Today, as soon as I was relieved from work, I drove up to Quincy to pick up my long-time life partner, Laura. We headed down to Dartmouth and were soon mounted on our bicycles and ready to get our work-out on.
One of the places I always make people go when they come to visit me in Dartmouth for the first time is Mirasol's Cafe, a locally owned coffee shop. Visiting Mirasol's is like a rite of passage. Laura, being an alumni of UMD, had already had a taste of the deliciousness and we decided to journey to the cafe for some exercise, catching up and a side of coffee.
The ride there was super easy and downhill. I still get a bit nervous riding alongside road traffic, mostly because I'm used to driving around the ring. Whenever I venture off campus, I am normally following Kate, who is super competent at road biking, since a bike is her primary vehicle. However, we made it to the coffee shop with no problems whatsoever, and enjoyed our smoothies on the patios before trekking back.
The bike ride back was SO MUCH harder. The hills in Dartmouth tend to be sneaky - gradual and long. I've come to realize that UMD is like a plateau - the only flat plane in a hilly terrain. No matter what way you approach UMD, you are forced to tackle a nasty hill. Laura and I downshifted into 1 and 2 and huffed and puffed our way up the hill. I was laughing hysterically the entire time because I was so tired and so wanting to give up, but knew I could do it. We were also moving super slow but pedalling super fast because we were in such low gears. I knew it was ridiculous.
Once we conquered the hill and reached the top, we decided to do another 2 mile run around the ring for good measure. We went past the police station, which, much like the hill near the library, is entirely exhausting. It is slow and gradual and painful.
But we felt great after and ate a hearty meal of Veggie Burgers and mushroom rice and fruit salad for dinner.
Total mileage = 5
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