Posted by barb on Oct 2, 2005 in
Biking,
Pictures 
We finally got back out on the bikes this weekend after being away for three weeks (travel and Ren Fest got in the way). We tried to get out on the W & OD Trail yesterday, but were hampered by the fact that everyone else in the Universe thought it was the perfect day to get out on the trail, too. We ended up biking close to home, and only did about 5.5 miles.
Today, however, we loaded the bikes on the car and drove up to Andrew’s work in Herndon (this is fast becoming my favorite place to bike from, since there are usually relatively few people on the trail up there). I tried to push myself on our way out, pedalling hard on the down-slopes when we could have just coasted, and trying not to slow down as much on the up-slopes. I was actually tired when we reached the little country shop in Ashburn (8.75 miles from our start point), but wanted to try for our 25-mile goal. After some orange juice and half a candy bar, we decided to push on. We turned around and 12.5 miles almost exactly (though it was hard to tell, because my wheel had been spinning when we drove up to our start point, so there was already ~1.25 miles on my computer when we started the ride).
The quarry pictured on the right was past our furthest one-way trek of 10 miles, so we stopped at the overlook. The silo is actually something we’ve seen on our other trips out of Herndon, and I’d meant to stop for a picture several times, but only managed it this time.
25 miles is really pushing my abilities at this point. I trust that next year it will become routine, but as for today, there were times I wasn’t sure we were going to make it. My thoughts roller-coastered along with the terrain: when we were on an up-slope I was sure we weren’t going to make it, on a down-slope I wondered why I thought 25 miles was so hard. Anyway, my goal has been made. Yay me!
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels
I went with a group from the conference for a tour of Kitt Peak National Observatory. They gave us scientist-led tours of the Mayall 4-meter telescope, the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Wow!
Update (9/20): I’ve posted all of my Kitt Peak pictures in my photo album.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2005 in
Travels I’ve posted the rest of my pictures from the Desert Museum. They aren’t linked from my photo album yet, but I’ll add a link after I get back home.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 16, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels I played hookey from the first couple sessions today and ran off to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just a few miles outside of Tucson. Wow! Best $9 I’ve spent in a very long time. The museum is part science museum part zoo part botany lesson. It’s situated smack in the middle of the desert, and it seems that the designers of the museum tried to disturb that desert as little as possible. The trails are lined with native cacti, many of which were flowering or with fruit today. There are several live-animal exhibits — from a river otter to a black bear to praire dogs to ocelots. There are also two aviaries – one with a variety of birds and another with hummingbirds. Winnie and I spent about three hours at the museum, and were able to see much of it, though we missed the “Desert Loop Trail” with the coyotes and javelinas. I highly recommend this museum if you ever find yourself in this neck of the United States.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 5, 2005 in
Biking A few weeks ago we biked into Ballston along the W&OD trail most of the way from Vienna. When we looked at our bike maps later, we discovered that the W&OD trail ended about 5 miles from where we peeled off the trail. So, today we decided to go to the end of the trail. It was 11.5 miles from Vienna — 23 miles round-trip. So close to our 25-mile trip goal!!
Along the way, there is a swampy area with lily pads, oodles of turtles, and even a frog. We stopped to snap a few pictures — there’s a frog in one of them, though it’s a little hard to make out. If you click through to the Flickr picture, I have a “note” on the picture, showing where the frog is. The other picture has a turtle sunning itself on a small branch. Before we left, the turtle had slid off the branch and disappeared under the lily pads.
We stopped at a Shell station near the end of the trail on our way back for some juice, and Andrew wondered why the station seemed so dead. They were out of gas. I hadn’t seen that yet in our area, but both the Shell and the BP across the street seemed to be out. After we got back on the bikes, we saw another station (Amoco) about half a mile down the trail that did still have gas, and they were selling it at $3.59 per gallon (for regular). And we thought $3.29 was bad a couple days ago.
Total miles on the bike: 23.2 miles
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on Sep 2, 2005 in
Recreation,
Travels Back in February I made some noise about going to Egypt for the total solar eclispe next Spring. Well, we didn’t get our deposit in early enough, and landed on a wait list. Turned out to be a good thing, though, because both Andrew and I have been watching the situation in Egypt, and have been a bit nervous about travelling over there. It’s true that things could get better after the elections, but things could also get worse.
In the meantime, though, my boss pointed out a Mediterranean Eclipse Cruise that will be viewing the eclipse at sea next Spring – we jumped on this opportunity, and have already booked the cruise and airfare. The cruise will make a one-day port call in Cairo, so we will still have the chance to see a little bit of Egypt, and if the situation is bad there, we have the option of staying close to the cruise ship (or on the cruise ship if we’re feeling really uneasy).
I’m really looking forward to this trip. The cruise itinerary will bring us to Rome, Cairo, Cyprus, and Naples. And, of course, we’ll get to see the total solar eclipse.
