suburbs on the outskirts of Baltimore. Although there were plenty of horse farms and woods, there was also quite a bit of traffic compared to what we had been riding through, and the roads were narrow, making the riding a bit more stressful than past days. But we had a pleasant enough ride in perfect weather as we worked our way first north, then west and south to the northern edge of the DC metropolitan area.
Our route took us through the Patuxent watershed and by Brighton Dam, just as we crossed into Montgomery County. While other riders have been dutifully chronicling our crossing of state lines, I had to stop for a picture entering Montgomery County Maryland, my home for over 20 years.I had arranged to meet Scott Alexander, friend and former minister from Bethesda who has ridden across the country twice (shown below), to meet me along the route and ride in to DC with me.
We met up at a small crossroads in Brookville, MD, and I enjoyed catching up with him as we rode into DC. Chris, Scott and I joined a larger group at the last SAG stop, and Scott was very helpful in leading us through Rock Creek Park into DC.We arrived downtown DC, the end of my trip, about 2:30, where Toni was there to greet me. I quickly introduced Toni to some of my riding buddies, but then had to quickly say good-bye while squeezing in a quick shower and packing up my bicycle to ship back to California. I hadn't anticipated how hard it would be to leave the trip when most of the rest of the group is pressing on to Florida, and I wish I could go on with them.
Toni and I spent the evening celebrating her birthday, though I was asleep by 9:00.Here's our route for Monday: 82.1 miles; 1,893 feet of climbing. I plan to give some overall thoughts on the ride in another posting in the next several days, so stay tuned.
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