Ah....Is Spring in the Air?

Despite the 8 inches of snow that was dumped on Bowie this past Monday it appears that Spring may be trying to push winter away. The clocks "spring" forward this Sunday, which means more daylight in the evenings and we all know that that means Tuesday and Thursday evening hammerfests!

Other elements of Spring are also beginning to show....

1)The races are opening up for registration and promptly closing about 5 minutes later for the Cat 4 and 5's. So far this week I have signed up for five races if you include Tradezone.

2)Rita's Italian Ice stores are opening their doors this weekend....here's hoping they keep with the coffee flavored custard for 2009 :-)

3)Spring training has started for MLB, which means that the Bowie Baysox season is only a few weeks away.....not much beats a beer and a ballgame.

4)Sarah is buying up summer dresses like there is no tomorrow (I guess that's the trade off for racing and buying bike parts!)

And most importantly the weather this weekend is forecast to hit the high-60's and low 70's. Bit of a contrast to the marathon race conditions of last week....might even get to ride in shorts!

Ten ways to know that it is Spring in the Mid-Atlantic.....

With temperatures close to 60 degrees for the majority of this week in the Mid-Atlantic area it seems that Spring is well on its way and here are ten ways that you can certainly tell in the City of Bowie!

1) People begin to cut their lawns (its only the middle of March!)

2) Garden sprinklers come on at 6:00AM.

3) You can begin to rent a park picnic site.

4) The Bowie Baysox minor league baseball team are auditioning for National Anthem singers!

5) The NCAA tournament is here and the Women Terps are going to reclaim the National Championship!

6) The ABRT/Team Latitude cycling team Tuesday and Thursday evening "hammerfests" begin.

7) Importantly Rita's frozen custard shop has reopened :-)

8) More importantly Sarah and I are needing to renew the State Park pass so we can go to the beach!

9) Based upon item 8) I might need to start shaving the legs more often since they will be on display in public places!

10) Though most importantly a Blue T-14 triathlon bike is now darting around the roads of Bowie and surrounding counties.....yep, the Blue came out for the first time last night!

Is spring on its way in your area?

A holiday weekend at last

For the first time since January 15th, we finally had a public holiday this past weekend and boy did the good weather arrive just in time. The temperatures soared into the high 80's and the sun was shining the whole weekend. Saturday morning was spent cycling the roads of Anne Arundel and Calvert County with the guys and gals of ABRT, to the tune of 70 miles....definitely working on the cyclist tan lines! It was then back home and try to gather enough energy and willpower to reign in the wild grasses that want to encompass the house. It always seems that as soon as I cut the grass it just pops right back up and needs cutting again within a day or two. Anyway, it was so hot that I didn't really fancy being out in the garden for two hours during the hottest part of the day and I therefore thought it a great idea for us to go and check out a Bowie tradition.....Rita's Ice and Custard. It is actually a nice short walk to the shop and the Oreo's Blendini (a mix of Oreo Cookies, ice and chocolate custard...ice cream to us English Folks) went down a treat and suitably refreshed me enough to come back home and defeat the invading hoards of grass. In the evening we went and saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean installment, which was good although a little long. If you have seen the previous two then I would highly recommend going to see this one.

Sunday saw me rise early to get down to the gym for a hour's swim in the pool, which is now at bath water temperature.....I even saw a mother putting her elbow in to test the temperature :-) It was quickly back to the house and off we went to meet Marc and Jessica and venture up to Camden Yards to watch the O's take on Oakland. Fortunately with a gametime temperature of 94 degrees, we had seats in the shade and watched the O's whoop Oakland 8-4. On the way home we had a personal tour of Savage Mill (Marc and Jessica's nearest town) and had dinner at the Ram's Head Tavern...although I think Marc purposely took us via the Tavern as that is one of his favorite restaurants!!!

Monday was more of a relaxing day. After a very sluggish 2 hour ride I dragged myself out for a short 20 minute "brick" run and tried to get back quickly so we could head out for our picnic. I had consulted the local maps and chosen a park down in Calvert County, Kings Landing Park on the banks of the Patuxent River. The park had some trails and a fishing pier and plenty of flies......so much so that we finally found a spot where we could eat uninterrupted by them. We stood out on the fishing pier watching the world go by (as well as plenty of water skiers, boats, jetskiers etc) and cooled down in the pleasant breeze coming from the river. It was so nice and peaceful out there we could have stayed all day, work seemed so far away.