Del Ray to DC: Coffeeneuring #1 - Hopscotch 24 Miler

Awesome start to the coffeeneuring season!

1. Hopscotch Coffee, Millwood Ave, Winchester VA. I found this gem 3 weeks ago while staying in Winchester for a friends wedding. Awesome repurposed semi-industrial building, pour over coffee with multiple single varietal beans, friendly barista, and did I mention the record shop with stereo to preview the tunes!?!

2. Sunday, 11 Oct, 2015

3. Ethiopian Pour Over, served in china mug

4. This ride was an addition to a regularly scheduled camping trip in the nearby and especially prompted by my friend Karen needing to get in 2.5 hours of final bike prep before next week's Beach 2 Battleship Half-Ironman. We got a relatively early start after a chilly night camping at 0800, the northbound leg into Winchester was GORGEOUS with dew burning off the fields and hill's all around us. Traffic was light on Cedar Creek Grade and the 'in-town' portion was manageable at least on a quiet Sunday morning. The return trip on Middle Road had more traffic, and more sustained uphill's, in the future I think I'd just return on Cedar Creek Grade or try another route further west which I suspect would have even less traffic. This was my first real 'road ride' ever and I found it thrilling. I'm glad Karen prompted the ride and I'll definitely be doing it again sometime soon!

5. 23.9 miles

The Bike. My 1970's era road bike, suspected to be a Bob Jackson, performed very well. I had one chain slippage resulting in chain-suck on the way out of Winchester but it was quickly fixed. I was very comfortable all around on the bike and didn't feel constrained by the 6 speed freewheel (5 speeds usable) or the triple crank (2 rings usable). Definitely still need some polishing on this build but I felt fast and stable throughout the ride. I want to try a front bag on this bike and I'm pretty confident I can loose the interrupter levers without missing them at least for this kind of riding.

More Pictures!