast, and left shortly after the course opened (about 7am). I learned in the morning that Senator Cantwell canceled, so I didn't feel as pressured to arrive by 2pm for the press conference. Chrissy, Christa and I were exhausted from the very hard day before, but we were excited to have made it to the last day and determined to get through it. At this point, we heard the terrain would be hills in the morning and flat in the afternoon. Little did we know that the ratio of hills to flat wasn't quite what we expected.

Setting out from Baltimore was pretty intense - the drivers in Maryland aren't very bike friendly! I almost got hit by a car trying to inch up on me because they were annoyed that I was in the intersection waiting to turn left. To be clear, I wasn't doing anything wrong. They were just impatient. The hills were definitely present. I just had no legs left for hills at this point. Chrissy and I walked up a GIANT hill that we couldn't believe just kept going. We cursed, even more than the day before, every hill before us.

The water stop was much appreciated, but we were encouraged to push on as quickly as possible. We still didn't know just how many miles of hills we were facing and kept hoping for things to flatten out. I got a flat tire when we were on a fairly busy rode, and the girls and I jumped into action. Chrissy used a dollar bill to patch the hole in my tire and we put in a new tube. The support van came in time for us to use their pump, which helped my tires feel much more full.

We pushed all the way through to Silver Springs, MD where there was a stop at a mall. As soon as we arrived, a staff person said, "Okay, they are waiting for us in D.C. to gather and ride up to the capitol, but we have to leave now and we're going to have to push." I was livid. We were killing ourselves already, I had experienced a flat, and we had barely eaten. Chrissy felt way beyond her physical limits, and we were all on edge. I told them we would go on our own. They said we could take the train to D.C. to catch the press conference, but we refused. 20 miles short of our goal there was no way we were giving up!

We scarfed some PB&J and headed out again. The Capitol Crescent Trail turned out to be packed dirt for the first 3 miles - miserable. When we finally got to pavement it was fantastic - very slightly downhill and a perfect trail like the Burke Gilman. They had a speed limit of 15 mph and we were definitely pushing it. As it turned out, we arrived in D.C. just after the main group. This meant we had to ride from the river to the capitol on our own. I navigated us down Pennsylvania Avenue and we passed the Washington Monument. It was pretty crazy city riding, and we were beyond exhausted. We made it before the press conference and in time for everything. A couple of riders hadn't finished and a couple pulled in after us, so we weren't last.

The talks were good - Alex Tinker from Focus the Nation was excellent, as were Earl Blumenauer (OR) and Lloyd Doggett (TX). We took a photo of riders for 350.org. I have a nice background on my phone from standing on the senate lawn. :)

Then we gathered for the final push to Georgetown University - our official ending point. I was just trying not to hurt myself at this point. Apparently I rode by the White House, though I have no recollection of doing so! Dave and I thought that was pretty funny.


Once arriving at Georgetown, I almost immediately rode BACK out of campus to the UPS store. They disassembled our bikes and we left them for shipping. It was way more expensive shipping out than getting to New York, which was no fun. Eventually we got that set up and I walked back onto campus. I ran into Christa and Chrissy and said goodbye - very sad. I found my luggage and picked up some awesome Nike running shoes they donated to riders. Then I had some food, called Dave, and waited for Sarah. I was very glad to see her!

That night I took a glorious shower, had a great vegetarian dinner with Sarah, her roommate Meredith, boyfriend Gavin, and friend Kate. They were great. We watched some tv, and then I passed out. I woke up on Thursday morning amazed that I didn't have to get up and disassemble my tent, or ride!

Holtwood, PA to Baltimore, MD - Day 4

Day 4 was a day of frustration for me. We found out that we would be riding 67 miles instead of the 60 miles advertised in our rider e-mails. And we came to find out that the day would be very, very hilly.

That said, the Mennonite camp was very nice and they fed us another lovely meal before we left for the day. I was glad to have another night in a bed rather than cold in a tent.

There was a big hill immediately headed out of camp, and we weren't excited about it. Actually, it turned out not to be so bad. We were in a hilly area, though, and continued with the rolling up and downs most of the day. Early in the morning we crossed a dam which was gorgeous. Shortly after the dam, I was forced to walk my bike up a hill for the first time. With our legs shot from all the miles (and with my lack of a granny gear - only 16 speeds), I had to give myself a break on the steepest hills. If I hadn't, I think I probably would have had more falls out of my clips! The terrain really was grueling and our morale got pretty low.

