It's been almost two weeks since I've done a group ride, and longer since I've done a listed Freewheeler ride, so I was looking forward to the ride today... and I also was out of practice for the preparation (and I've been out-of-sorts for professional and personal reasons, none of which will be discussed here). I emailed Erich W about the Wednesday ride-to-the-ride, and he emailed back that he intended to go, so I got to the Etra Lake Park start point early (as I always do). As I was suiting up, I found that I had lost (HAH! "Found I had lost!" I crack myself up) one of my winter gloves... but I had glove liners with which I could make do.
But about three minutes before we would have left, a car comes up and honks - it's Erich. He had not left enough time to replace the tire which he found was flat when he went to his bike this morning, so he was not going on the group ride. So, alone (and quickly, in comparison to when I ride with the group), I rode down from Etra Lake Park to Byron Johnson Park in Allentown -
- where I met up with eleven of the old guys (including Al L, who's usually a regular on the ride-to-the-ride), and we did this route. It started cold, but warmed up as the sun came up. I chatted with Larry C, with whom I don't, normally, and he was telling me about PAFA and the benefits of his using a studio for his art. We went in directions I don't usually (which means I was even more lost), but wound up at Ft Dix, which is one of leader Dennis W's favorite ride-by's (I guess it's not really a destination, as we don't stop there). We stopped at a McDonald's on the way back, which would not have been my choice - but fellow rider Al P pointed out the three great deals at Mickey D's: coffee, oatmeal (get the stuff without the sugar), and some sundae concoction, but with yogurt and fruit, instead of just junk.
On the way back, I chatted with Al P about my idea for doing some "D" rides next summer. He though it was a good idea, and said he thought some people might want to come just because there would be no competitiveness on the rides (my plan is to advertise "no attitudes, no lectures, lots of stops, nobody dropped"). So now I'm looking for routes: flat, in the 14-to-17-mile range. If you have any ideas, let me know.
Then back to Allentown, and on my own back to Etra. I was tired and hungry, so I didn't break any speed records on the way back. I stopped in at a supermarket to get some sliced roast beef for lunch, which worked better than the junk food I've usually been grabbing on the way home!
Gotta get another pair of gloves, though.
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