Sea Cycling

I was in need of a few days outside of my comfort zone - come to think of it, I'm not sure I have a comfort zone...maybe my "comfort zone" is to be constantly in a state of flux, finding new adventures, seeing new places and the like - whatever the case, I needed to be out of Philly for a few days. It happens. As luck would have it, my Mom, Stepdad and Aunt graciously whisked me away to Ocean City, MD for a long weekend of beachiness last weekend. Thanks to them and also my friends Fawn & Doug for making their condo available.

I ride for work almost every day, but even on a brief vacation, I just HAD to take my bike. Gotta keep those cycling legs healthy, unlike the last time, and I really hate driving my car these days unless I'm traveling great distances (I didn't use my car for the 3 days I was down there). Plus, it's always nice to bike in a completely different setting, especially a beach:

That was from the first night, about 7 miles south of our condo. I did ride on the boardwalk for a little while, but after the sun went down, it got really crowded, so I decided to head back.

The ride back was surprisingly challenging, with a fierce sea breeze blowing directly at me the entire time, but rewarding nonetheless. Ocean City, like many beach towns, is very bike-friendly. The right lane on both sides of the Coastal Highway is reserved for bikes and busses only, and considering how wide the road is to begin with, it's an absolute pleasure cruise compared to the often narrow streets of Philly. 14 miles on the first day of vacation is my kind of relaxing. :P

I also noticed something odd on the way back. Every so often, there were black squares in the bike lane, all the same size, in the same locations, just before or after intersections:

It's tough to see, but if you look closely, you can see that there were bike share arrows (or sharrows) painted underneath the black squares, which were used to cover them up. Why? Maybe they had some left over black paint...

At any rate, I did my fair share of riding up and down OCMD that weekend, mostly without incident. There were a couple of crazy kids who rented motorized three-wheelers and thought they owned the bike lane, and occasionally some joggers clogged it up as well (neither are supposed to be in the bike lane), but no crashes, so yay.

Biggest difference between the shore and Philly, I wasn't afraid to leave my bike out overnight (still locked, of course):

It looks rather nice with those beach chairs attached. :P

I was hoping to bike up the coast to Bethany and/or Rehoboth, but for various reasons, it didn't happen. I mean, when the beach looks like this first thing in the morning, why would you want to go anywhere else?

All in all, a gorgeous time down by the seaside. I don't need to go into much more detail. Reality isn't all that bad, but it's nice to escape for a bit every now and then...