The only thing I’m worried about is sea-sickness. I know that the general wisdom is that cruise ships are too large for people to feel the water movements, but I’ve talked with a couple other very sensitive people who have gotten seasick on cruises. The good news is that this cruise is in the Mediterranean, which is generally very calm. I’m going to consult my doctor, too, to try and procure some other motion-sickness remedies before we go.
Posted by barb on Aug 28, 2005 in
Biking We weren’t able to go out biking yesterday, due to the rain. For a while this morning, it looked like we might not get out today, either. But, at about 10 AM, it started looking better outside, and the sun peeked out for a little while. In the end, we decided to head out and the rain stayed away just for us.
After making our 20-mile goal last week, I decided that I deserved some real biking clothes. I’ve hesitated buying them because I have a hard time thinking of myself as a “real” cyclist. I finally decided that that was silly – Andrew and I have been out on the bikes nearly every weekend this summer, often both on Saturday and Sunday, and we have powered through some of the hottest weather out there. We’re real cyclists. I may not go as fast as a lot of the cyclists out there, but who cares? That shouldn’t mean that I have to forego the benefits of cycling clothes.
So, here I am with my cute new cycling outfit. I rather enjoyed it, too. The shirt and under-shorts (I bought the “baggy” shorts that have an under-layer of typical cycling material and an over-layer so I’m not out there with way-too-tight shorts) are made of a material that’s supposed to wick away moisture, and I think it really worked – it almost felt like I was’t wearing anything at all, which is probably the point of the cycling-clothing material.
We made 20 miles again, taking the same route as last week. I think we did it a bit faster, too, though I don’t have confirmation of that. (Though, Andrew felt the same way.) I think next weekend we’ll try to up the milage a little, maybe with a bit longer break in the middle.
Total miles: 20.0 miles
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on Aug 22, 2005 in
Biking I’ve already made my goal for this biking season! I wanted to make 20 miles before we put the bikes away, and here we are in August, with two good biking months left, and I’ve already made that goal. Yay me!
Andrew and I both agreed that we felt that we could have kept biking a bit more, so I think we’re going to make a new goal for the end of the season: 25 miles. Go us!
We biked the same route we did last weekend – started at Andrew’s work in Herndon and biked the W&OD trail toward Ashburn. We went an extra mile and a half past where we stopped last week.
Most exciting thing to happen biking so far (yup, even more exciting than the bee in my ear): Just after we turned around, a deer, who had presumably been sleeping in the brush near the trail, got up right next to me, ran in front of my bike and across the trail. I was quite startled, and screamed, because I thought I was going to run into the little guy – he was a little guy, too, as he still had spots.
Total miles: 20.1 miles (!!)
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on Aug 18, 2005 in
Biking Kameron at Brutal Women had a post yesterday about a fat guy at the gym. This reminded me of my many insecurities about being a fat woman (sorry, Andrew, you can argue all you want, but I am fat). I won’t join a gym. While there are several reasons that I won’t join (easier to exercise in the basement, cost, dealing with twiggy women), the main reason is that I’m too self-conscious to exercise in front of other people. I don’t even let Andrew stay in the basement when I’m doing my weights, unless he’s on the exercise bike. Of course some of this self-consciousness is from the years of being “the fat girl” in elementary, junior high and high school. However, my aversion to others watching me exercise comes primarily from my brother and father. Years ago, when I still lived at home, and my mother and I were trying Weight Watchers yet again, we decided to try an exercise video to get ourselves moving. We would wait until Dave and Dad were supposed to be out of the house for a while (either working or at bowling or some such thing), and then we’d pop the tape in. No sooner had we started, but Dave or Dad would show up at the top of the stairs and laugh at us. That’s right. They weren’t encouraging us in our efforts to become more healthy; they were mocking us. Nice, huh?
When I first started biking a couple years ago, I was still self conscious, but decided to ignore that in favor of doing something that I really enjoyed. Occasionally, I would go out alone on the streets near our house, and I would get “whoop”ed at by passing cars. This only happened when I was alone, or so far ahead or behind Andrew that it was not clear that we were together. Do you think those drivers were telling me “way to go”? No. Of course not. They were saying “look at the fat girl on the bike” with their “whoop”s. After that, I stuck to biking on bike trails. While other cyclists pass me, at least no one was making fun. I have not ridden on the streets this summer at all, even with Andrew. I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made over the last couple years (from barely able to do 5 miles at the end of 2003 to doing 17 miles last weekend – yay me!), that I just don’t know that I can bear another “whoop”.
Tags: bike, rant
Posted by barb on Aug 13, 2005 in
Biking,
Pictures Andrew and I took the bikes out this morning, despite the heat and humidity. I wanted to see more of the W & OD trail, so we packed up the bikes and drove out to Andrew’s office in Herndon. The trail passes really close to his office, and we’d biked past it once before this summer, but that was near the end of our trip. I quite like taking the trail from Herdon because there are fewer road crossings to contend with. The area, while not completely rural, is at least not completely built up yet. There were also a lot of flowers out this morning — way more than I’d seen on my last trek on my bike.
  
Total miles: 17.2 miles (my longest so far…we might just make my goal of 20 miles by the end of the season!)
Tags: bike
