Van : Ravensbruck
Today we started at Gathland State Park the Civil War site of the Battle of South Mountain.
We had a 65 mile ride ahead of us which would be the shortest ride for me in several days. I figured it would be an easy day. We had a large group of around 30 riders. Today we only have one leg and since this is the last day everyone wanted to ride. As with the past few days the roads were narrow and not very bike friendly. I could feel that many of us were road weary from days on the road dealing with cars, dogs, road kill and potholes. It was a bit frustrating navigating to Downtown D.C. since none of us were familiar with the area. We got lost a few times.
At one point of the ride my heart dropped and I thought we may have lost some riders. I was riding mid pack. A truck past us on the left and raced ahead. We were in rolling hills so I could not see the riders ahead. All of a sudden the truck driver slammed on the brakes and swerved sideways. I thought he may have hit someone but luckily he had not. Apparently he passed some riders and must have thought that was everyone and as he came back over he realized there were still riders ahead and he hit the brakes. Thankfully no one was hit! 
We had three more riders join us when we were 40 miles into the ride. The D.C. traffic was heavy and at times it seemed like it might be faster to walk but we tolerated the traffic and for the most part the drivers tolerated us. I would soon find out how much D.C. motorists love their car horns. It seemed like a constant irritating honking for the last 10 – 15 miles of the ride.
As we got closer to the finish we could see the LA2DC runners on the other side of the street. It was a hot and humid day and I could see some of them were having a hard time with the heat but they carried on. As we approached the park there was a crowd to cheer us on. We made a parade lap around the park and then congratulated each other, posed for photos and sang Armenian patriotic songs and listened to Grigor recite a poem.
Ride stats:
64 Miles
4245′ Elevation gain
Ride stats on Strava
My personal total mileage for the trip was 1305.5 miles in 14 straight days of riding.
Hans' Blog 