Always Wear A Helmet

This can be a three-day event. Friday usually features the Ward Wildfowl Museum Ride (we receive a discount at the museum, which is well worth a visit) or a ride to the local zoo (no charge). These are generally guided tours but can be done on your own. Vendors featuring cycling-related items are set up from Friday afternoon through Saturday evening. Saturday is the big ride. Sunday there are two ride (or drive) options: the All-You-Can-Eat Crab Feast Ride to either the Old Mill or Red Roost restaurants. Tickets for the meal are purchased in advance.   

Options for pre-purchased meals at the university are: All-You-Can-Eat Dinner Friday evening. This is followed by a complimentary wine and cheese reception. Saturday features an All-You-Can-Eat Hi-Carb Breakfast and then an All-You-Can-Eat Post Ride Buffet. Entertainment is scheduled for Saturday night.

While the day of the Century was somewhat cloudy and overcast with sun for only about 15 minutes at one point in the morning (and a few sprinkles of rain around 2:30 in the afternoon), the temperature was very comfortable for biking. This area is well known for strong headwinds. We were lucky this year – there was only one point of about five to six miles where we ran into this.

The century route has four rest stops: Milburn Landing at 22.1 miles (serving Gatorade, water, bagels and cream cheese, fig newtons, apples, bananas, oranges). Whiton Crossing, at 42.1 miles, has water only. Our major stop was, of course, Assateague State Park, which added chocolate chip cookies and sliced homemade breads to the menu. For those who really develop an appetite biking there were a number of vendors with lunch items for sale. (We did get to see some of the wild ponies Assateague is known for.) Our last stop was at Adkins Mill Pond (83.9 miles) where we had our choice of three different kinds of pie with ice cream. We were certainly fed well!

My cycle of choice for this ride was my Bike Friday New World Tourist, which I've had for three years. I had completed two centuries a few years ago, one with a Terry touring bike and the second with my Cannondale mountain bike. Each of these two rides took me 12 hours to complete (the Flattest Century in the East from Tiverton, Rhode Island).

I think people were laying odds that the "Older woman with the little folding bike" (I am in my early 60s) was either going to do the metric or that the sag wagon would be picking her up en route since she wouldn't be able to make it back by 6:00 p.m., the cut off time for us to be off the road. I am happy to say that I was back at 5:30 p.m. (and not one of the last!) and that my cycling time for this century went down to 10-1/2 hours!

I think I was the only Bike Friday representative for this particular ride and I received a number of compliments on my "cute little bike." I did see one other folding bike (Brand X). I gleefully passed her!

For those interested in doing this century, next year's event is scheduled to take place on September 30. Registration fee is $35 postmarked prior to July 31st and includes a long-sleeved T-shirt (this year the scene on the back of the shirt featured the Milburn Landing rest area and a 1954 Schwinn Phantom – by C. Keith Whitelock.)

You may contact Sea Gull Century / Metric Century, Salisbury State University, Campus Box 3046, 1101 Camden Avenue, Salisbury, Maryland 21801-6860. Phone: 410-548-2772 Fax: 410-543-6221 E-mail: seagull@ssu.edu Web: www.ssu.edu/seagullcentury.html and www.seagullcentury.org. They will also send you a list of hotels/motels in the area. It's a very popular ride so be sure to get your reservations in early.

I travel with an older Toyota 21' motor home. Once I reach a campground or, in this case, the parking lot at the University of Maryland, my bicycle becomes my transportation so I need a dependable, comfortable all-around bike. My Bike Friday meets all my requirements.

Seagull Century, Maryland, October 1999, Assateague at 60 mile point

Request for info on Bike Friday

Click here for presentation with photos

(Once you get to the presentation, you will note that in the bottom center of the screen is "Slides 1 to 10" and arrows for back and forward -  slides advance one by one as you choose.  The better method to view would be to click the icon on the right, bottom, which presents the full show, sound and all.  Slides will advance by themselves.  At the end of the show, please click the back button on your browser's tool bar which will return you to this page.)

P.S.   I am running into "technical difficulties" with this presentation and am trying to get it to function properly.  If it doesn't work on your browser, please try it again at a later time.  (Computers are not an exact science!)