lancaster county ride, and tew does clipless pedals

The Excellent Wife (TEW) had it in her head this week to go to Lancaster County and do a few things (not least of which was to hit up the Strasburg Creamery for milkshakes and Americana). Se also got clipless pedals a few months ago (Laura OLPH was horrified that TEW was trying to keep up on some ride or other, with flat pedals on her bike!). TEW hasn't been using the clipless (her bike has pedals on that can be used with either clipless or plain shoes) and thought today would be a good day to try 'em out, not least because if she fell over, there wouldn't be anyone she knew around to sneer and make jokes.

The Lancaster Bike Club lists many of their rides on their home page (leader info is sometimes masked), and also has a number of cue sheets posted as well as some scenic tours (and the posting of cue sheets is a good idea that I'm going to suggest to my club, the Princeton Freewheelers). TEW looked at a number of the rides, and decided to try this one that stops at the Oregon Dairy for ice cream, and is listed as flat.

"Flat" evidently as a different meaning in Lancaster County than it has here in the Garden State. Our ride showed 1400 feet of climb in under 30 miles (that's after correction; the original GPS data shows more).

It was a lovely ride, on a lovely day, though.

Below: Laura ALWAYS get pictures of the cows in Mt Airy. I couldn't resist.

We crossed two covered bridges on the ride.

TEW did very well, for not having the hill legs that this ride demands (it turns out it's not a flat ride even by the standards of that club). We did stop for ice cream at the Oregon Dairy, and then (in order that the comparison would be accurate) we stopped again at the Strasburg Creamery, this time for a milkshake and a root beer float. The ice cream is comparable at both, but the building at Strasburg, and the wonderful old-timey-ness of the store there, made it my favorite of the two stops.