emery's blueberry farm ride

Laura OLPH's announcement post about this ride said:

The Slugs will be in the flatlands on Saturday.  Meet us at the East Picnic Area (Edinburg Road entrance) of Mercer County Park for an 8:30 a.m. start.

I'm planning for a few miles more than a metric.  However, the heat index might well change my mind.  We can cut the ride down as we see fit.

Extra-milers can start with me from my house at 7:15 a.m.  It's about 8 miles to the ride start.

So I got there for the extra miles at that ludicrous hour (after having been out to a Somerset Patriots game*, and fireworks, last night), and found her barely awake and surprised. "Did I put 7:15 in the post?"... and off she went to make sure she had the correct start time for the ride at the park in the blog post (she had).

The heat index DID change her mind; she went with a planned 50-mile route out to Emery's Blueberry Farm, which. while not far from many of our usual rides, wasn't really on our maps. We went to Mercer Park, and picked up Tom H, Gordon, and John W, and, complaining about the heat (no wonder we didn't have more takers!), off we went.

A mostly flat ride (that's a link), and, while we were grateful for what shade we got, much of the ride (especially the bit on Long Swamp Road before the farm) was in the hot sun. That made us opt for a straighter route back, along 539 and then Gordon Road towards the park.

Emery's Farm was hopping, with people picking berries, and people coming into the store to pick out pies and whatnot. They had water, iced tea, muffins, and porta-potties (and air-conditioning in the store), which made it a near-perfect rest stop for a hot day (the porta-potties were penitential in the hot sun, however).

And the roads on the ride back, despite being busy, were not bad: good shoulders mostly, and traffic was able to get around us.

Most important to me, however, was that I made this hot, long ride without the bonk, after such an unpleasant experience on Thursday. I probably over-sugared (it was a tempting muffin, though), but I think I got it just about right on the fluids (and I think dehydration and low sugar were the culprits on Thursday).

The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I have had a pump crisis, about which more later. I'm off to do the grill; how can you have a long Independence Day weekend and not use the grill?