most of a hilly ride with tom & laura

Tom H has a multi-day ride series set up for next week to hit the high points of some of the northern counties in NJ; he and a few people are getting motel rooms. that's out of my price range now, due to unemployment, but when they scheduled a training ride for this weekend (55 miles, 3600 feet of climb), I decided to go along on that. Laura OLPH had a ride in the book for yesterday, but she moved it to today, and let Tom lead (which appears to mean that he was the navigator and she the taskmistress).

We met at the CVS in Lambertville. Now, when The Excellent Wife (TEW) found I was leaving from Lambertville, she told me nothing woudl do except that I had to go visit O Wow Cow, a new ice-cream packer and vendor; they've opened a store right near Rojo's, where the Hill Slugs stop all the time. I went aroudn to scope it out.

When I got there, some folks were already setting up; others came in shortly behind:

Below, Marc P, whom I met today; he remembered me better than I remembered him from the 4th of July All-Paces.

And off we went. We started right away with an uphill (there's something about a Tom H ride...), and then went over a few roads in the opposite direction of the way I'm used to seeing them (some of them might as well have "One Way" signs posted, for all I've ever done them in the other direction).

After potting around some hills in NJ to avoid the busy-with-no-shoulder section of 29 between Lambertville and Stockton, we crossed the river near Lumberton.

There were folks boating and swimming in the river.

Laura stopped to get a picture. "How many pictures of the Delaware do you suppose I have?" she mused.

Although we were to stop at the coffee roasters and store at Black Eddy, we did not plan to go up Bridgeton Hill Road; instead, we were planning to come down. We did some hilliness in Pennsylvania on the way and went through a couple of covered bridges (I think I remembered part of the route from last year's Central Bucks Covered Bridges ride). I didn't get pictures, but I did notice that the covered bridges were always at the bottom of a downhill, and just before an uphill. Hmmm.

Somewhere up there, I heard a "thunk", and thought my tire had just thrown a rock, but someone mentioned a wobble in my rear wheel, and it turned out I had broken a rear spoke.

What, again? And this time on the Yellow Maserati?

Well, yes. I bent the spoke around some of its neighbors, and messed with the true enough to keep rolling until we could get to the stop at Black Eddy.

I messed with the true a bit more at the stop, but decided that was enough hills for that wheel for this ride. After the stop, I decided I was going to head straight home on 29. But that was no reason not to enjoy the company at the time.

So after the stop, we all proceeded down 29; the rest of the group turned left onto Tumble Falls Road, and I continued down 29, through Stockton and into Lambertville without mishap. To assuage my disappointment over not completing, I got a five-scoop special at O Wow Cow; the poor quality of the picture doesn't do it justice (when I get wealthy again, I gotta get a better camera).

Then home, where I fixed the wheel and did the other Sunday chores.