in which john w is bugged

OK, today's route needs some explanation:

I was planning to do Bruce K's early ride, so I drove to Plainsboro to park at Cliff H's office and ride into Cranbury. When I got there, though, there wasn't time enough to get to Bruce's ride... so I set the GPS to lead me a route from Cliff's office to Etra, from which Gary W's ride would be leaving an hour later. And while the GPS gave me great directions (there's a pretty part of the route right through Hightstown), I forgot to set the timer, so that part of the route didn't register (which is why the route starts at Etra Park - D'OH!). By the time I got to Etra, I had loads of time before Gary's ride was to start, so I decided to look for the beginning of Aggress Road, which has some of the few hills to be found in this area. Instead, I found the beginning of the Assunpink hill (that's that out-and-back to the south of the route). Then back to Etra.

Gary led us a route through Perrineville, Monroe, and up into Jamesburg, where we stopped at the excellent Mendoker's Bakery, full of food without redeeming social value, appealing solely to the prurient interest. Gary had given us a choice of stopping there, or at a Wawa on Cranbury Road. We decided to stop at both, because while the comestibles were delightful at the Mendoker's, there was not (ahem!) plumbing available.

Then on towards South Brunswick. It was the closest to home I've ever been on a group ride!  On this part of the route, John W had some kind of bug fly into his mouth and get stuck there; had had a very tough time getting its remains to go either down or up - we rode a bit, stopped for him, rode a bit more, stopped for him to cough and spit. We offered to send for an ambulance, but John knew it was a temporary problem, and it was... but he was obviously having no fun until it passed.

A beautiful day; not hot, clear, some few clouds in the sky. Some headwinds on the way back. A few of the riders were a bit tired by the time we got towards the park, some went off on their own to be home on time. I rode back from Etra to Plainsboro where the care was parked (that part DID register), so I actually did about 7 more miles than the route shows. A great ride. Now back to work tomorrow; the coworker is off because her kids are out of camp, and school doesn't start until next week.  (Laura OLPH tells me that Laurel, who was on yesterday's ride, also bike-commutes, over the same route as she, to the next building to hers. I'm looking forward to more news from Laura/Laurel on that.)