tom h cocoluxe ride

Tom H had a great idea. Most of our rides have a rest stop in the middle, and some of the rest stops are great places, with stuff you might want to bring home... like this place:

So Tom had the idea that if we started a ride near there, it would end near there... and that would mean it would be easier to bring stuff home without stuffing the merchandise into jersey pockets, and worrying about crushing it or sweating into it.

It was such a good idea that when he did it a few weeks ago, a few riders clamored for him to do it again, and nothing would do except to repeat the ride today. So he did.

Eleven of us showed up (it was a glorious day, and how many more of them can we expect?). I'm not going to try all the names; there were some who were new to me, some were people Tom knew, and a number of The Usual Suspects, as you'll see in the pictures below (one of which was supposed to be a complete group shot, but I don't think I got Laura OLPH into it). We did this route. It was hilly, I remember asking Tom at least a dozen times, "That was the last hill, right?", and he invariably  assured me that it was. (I'm sure the elevation is under-reported: Al L had over 3000', and Tom said he got about 3600', but the speeds and times are good.)

It was even a prettier ride than last weekend. I would have thought the wind and rain yesterday would have knocked much of the color out of the trees, but we did not find it so. The area is lovely; it's too bad it's at such a distance, or I'm sure more riders would have come. (I live north of Princeton, and this was one of the few rides I do where my drive to the start was significantly shorter than most of the others.)

We need to revisit this idea of starting and ending at a destination like this. The Excellent Wife (TEW) is quite taken by the chocolate truffles I brought home for her.

Pictures:

 

Above, just to keep the them going, a picture of Laura taking a picture of a pumpkin.

It got warmer than we thought. The next couple of pictures are of wardrobe adjustments. I left out the most risqué ones.

Every now and then, I let 'em catch up to me. Hrmph.

omnes, omnes, above.

How many Freewheelers does it take to change a tire? When it's one of Al L's sew-ups, the rest of us watch and learn.