On the plus side, they had Tofurky jerky for us! I LOVE Tofurky jerkey.

Horse country was quite gorgeous, but we found it somewhat hard to appreciate through our exhaustion. The pizza for lunch at a cute farm was definitely appreciated. The roads got pretty crazy getting into Baltimore. We had to walk up a hiking trail with our bikes for the last push into Outward Bound.

By the time we arrived we were completely exhausted. We had to set up our tents for the night, and mine still wasn't totally drive from the first night. I ended up laying it out in the sun (thank goodness for the weather!) and taking a shower. Then I put the rain fly on the main compartment of the tent. Dinner was delicious. I had to skip the talk because I was just too tired. Dave can attest to this - he listened to me and was concerned.

I slept pretty well that night. I set up lots of layers and went to bed early. We were getting up at 5:30am on Wednesday for the final push into Washington, D.C.







HARDEST DAY OF RIDING!!!

Valley Forge to Holtwood, PA - Day 3

I was very nervous on the morning of the third day of Climate Ride. It was 66 miles, our longest mileage day so far.

We set out on the route with a big group. It was that morning that I started noticing the wide variety of road kill we were encountering along the way - I saw at least a dog, raccoon, deer, and a kitty. Very sad.

We had a water stop in a very cute town - the stop location is pictured in the column on the right, where I am riding. Chrissy and I split some coffee cake - yum. The route was mainly rolling hills, with increasing numbers and steepness in the hills. Our group decided to break up the riding with another water stop at a Rite Aid before entering Amish Country.

Amish Country was beautiful. I especially enjoyed seeing all the clothes on lines outside the houses. We passed buggies, waving from our bikes, and were please to receive waves from the Amish people.

As we came out of Amish Country, we had the chance to stop at an ice cream shop in Strasburg, PA. It was a delicious and much appreciated break. Making the final push into camp, I lost the directions clipped to my bike while descending a hill. They just below right off. That meant my navigation had to be put on hold and someone else had to take the lead.

Unfortunately we discovered there were lots of hills at the end of the day when we were very ready to be done. In one particular case we descending a hill just to turn up a large hill - we were always annoyed when this happened with no warning and we couldn't work off momentum.

We made it in to camp around 4:30pm. The Mennonite camp where we stayed was nice. I decided to pay $6 to stay in a dorm. Chrissy, Christa, and I shared a room. Christa and I had some room finding confusion and with our exhaustion from the the day she got frustrated with me. I understood, and we got through it. We all appreciated what the others were going through.

There was a zipline in camp. It looked fun, but I was way too tired to put my body through it. After showering, I was just so glad to go to dinner. Unfortunately, we were towards the end of the line and they ran out of spaghetti. Luckily they made more, but we definitely found that we were all on edge and the little things would set us off. Dinner was kind of hard for me because it was another rider's birthday and her daughter was riding with her, so she had a cake and everyone sang to her. I couldn't help but feel a little sad that my birthday was missed, though I understood that I didn't have a buddy there to plan something for me. On the plus side, I was impressed by the kindness of the Mennonite camp staff. The camp director asked to give a blessing of our meal, and he was extremely supportive of what we were doing.

That night Christa gave a short talk at our evening discussion to overview Clean Air-Cool Plant, one of the beneficiary organizations of the ride and her employer. She did a great job! Then we heard from Point Carbon. Things were running late and I was exhausted, so I stepped out after that.

Cell phone reception was very limited at the camp, and I missed getting to talk to Dave. That was hard, especially given the crazy day 4 to come...

Princeton, NJ to Valley Forge, PA - Day 2

60 miles and a fairly easy day (in retrospect)...

After a very cold night our tents were wet as we got up in twilight and prepared to depart. I almost missed breakfast because they told us to drop off our gear first, but most people just went for the food. Chrissy, Christa, Jen and I set out with Paul from Alaska and Alan from LA. I couldn't help but laugh when we said their names together Paul Alan...Paul Allen. I'm such a Washingtonian.

Anyway, the second day I really established my role as navigator. We had a water stop in Lambertville, NJ, which was nice. Then we walked across a bridge and into Pennsylvania. Lunch was in Doylestown, PA. I sent my first text update from here. All of the towns were very cute.

Most of the hills were in the morning, but it was very hot in the afternoon. We stopped at Whole Foods at mile 42 to have a snack and some water. The last water stop was supposed to be at 53 miles - we weren't sure why it was so close to the end. As it turned out, we missed the water stop when trying to figure out how to enter a trail. In the process of negotiating, I took my second fall (and luckily my last). I scraped up my knewe and was bleeding. Jen gave me a bandaid, but it fell off with the motion of pedaling.

