probable last ride of the year

Q: How many Freewheelers will go out for a ride on a sunny Saturday in December, when the temps ar supposed to get up to the low 50'sF?

A: At least 20.

Not all of them on the ride I went on, of course. Tom H, a favorite leader, had one in the list and put this on his blog about it:

The weather is still looking good for Saturday. It should be sunny and in mid 40s. We will meet at Etra park at 10 am. I'm planning an easy 40 mile loop to New Egypt. This will probably be the last ride of the year. Hope to see you there.

(Tom sometimes changes his announcements to ride reports, so if you go to the link, you may not see that text.)

Laura emailed me about adding some extra miles from Cranbury to Etra (well, sure! I'm in!). When I got to Cranbury, Peter F was waiting to lead his B+ ride (the B ride was scheduled to leave an hour later), and five went off with him (I think)... and we also saw Jud H and Neil C leave from Cranbury at about the same time. So that's seven, not including Laura and me.

We rode to Etra (a smidge under six miles) and met up with eight others (including Tom H) to do this ride. It wasn't memorable; it wasn't a new route, or to a new stop (although we learned that Scott's in New Egypt is under new management: an Indian or Pakistani-looking family who treated us much more pleasantly than I remember being treated in the past). But it was a bright, sunny ride, with a number of people I know; many of them I've ridden with a gajillion times and whom I like a lot. And that's a good enough day for me.

And on the way, we saw Sue M, Ron M, and a third I didn't catch. So that's at least 20 Freewheelers out today!(Edit: Subsequent events on the Freewheeler Facebook page indicated it was InfoGuy John P.)

There will be a new focus in this blog: I'm starting a label for "Bicycle fashion". You'll see why when you see Laura's arm warmers and Chris C's tights. Pic's below.

While I was waiting for Laura to get to Cranbury, I rode up Main St and saw this holiday display:

I don't know if you can see the signs; they say stuff like: "32,000 lights", "NOT Visible from Space", "Zoning Violations 75 yards". Two houses up is this:

You might not be able to tell from the picture, but the entire front lawn is covered in lights, and there are structures on the property with more lights. The street is festooned with traffic cones and "no parking" event signs. I'm sure the neighbors hate them.

When we got down to New Egypt, the bike shop next door had this suspension mountain-trick-bike as the "open" sign:

I suspect it's geared low enough to get up anything, but those little wheels might not be so good in the mud.

Riders!

Al thinks I've going to forward the one above to Bob W. so Bob can torment him. I told Al I won't have to forward it: Bob can get it himself!

Check out the happenin' arm warmer on the bicep below:

...and those tights on Chris. Giraffe, or Holstein?