Shoo Fly

Crisis. We were shoo'd from our favorite riding location yesterday. Quantico offers endless miles of rolling hills and roads uncluttered with traffic. Of course, you have to be able to withstand small arms fire in the background and the occasional camouflaged Marine loaded to bear that pops out of the forest.

Saturday, KR and I rode some 50 miles at Quantico and even discovered some uncharted territory that runs along the Potomac River. It was amazing, the kind of ride that makes you look forward to the next weekend. Yesterday we brought some friends up to Quantico after a nearby lake swim for a very short, flat ride, or so we thought. We were turned around at the gate. The heavily armed MP insisted that this had always been the policy--no civilians on base. Interesting, I've been riding there for years. Of course, as he is stating the "long standing" rule, a cyclist rides by. "When was the last time you rode up here, Maam" he said, hinting that back before the depression civilian riding was allowed. "Yesterday" I stated emphatically. Stutter, stutter. "Well, some people have not been enforcing the rule", he said. Seeing an opening, I tried another gate--hoping to find someone who was not enforcing the rule. Same luck there.

Hopefully this gets resolved and things return to normalcy because riding in our traffic will mean I will get hit by a car...again.