We're in Wildwood, NJ for the week. We bought a big cargo hitch rack for the car, without thinking about the fact that, like, that's where the bike rack goes? Expert planners, here. Let us plan your next wedding!
The hitch rack is awesome, I have to admit, we got every single bit of beach crap that we need (4 boogie boards, 4 beach chairs, umbrella, umbrella anchor, pails and shovels and a big beach wagon for dragging it all) into it, so I couldn't possibly make the argument for the bike rack, but... Come on, man. I live in the mountains, and for every 10 miles I ride there's an average of 1,000ft of elevation changes. I want to try this sea-level shit again! Flat stretches of road as far as the eye can see!
We also have a soft cargo bag that we put on the roof, though, so after some scheming around the packing, I managed to fill it with bedding and clothes, all soft stuff. Then I threw my bike on top and bungie corded it to hell and back:
Damn, that back rim is heavy as hell to get up over your head and onto the roof safely.
Even if I sleep in until 9 or 9:30 I still have an hour to an hour and a half before the kids are up and ready to do anything, so I took off for a ride this morning, and got 11 miles in pretty quickly -- at home that'd be around 1200ft of elevation change, but this morning it was a total of 7 feet. Woo!
The best part, though, is that I now understand what everyone is talking about with being able to keep up with, or beat, traffic from a stoplight. Damn, that's fun. But the drivers here are... sort of...
Well, it's New Jersey, so you pretty much risk your life every 20 feet or so. Some dude in a Mercedes stared me straight in the face as he turned left in front of me and nearly took me out. I was tempted to chase him down, just to make him run for it, but I didn't want to risk more lives.
After that it was pretty chill, a nice stretch in a nature preserve, then back around some great expanses of salt marsh. Then I got lost for a bit, which is always my favorite thing to do in a beach town, because no matter what you''ll eventually hit some landmark that tells you exactly where you are.
It was nice to get a 10+ mile ride in and still have the energy for the slog to the beach and back, dragging that huge-ass cart, never mind the 3 or so hours playing in the surf with my kids and the dog.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to get to Cape May and back.