weather changes & separation ride

Erich sent out his usual ride-to-the-ride invitation for today, calling for a 7:40 departure from Etra to arrive at Byron Johnson Park in Allentown by the planned 8:30 start of the main ride. I drove through fog to Etra, and when we left, it had not lifted. I turned on my saddle light to let the traffic behind know of our existence, and rode in the back for the ride to Allentown, as moisture collected on my glasses and dripped from my rear-view mirror. Besides Erich and me, there were Bob W, Spence, Mary F, and Steve and his daughter (Marci? Marcia? My memory fails...).

Once at Allentown, Al P led us (in Dennis's absence) on a route similar to one we had done two weeks ago (see the entire route, including to & from Etra). The fog eventually lifted, and the day didn't get hot until we were nearly back. We totaled eighteen riders, including one who got the time wrong and drove into the parking lot at about 8:34 as we were pulling out!

We stopped at the Olde World Bakery in Mt Holly (not Pemberton, as I wrote last time), and, on the way back, Steve's new saddle slipped out of adjustment, so the group stopped while Steve paid some attention to it. As we were leaving, Luciano discovered that a staple had used the opportunity to puncture his tube... but by the time he noticed it, most of the group had left. Six of us stayed with Luciano, and leader Al P came back...  but now we had two groups, out of communication with each other.

We wound up with three groups; those of us who had stayed with Luciano met with most of the fast group back at Allentown, but Erich, Marci, and Mary F were not there. There was some fretting and concern, and calls (that went unanswered) to Mary's cell phone, but a few minutes later, up they rolled, after having taken a slightly longer route (and Marci would have her first metric century by the time the seven of us extra-milers rolled back to Etra).

Then home to washing the sheets and towels, and some high drama after putting too much stuff in the washing machine and having to make a plan to deal with it without dripping all over the new laundry floor (and incurring the ire of The Excellent Wife). All is well now, but there was laundry suspense for a while there!