(21 miles)
(Editor’s comment: This is September 11, the Peral Harbor Day of my lifetime.)
It is 51 miles from today’s starting point (Westminster) to the last stop on the trip (Silver Spring). This would normally be a good day’s ride for me which would end in a shower, dinner, a short viewing of news on the TV, and then to bed.
However, the last stop on this trip is a dinner with my long-ago friend Joe and his wife Sharon, and when I was planning this trip I remembered the last stop on my 2018 Buffalo-to-Boston (Brookline) trip was a 95-degree September 6. If the temperature on the last day of this September ride was even close to that September day in Massachusetts, I’d be in no shape to visit anyone after a 51-mile ride.
To play it safe, I broke the Westminster-to-Silver Spring trip into a 21-mile ride to Mt Airy, followed by a 30-mile ride to Silver Spring.
The gear derailer worked OK, but I was also extra-carful when shifting gears. It was a leisurely ride and I arrived in Mt Airy before noon. I stopped at a UPS store, bought a box, and shipped back to Cleveland whatever I thought I could live without for tomorrow’s ride to Silver Spring: one of the two rear bags, spare water bottes, sweatshirts and extra clothes, etc.
After lunch at Chick Filet (which is next door to a KFC) I went to the Budget Inn and spent the afternoon starting to write this trip report.
The motel is one of those whose exterior door opens to the parking spot a few feet away. I think the word “Low” that must have been in front of the the word “Budget” fell off before I got there. I will say that the room was thoroughly disinfected, as I had to leave the exterior door open all afternoon to overcome the strong aroma of Lysol and bleach in the air.