2015 50 states and 13 colonies

Impressive that you could stay with Boomer, Kitty! Kudos!

A plethora of flat tires and one broken chain assured that I would remain at the back. We got everyone rolling again except two. One guy needed rim strips and the other gave up after eight flats(?) and he had three unrepaired holes in his tube when I caught up with him just before he abandoned.

Well that wasn’t fun. Flat at Big Chair in Anacostia. Patching in the rain just didn’t work. Pumped again at Malcolm X. Tried to patch again on Mississippi. Got a spare tube from an Angel on Alabama. Ride sorted itself out until the Takoma pit stop where for the 2nd year in a row the rain got me in sheets. Headed off alone into RCP with mushy cue sheets, GPS at 0%, and every way a raging tributary of Rock Creek. I think I went back and forth on Beach Drive 4 or 5 times trying to find the unsigned road up to Oregon. I would have quit if I knew how to get out of RCP. But I finally found Bingham and then other cyclists on Western.

After a day of shredded, mushy impossible cue sheets no matter how many baggies you had, I had to tip my hat to the joker who printed the cue sheet on the t-shirt. Well played. I’ll get you next time.

@chris_s 124131 wrote:

I really expected more families on the 13 Colonies Ride – I guess nobody else wanted to drag their kids through the rain?

Saturday in September + kids = FULL SCHEDULE

@Kitty 124123 wrote:

Despite the “DAMNIT BOOMER” tally reaching 6, thank you sir for your marshaling and letting me ride with you! In conditions like that, on a ride like that, it really meant a lot to me to have someone on the road ahead to follow after, even if it meant chasing sometimes.

We marshals take our duty seriously to leave no rider left behind…until we are in striking distance of beer[emoji4]….

…but it was a pleasure to have you stick it out and chase us down after every turn, Hill and light, on what was a very tough and challenging route. I think it means you are ready to ride witg us, and anyone else, from here on out. I look forward to seeing you on my wheel again soon.

@consularrider 124164 wrote:

But the NWS only reported .16 inches of rain for the day. :confused:

You know, scattered showers… heavy at times… BVB had bad luck. I put my rain jacket on a couple times but it was bungeed to my rack for most of the ride. My cue sheet survived without being in a baggie, my glasses never became useless and my socks never got completely soaked.

Yeah, you got full soaked? Sweet. We even saw the sun a couple of times at the back of the pack. Slow rider win. My right arm is still sore from all the pumping. Good workout but my pump died.

@Rod Smith 124198 wrote:

Yeah, you got full soaked? Sweet. We even saw the sun a couple of times at the back of the pack. Slow rider win. My right arm is still sore from all the pumping. Good workout but my pump died.

Yeah slow-rider!! But guess then that the lead marshal had the Linus Effect:(…a la Charlie Brown)