“Ride #34: Amish Buggies”

(This is being posted four days late. The ride was Friday, July 9.)

Corinne told me the Amish farms were mostly to the South of Lancaster, and the tour guide on TV said they were to the South and East. I figured there was likely to be less traffic among the farms, so after we returned from the Green Dragon market I headed out. It was mid-afternoon and quite sunny, so heading South and East was easy: just keep the sun to my back and/or my right. Who cares if I get lost?

It worked beautifully. On the farm roads I passed lots of Amish ladies on their horse-drawn, black carriages, and even remembered to give them a wide berth so as not to spook the horses.

I'm NOT rooting for Lance in this year's TdF (Hamilton all the way, baby), but there's an ad on the Lance Armstrong Network that I quite like, for the US Postal Service. Lance is riding through all different scenes, and in one of them he's out in farm/ranch country, just riding and riding and riding. Nowhere for him to go but the next horizon. I felt like that today, just riding for its own sake.

I definitely prefer the smell of farms, even "fertilizer," over the exhaust of traffic.

Stats: 34.1 miles (54.90 km) in 1h 56' 54" for an average speed of 17.50 mph (28.17 kph).