Day 1

I wake up around 9:30 in my warm comfy bed and have no desire to abandon it for a week to sit on a bike seat and live in a tent.  But, apparently I have decided to do this, so I'd better get going.  I enjoy my last purple smoothie breakfast, stuff as many peanut butter and honey sandwiches as will fit in 3 ziploc bags (6, as it turns out) and make some last minute decisions about whether certain items make the cut to come along (sorry second pair of sneakers, you have been classified as nonessential).  I gather my bags and secure everything to the bike.  I head downstairs and take a minute out front of the Griffin to get my mile 0 photo, while C.J., the front desk lady, observes the crazy girl from 804 and her latest antics.  I explain that I'm off to Pittsburgh.  "Someone coming to pick you up?" she asks.  "No, I'm biking there." She shakes her head and laughs as though this is the most ridiculous thing she has ever heard.  But she's not surprised.  "You're going to be so skinny when you get back!" she tells me.  That would be nice.  Perhaps she's still trying to make up for her outburst a few months ago where she saw my protruding belly and asked if I was pregnant.  (I was not, I had just been using my broken leg to justify a sharp uptick in milkshake consumption.  "My bones need calcium!")

Mile 0

   I take off around 11am and immediately notice the difference handling the bike loaded up with all its luggage, in that, I can't seem to handle it.  I have a brief moment of panic as I struggle to direct the bike with the handlebars and it fights back, but then I channel my motorcycle training and tell myself that if I can steer a 500+ pound machine then surely I should be ok on my bike with its extra 40ish pounds.  ("That's only a little more than two Olivers!" I exclaimed upon weighing the bags the night before.  Surely this should be no problem.)  In fact, after less than a minute I get used to it and it's no problem at all.

I take the Capital Crescent trail for the first 3 miles until it meets up with the towpath.  From here, it's all dirt for the next few days, except for when it's mud.  I expect more praise and encouragement from bystanders as I head out on my epic journey, but no one seems to notice or care.  Definitely should have brought my oversized teddy bear; if the girl with the dog in a backpack was a spectacle, then surely a bear strapped to the front of my bike would have been a conversation starter.   Alas, I am but a plain old human on a bike, so I resign myself to 7 days of solitude and pedaling.  Day 1 is rather uneventful, and this portion of the towpath is the same stretch that I covered one day last summer when I decided to bike to Harper's Ferry.  Because of this, I know not to expect much in the way of changing scenery, though Great Falls is beautiful and the highlight of the day.  Around mile 5 I turn and freak out as I notice a stowaway sitting on my left shoulder, enjoying the free ride.  He looks sort of like a praying mantis, but apparently he also flies, and he takes off as soon as I notice him.  I start to make mental notes of all the wildlife encountered, but quickly lose track after about 8 turtles and a bazillion deer.             

  I stop for lunch somewhere around mile 25 at a picnic table overlooking the Potomac and scarf down PBH number one along with an apple that I brought.  The more I eat the less I have to carry! I think, although this logic doesn't really seem to stand up to scrutiny since I still have to carry myself.  I ignore logic and inhale half a bag of dried mango and a bag of trail mix before getting back on the bike. 

  I had thought I might camp out at one of the hiker/biker campsites around mile 48, but as I approach the end of today's cycling quota, I decide that a few extra miles to get to a campsite with a legitimate shower will be well worth it.  I stay at Brunswick family campground around mile 55 and am very happy to wash off all the dirt, from myself in the shower and off my clothes in a bucket.  I hang up my newly washed clothes on my clothesline and make my first dehydrated dinner (beans and rice) and it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.  I then use the "lighten the load" justification to consume half of the rum cake that Diana brought me from Bermuda, read for a bit in my tent, and enjoy my first night of camping.