long ride today

I was on the fence about whether to go on Cory's Ride, a memorial for a young rider killed on the Anchor House Ride years ago, or to go out with Laura and the Hill Slugs (I think of 'em as analogous to Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, or Blondie: the female front person and the guys backin' her up), so when I saw the post this week that the Hill Slugs were going to do Cory's Ride, I figured it was fate or Fortuna steppin' in to align my stars for me. Or something.

(There's a certain amount of pressure on Anchor House riders to do the Cory's Ride, especially us newbies. It's understandable; many of the people who would have known Cory, who was 16 when he died in 1998, no longer do the ride, and the scholarship fund requires new cash. Still, the pressure to come out and meet the veteran riders is palpable.)

Four of us, Laura, Ron, Joe, and I, met at Mercer Park to ride in about 12.5 miles to the ride, then did the 50 mile ride, then 12.5 miles back to the park; Laura and Ron rode in to the park from their homes, so their rides were longer (I think Laura was talkin' about an 87-mile day). For me, I'm tired, but not dead.

Since this was a ride on a route none of us knew, we were dependent on a cue sheet. Now, there are two things about the cue sheet: first, I don't lead rides, as I'm sure I've posted (although I can't easily find where), because I never know where I am... so when I'm counting on a cue sheet, I'm likely to confuse my rights and lefts, or miscount a distance, or get off the route for some other reason. I've done this all of the last four times I've had to follow a cue sheet, although I've always been able to get back on track quickly; still, I'm usually good for at least an extra 5% over the distance marked on the sheet... (One of my bywords: "It's always safe to presume that Jim doesn't know where he is.")

The other thing I noticed about following a cue sheet is that conversation enters the difficult-to-impossible range when everybody's keeping an eye on the cue sheet for the next turn. This is unusual for the B-rated Princeton Freewheeler rides, which are usually quite chatty affairs (and, frankly, one of the things I like about the B rides is the conversation). By about halfway through the ride we'd gotten used to it, I think, partly because Joe, who knew the area best of us (if not the route) was keeping an eye on the turns, allowing the rest of us (especially me) to gab away and crank along waiting for his directions. By the time I woke up and took over some of the navigatin', we'd done most of the ride already and were heading back.

Good rest stop at a church (we were probably the last ones in; we got a late start), and good lunch, dimmed only by the obligatory distribution-of-the-scholarships ceremony; we beat a retreat before it was quite over and headed back to the park were the cars were. On the way back, we ran into just enough headwind so that we wouldn't forget Laura's eponym (and if you don't know, go back the the Hill Slugs blog and read the subhead).

I was especially grateful Joe came out; I don't know him well, but it was good getting to talk some to him, and I hope to do so more. Although I haven't ridden with Ron frequently recently, I've seen a lot of him since I got back to riding a bit over a year ago, and he's comfortable to hang out with; he's always a welcome sight at a ride, as well.

Plan for tomorrow is a 60-65-mile covered bridge ride in Hunterdon County & Penna. We'll see if I can get my butt out of bed in time to do it!