Great Falls Park & a long bike ride

I feel like I have been playing catch up with everything lately. I finally finished up my photos from last Friday's photo meet up with my friends. Now I can do a weekend recap & update the blog :)

On Saturday we packed up the bikes and went to Great Falls Park with our cousin & his family. They didn't bring their bikes but they wanted to come see & explore the park from the Maryland side. They have always gone to the Virginia side of the park. I actually like the Maryland side better than the Virginia side because there is more to do (hiking, biking etc.) & in my opinion it's more scenic.

While they were walking the trails, hubby and I rode the bikes for about 6 miles. It was quite humid but we enjoyed the ride. It can get kind of annoying at times on the trail because of the amount of traffic (walkers, hikers etc.) & sometimes you cannot get around them so you have to come to a stop. I don't mind because the beauty of the park outweighs the inconvenience of the busy path.

I ran into a guy standing next to his bike that was loaded down with camping gear & asked if he was doing a bike tour. He said no he was just doing some weekend camping, he did mention that the trail goes all the way to Pittsburgh. I would love to try & ride the path further north. I really need to look at a map and plan a long scenic ride one day.

We left the park after 6pm and took the kids to Dairy Queen to enjoy some cool treats.

Sunday...

I wanted to get a long 20+ mile ride in sometime over the weekend & since I did not ride much the prior day I decided to do it on Sunday morning.  I got up at 7:30am, hopped in the shower, put on my cycling gear & opened the front door to find that it rained & the street and sidewalks were all wet. The sky was very cloudy & looked "heavy" and every now and then it would sprinkle. I almost backed out but decided that I better just suck it up & go for it or else I would end up in the house regretting that I did nothing.

An old church & next to it was a graveyard.

I suppose kind of like Etsy all handmade?

I carried some ziplock bags for my cell phone, ID & money. Luckily, it held off from any signifcant downpours. The temperatures were very nice and cool even with the high humidity it still felt good. After 7 miles I was bored with my usual route and decided to go explore some back roads. I do not mind sharing the road with cars but when there is no shoulder it is a bit scary. It was early enough enough in the morning and not many people were out so it wasn't that bad. I got to see some different streets & some neighborhoods that I had no idea even existed.

Had the whole road to myself

And since I have managed to throw MyFitnessPal under the bus again by not logging my food for the past 2 weeks. I treated myself to this (picture below). Why the hell not? I rode 22.5 miles & burned 1104 calories on my ride. Gotta indulge & treat yourself once in awhile.