June 29, 1998

McDONALDS

Friday afternoon, I stopped for a late lunch at a McDonalds in Elkridge, MD. after a long ride through Baltimore and a long climb up a hill on US 1 to Elkridge, MD. I wasn't really surprised when somebody stopped at my table to talk and ask what I was doing.

It turns out that the person who stopped was a fellow long-distance cyclist and a non-practicing Jew. What was so surprising was that he had also the same first name as mine but it had been anglicized. Along with this, it turns out that he had also worked at an environmental education school that I had worked at on the Eastern Maryland shore of Chesapeake Bay.

After a couple of minutes, Jonathan invited me to stay with him for the weekend. This was okay because I was actually a couple of days early for my stop in Arlington, Va. The only problem was that he lived at the bottom of the hill and I would have to go up it Monday morning.

Friday night, Jonathan and I talked till the early hours of Saturday morning. Saturday, I didn't do much and but clean off the bike and checked out my e-mail while Jonathan had to go to work with his own house painting company. Sunday morning, I didn't feel like going to church because of the late night spent talking with Jonathan and there wasn't a church in the area. We went out for a late breakfast and also stopped at a flea market to find a desk chair for Jonathan's office.

Instead of buying a desk chair, Jonathan surprised me by buying me a pair of tennis shoes. The tennis shoes that I had on were pretty well worn out with a couple of holes in the sole of my right shoe.

On the way back to his truck, Jonathan suggested that we stop at a camping outlet store that was near the flea market. He said that he wanted to check out a tent for him because he said he needed one. I was floored when he decided in the spur of the moment to buy me a tent instead. Jonathan said that my Wal-mart tent wasn't good enough. The tent that Jonathan picked was a $120 Eureka Tent that had two doors and a large fly.

SOME INTERESTING BICYCLE TOURING RECORDS

Greatest authenticated mileage - Tommy Chambers of Scotland between 1927 and Dec. 25, 1973 had ridden 799,405 miles.

Longest Cycle Tour on a Tandem - Ron and Sandra Slaughter between Dec. 30, 1989 and July 28, 1991 around the world with a mileage of 18,077.5 miles.

Cross-Country Record - in 1990 Michael Secret rode 3,110 miles between Huntington Beach, Ca. and Atlantic City, NJ in 7 days 23 hrs. and 16 min.