Kensington, Annapolis, Denton

The weekend with Debbie and Alan was a luxurious way to recover from a week on the trail. Friday we walked to a great neighborhood restaurant near Alan's and had a great meal with Debbie, Alan and Debbie's friend Kathy, whom we haven't seen for a long time.

After a good night's sleep, Debbie and I walked to the grocery store while Alan and Bob did some household chores. After lunch, it was a brisk hike to the bagel shop and then showers and an early movie. We saw Cyrus, starring Marisa Tomei and John C. Reilly, a really good, haunting story of a mother and son. It is definitely worth seeing and certainly food for discussion, though we all agreed that IMDB's label of "comedy" was not quite accurate. We ate at a Thai place in Bethesda that we had tried once before and we weren't disappointed.

Altogether the weekend was just what we needed, and we even had a bicycle escort out of town, as Alan and Debbie led us to the trail we needed to find to head east. There were some twists and turns, but eventually we found our way to Annapolis. By far the worst problem of the last week of riding has been the high temperatures. On the ride to Annapolis, Maggie was looking a little flushed just because it hit 104 degrees. I guess we're only as sane as mad dogs and Englishmen, out in the noon-day sun!

We checked into the O'Callaghan Hotel on West Street. It proved to be luxurious and affordable and since we arrived relatively early, we cleaned up and took a nap to cool down. The heat and humidity have a way of sucking more energy out of us than long mileages. Our last two days of riding have been under 50 miles each, but felt like 100.

We hadn't been in Annapolis for about 15 years, so it was great to see that it really hadn't changed all that much. We found a Mexican restaurant a couple of blocks from the hotel and then followed that up with a visit to an ice cream shop and a walk along the waterfront.

This morning, feeling refreshed and rested, we had breakfast at Chick and Ruth's Delly, a famous place in town. Checking out was tough since the hotel was nice enough to make us want to stay and stay cool! But we got a start on the road based on bicycle directions from the State of Maryland. Our route took us past the Naval Academy and then out onto quiet country roads, much less confusing than the day before.

Before leaving the room, we made arrangements with the shuttle service that would take us across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, since you're not allowed to cycle on it.
The shuttle driver is a school bus driver during the year, and his wife accompanied him since they knew there would only be the two of us. They seem to enjoy meeting people this way, and they shared that most of their business is actually shuttling people who are afraid to drive the bridge. He drives the van and she their cars.

A few hot hours later we are in Denton, MD, cooling down in a Best Western, cleaning up and getting ready to use the pool and rest up before dinner. Tomorrow we will head to Lewes, DE, and then take the ferry over on Wednesday morning to Cape May. the Atlantic is almost in sight!