Sunday Funday: Bike Boat Bike

My friend Alyssa decided we needed to spend a Sunday Funday casually riding a 50 mile bike ride out east. Turns out it was a typo and we had signed up for a fifty-EIGHT mile bike ride called Bike Boat Bike. It ended up being a lot of fun (I think?) and we both survived (kind of.)

We spent Saturday night at my parents' house because they live an hour away from the starting line. Alyssa, bless her heart, picked my drunken hungover ass up at the New Rochelle train station and then babied me as I cried about my impending death, struggled to swallow water, and analyzed minute details of a conversation I had had with the 23 year-old man-child. Remember the 34 year-old? Some people just must be known by their age.

Anyway, so Alyssa and I drove the bikes down to Long Island to enjoy a surf and turf feast with my folks. Alyssa's awesome dad loaned me his mountain bike, put air in the tires, showed us what to do if we had mechanical issues, and wished us luck. And he loaned us the Wrangler so we could be mistaken for cool surfer dudes on the highway. Have you ever noticed the number of women who will slow down and look over to check out who is in a Wrangler?

I obviously overslept the next morning, but we managed to be on the road with gas, iced coffees, and breakfast sandwiches by 8 AM.

Alyssa got us set up at Strawberry Fields and we were on the bikes by 9:25 AM.

And then I started to panic because I had ridden a bike ONCE in the past decade (on Shelter Island last summer) and it was not on a major highway with trucks. I also realized that the bike was too big for me to put my foot down at red lights. Can't stop, won't stop.

Alyssa ended up much farther ahead of me and I was silently cursing her for thinking this was a good idea. We met back up at the first rest stop and by then I felt a little more confident on the roads.

Bike Boat Bike has multiple distances that allow you to visit either Shelter Island or Orient Point. I love Shelter Island and demanded that we go there.

on the ferry from Greenport to Shelter Island

view from the ferry

My dad and sister and I went to Shelter Island on vacation last summer and went on a 13 mile bike ride on one speed bikes that were lying around the Pridwin Hotel. Turns out our ride was a good part of this course. It's a heck of a lot easier to ride when you have a few gears with which to work.

We rode along Shore Road, back around the other side of the island, and then went to Ram Island. I love Ram Island, hills and all.

Alyssa passing the Ram Island Inn and telling me not to Instagram her butt

The volunteers were awesome and the aid stations were well stocked with snacks. I enjoyed peanut butter, honey, and Nutella sandwiches and scarfed bananas and Fritos and blue Gatorade. And then my teeth started to ache.

Somehow I ended up ahead for the Shelter Island portion of the bike ride. It was probably the lack of traffic and risk of being taken out by a tractor trailer.

peonies

We felt pretty great on the ferry back to Greenport. Seventeen more miles couldn't be that difficult, could it?

my fuschia sports bra decided to run all over my yellow tank, again.

It could and it was. The wind was brutal and the dust was blowing everywhere. After hours on the bike, my pikachu was really over being squashed into the saddle.

Pikachu on the average day, "Hooray! Let's invite a boy, preferably one who was in middle school when you graduated high school, over to play!"

Pikachu after bajillion mile bike ride, "No sex for you."

It took like 6 hours, but I finally got back to Strawberry Fields. And then I couldn't find Alyssa. I ate a watermelon while I waited.

And then I went to look for her.

And then I started to call people because I was bored.

And then I made small talk with other riders. Apparently the mountain bike was significantly heavier and more difficult to ride than a road bike. As one man told me, since I did so well on the mountain bike, I could have been to Manhattan by then if I had ridden a road bike. I don't actually know how to ride a bike besides for the purpose of staying up right, so I had no idea if this was challenging or not.

Alyssa finally appeared after being sent on a 2 mile detour by some well-meaning riders. (Or so she claims.)

As Sunday Fundays go, this one was pretty sick and I don't even have a hangover. Instead I got a sunburn. I didn't even know I could get sunburned. You live, you learn. Who's riding with us next year?