We were with Mike, a rider from Pennsylvania who knew the area. He took us on a packed dirt trail that cut out several hills - we were appreciative! I wasn't exactly in love with riding my road bike on a dirt trail, but I was also exhausted and just wanted to be done.

The dorms we stayed in were gorgeous brick buildings. Chrissy and I were sharing a room. We had beds, linens, and our own bathroom! I laid out my tent to dry, showered, sorted some things, and got to dinner just about on time. They made a mistake and thought they only had about 4 vegetarians on the ride, when actually there were twenty something. Whoops! The people running the place were really nice and fond us something to eat.

I was feeling really frustrated at that point. I was upset about the communication and it bothered me that there were so few new riders. We kept hearing about the hills increasing, and I just didn't know how I would get through that. I also tried to get some help with my bike because the rear brake was rubbing, and I felt upset when the staff weren't very helpful. They had bigger problems, so mine was low priority. I ended up opening my safety release and dealing with it.

I decided to go to the talk - I thought it might help. Wood Turner from Climate Counts was very good, as was Mike Eckhart from ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy). I talked to Dave and that helped, too. I still felt afraid for Monday - it would be the longest miles yet at 66.

At least I had a comfy bed and a warm dorm to sleep in!

Climate Ride video!

Climate Ride has created a video and posted it on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyB70xvJ4JY



Produced by goodfocus

New York to Princeton, NJ - Day 1

Back to the blogging! Now I have my notes and I'm ready to go!

The first day of riding, September 20, was my 26th birthday. I thought this was a fun coincidence, and part of my decision to participate in the ride was finding an amusing way to celebrate no longer being in the 18-25 category.

The first day was the shortest day of riding - about 47 miles. I woke up not having enjoyed much sleep in my tiny closet of a hostel room. The place had seemed so quiet in the afternoon - I guess because everyone was out doing things. Right after I went to bed a really loud group came in. There were all these signs about being quiet, but that just didn't convince them. Sigh.

Anyways, I got up and hefted my huge bag out of my small room, down the stairs, and about 5 blocks to BLVD. When we arrived, the bikes had been moved around since the night before. After a scavenger hunt to find my bike, I picked up some water bottles and got all my gear ready to go. I reconnected with the girls I had met the night before - Jen, Chrissy, and Christa. AKA my ride support team. I was our navigator and Jen our resident photographer (you will see a lot of her photos).

When we were finally ready to depart, we lined up outside BLVD. CBS was filming our ride out of Manhattan, so we stayed in a clump for the first few blocks. Then we spread out a bit as we continued south under the bridges and to the ferry docks. We stopped at "Bicycle for a Day," an event hosted by Matthew Modine. Then we continued a few more blocks to catch our chartered boat. It looked a lot like the Victoria Clipper. We loaded our bikes onto the bow, which was a little strange for me after babying my bike for so long. Chrissy and I were feeling pretty sick on the ride over and we weren't very interested in lunch at Jersey Highlands after we docked.

My group of girls headed out pretty quickly. We were ready to go, and we knew we weren't the fastest riders in the bunch. The first 16 miles of riding was pretty hilly, but not compared to what we did in the days to come (little did we know!). The remaining 30ish miles of the day were quite flat and pleasant. New Jersey is quite nice! :)

As we came into Princeton, I was definitely starting to feel tired. The Princeton campus was nice - I always enjoy seeing campuses. I took my first fall of the ride going down a street in a group of riders. Lesson learned: Always unclip when you are riding slowly in a pack! Luckily it didn't hurt too much and we were almost there.

The first night we camped on a soccer field at the Princeton YMCA. I thoroughy enjoyed my hot shower at the YMCA, and we got in early enough to relax quite a bit before dinner and the evening talk. Betsy Taylor of 1Sky gave a great talk that was really inspiring and a good kick-off. She asked the experienced riders to be thoughtful of the newer riders and to greet them as they passed. I noticed that a lot of people did this the next day. After the talk we stopped for some hot chocolate - yum. I wrote notes when we got back to our tents. Apparently I had a small headache, but I was feeling okay. I was hopeful because rumor was that the next day of riding was flat.

I didn't get a very god night sleep again. Unfortunately I was pretty cold. I was surprised by how cold the nights were since we had gorgeous weather during the day.

Here are a few picture highlights, almost all courtesy of Jen: