A Couple of Firsts on a Bike Ride.....

Today Katydid and I had a couple of "firsts" on our bike ride.

We were camping in a state park about 10 miles from where the weekend's rides started, and yesterday we drove out there to start. Our camping location, however, was about 3 miles from rest stop #3 on today's route, so we decided to start there. We rode from the park to rest stop #3 and then rode the route backward to rest stop #2. That was quite a challenge, since at the beginning it was too early to look for oncoming cyclists. We had to look for turn symbols and signs on the OTHER side of the road at every intersection. Eventually, however, we started seeing a steady stream of cyclists on the regular route. I'm not a big fan of riding the route backward, particularly when there are large numbers of riders. (This weekend we had over 900, so it was larger than usual for a weekend ride.) When there is traffic, drivers have to watch out for cyclists coming in both directions, so they're doubly pissed off about that. This weekend, however, we were on mostly low-traffic roads, so it didn't pose too much of a problem. Particularly not on a Sunday morning. Riding the route this way gave us a nice round 40 miles for the day, and it meant we didn't have to drive to the beginning and then back to the motorhome when we were finished.

The other "first" involved this farm.


I've posted about them before. It's because they have cows that look like this.

They're not officially called Oreo cows, and I'm sure they have a real name. This farm has been on our Spring Tune-Up route for several years, and cyclists started stopping and taking pictures. The owner got wind of it, and he decided he would be an "unofficial" rest stop.

Three years ago, we came to a screeching halt at his farm when we saw that he had posted two signs. "Free Oreos" and "Free Beer." Those two don't really go together, so Katydid opted for the Oreo, and I felt obligated to take a beer. I mean, after all, the man had driven his golf cart all the way down his driveway with a cooler full of beer. Free beer. I didn't want to let him down.

This morning, because we were riding the backward route, his farm was only about 4.5 miles into our ride. And it was about 9:00 AM. As we went past, he shouted, "This is the booze cart!" And I replied, "We'll be back!"

He wasn't lying. When we came back a couple of hours later, we saw that he had once again provided free beer and free Oreos to passing cyclists.

But this year he had added something new.

Bloody Marys.

The picture above is of the farm owner, happily pouring free Bloody Marys for cyclists curious/adventurous enough to stop.

They said we could see the cows if we walked down the driveway.

I've seen cows before. But Bloody Marys on a bicycle ride?

That was a first.