Me and Jeff's North County Bike "Tour"

Yesterday, Friday (May 11th) Jeff and I decided to go on a bike ride. The circumstances were special: Jeff is leaving for Dresden tomorrow, I am leaving for Europe in 2 weeks, and the next time I see him will be when I reach Dresden with Greg via our bicycles. So we thought this was a fitting adventure. Plus we had a lot of time to kill before Amanda's 21st birthday celebration.


We started out on the NCR trail, which is a trail that extends from Hunt Valley all the way up to York PA. It used to be a railroad track. If you click that link we started at the beginning in Ashland and went until we reached Parkton. It was only about 15 miles to Parkton. We stopped in Parkton because I recalled going to a bar there when I rode my bike on the trail last summer.



This is me outside of the bar. Upon walking in, like in any local bar worth the concrete its built
upon, all of the regulars stopped and stared at us. Was it that we reeked of sweat? That I had
bright red gym shorts on and Jeff had a bright orange shirt on? Or that they just hadn't seen a new person enter in months? Don't know, but they locked in on us. We ordered our Natty Bo's for $2.50 a piece, because apparently the only happy hour in this bar was when the owner cashes out the register at 2am. The funny thing about this bar was that they were all drinking Natural Light because as the lady put it "We drink in Quantity not Quality!" She chastised her son for drinking a Budweiser cause that was the fancy stuff. Twas funny. Jeff decided to tell the blue collar folk that Natty Light is what we drink in college. Good work Jeff, now they have reason to stare us out of the bar. We paid and left after a little.


We started heading back towards Ashland on the NCR trail. There was

a cool waterfall and a be careful of the poisonous snakes sign. Me and Jeff were walking, or riding should I say, on the wild side (obviously). The trail is actually quite pleasant. And there are some cool scenic views. The trail follows some river, and goes through a lot of small quaint towns. But when we got back to Monkton we mutually decided to leave the confines of the trail and take the back roads home. I also felt this would be a good ice breaker for the first leg of the tour d'europe, as we were looking at mainly rolling country roads. Being that Jeff was a pizza delivery driver in the area, he knew the roads well. As luck would have it the first thing we ran into was a monstrous hill. Like I said, ice breaker... S'all good. Ride hard, right? We kept going. It's actually really funny how many times we have been on those roads and missed so many of the scenic views. It reminded me of the book Fahrenheit 451. In the book they start making billboards like 1,000 feet long (I forget the actual footage, but its asinine) because people drive so fast the only way they can see the advertisement is if its that big. And such is the case here... people drive so fast that they miss the scenic views between the openings in the tree line. Well, me and Jeff didn't miss them :p!


I guess the views are not even that amazing. I mean its not a mountainous region. There is nothing spectacular about Northern Baltimore County. Its just very peaceful... but every time you look at someone driving through the area they look angry. They are in a rush to get home from work, they are in a rush to get Billy from school, they are in a rush to get Samantha to soccer practice, rush rush rush RUSH. But when you slow yourself down to 20 miles per hour and take yourself out of a soundproofed pod... things get a lot less rushed, a lot more peaceful, and it really does calm you a good bit. And maybe thats why I have really taken a huge liking to biking. It slows life down and lets you enjoy your surroundings more. As kids, this is how we all were. And then something changes and you get into the habit of living a rushed lifestyle. This little excursion with Jeff didn't ease my nervous apprehension towards my tour with Greg, but it did reinforce why I am excited. Me and Greg are going to live life in the slow lane for 3 months. We will go where we want, when we want, and take our time doing it.


I am still just as nervous, but now even more excited.


Frank