Bike Holiday Report

We had a great time on our bike holiday.  We checked in early at our hotel, stowed our goodies in the fridge and then drove out to the W&OD trail's starting point in Purcellville, VA.  We found the trail-side car park with no problem (thanks little Garmie) and parked at mile 45.  We started biking about 3 pm.  DH had estimated that our hotel was near mile marker 30 so we had plenty of time.  The weather was gorgeous--about 80 degrees.  Because we got a jump on the weekend (DH took Friday off), we had the trail mostly to ourselves.

Most of the time, DH was ahead of me.  He's much faster and likes to sprint.  I go along and enjoy and he circles back to make contact every five minutes or so.  However far I go, he goes twice as far!  That's okay.  I take pictures and like to enjoy the scenery and my thoughts.  Same as running--I almost prefer by myself.  In this, picture, though, DH is behind me.  I took the picture over my shoulder.

 We saw some beautiful scenery on our ride.  Purcellville is out in the country, almost to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.  We had a nice downhill for about the first 10 miles.  There were nice long stretches where I put my bike in the highest gear and enjoyed the breeze.  I like the picture of the yellow flowers (ragweed, I think).  I like to think I was flying by so fast that the flowers are in a blur.  I also like the thistle flowers--reminds me of Wales, one of my favorite places to visit. I took that picture at a water stop.

We also saw lots of horses (lots of "horse country" in Virginia), some palatial "chateaux" dotting the rolling hillsides, and lots of cows.

The Washington and Old Dominion is a fantastic trail.  Paved the entire way, a minimum of road crossings, fairly flat  (I LOVE flat), and well signed.  Every cross street was signed, available water is signed, and there are lots of interesting information markers about the local history and the interesting flora and fauna one might encounter.   DH's estimate of the distance for the first day was short by about 7 or 8 miles, so we had a good 23 miles.  Oh and DH turned back about 18 miles in and went back ( UP that hill I enjoyed going down the first 10 miles) and got the car.  I got first chance at the shower and fancied up for our dinner out.  We went to Outback and eschewed the mega-point cheesefries and blooming onion kind of options for a nice 6 oz steak , a salad, and a sweet potato.  We stopped at a Safeway and picked up individual Baskin Robbins ice creams for a dessert splurge.  Yeah, we painted the town red! :-)

We ended up doing exactly half of the trail the first day.  We were going to do an equal distance on Saturday but were rained out by un-predicted severe thunder storms that flew through the area in the morning.  We had coffee (skinny latte for me) at a local Starbucks and enjoyed reading the newspaper in a leisurely fashion, hoping to outlast the storm, but that was not to be.          

 We came home and I was able to wave my magic wand and come up with this yummy salad for lunch.  In WW all the greens and fruit are pretty much point free.  This one just cost us 3 points for the chicken, 2 points for the olive oil in the vinaigrette, 1 points for the toasted pine nuts, and 2 points for a bit of chopped avocado. 

I'm still feeling quite strong about staying OP.  Five days, is that a streak yet??  I'm tracking my WW points  (love the iPad!) and trying out lots of new recipes.  If you have an iPad or iPhone, be sure and download the WW Kitchen Helper App.  Great recipes and a wonderful search ingredients and they find a recipe feature.  Also will transfer the points to your tracker with the click of a button.

Hope you are having a great weekend, too.  It's not over yet!