Thanksgiving Day Ride

Well, Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we at bikes@vienna held our annual "Guilt Reduction Ride", a casual, fun ride along the W&OD rail trail. The ride started at 9 am at the shop, and we had a pretty good turn out, with about a dozen riders. In addition to getting some exercise to hopefully offset at least a few of the calories we all consume on Thanksgiving, we also urge folks to bring along an item of canned food for a local charity.

As you can see in the photo above, we had spectacular weather... a bit chilly, but bright sunlight the whole way. John had warned everyone to dress in layers, which was definitely the way to go, as it did warm up some between the start and end of the ride. Our turnaround point, shown above, was in Herndon, about 9 miles from the shop, making for a nice, mellow ride. You can see that we had quite a mix of bikes on the ride, which is typical for us. There were several upright (what some would call "normal") bikes, including me on my RB-T, a couple of Rans "crank forward" bikes (such as the yellow Fusion in the foreground), a couple of two wheeled recumbents, including John and Ces on a Barcroft Columbia tandem, and one "tadpole" trike. A fun mix.

Before we started, John asked me to ride "sweep"... which means I bring up the rear, keeping an eye out for stragglers, and calling John on his cell phone if I think we need to hold up for someone. I had a lot of fun in this role, as we had no real problems along the way, and it gave me the chance to hang back and chat with several different people along the way. And being the shop's head mechanic, it makes a world of sense for me to be the guy bringing up the rear.

All in all, I think everyone had a wonderful time. Good company, sunshine, a day off, and a bike ride... what's not to like?