cheryl m birthday ride

Cheryl M, the Florida Flatlander, was a Freewheeler before she moved south (and still runs some rides when she's there for the Freewheeler Snowbirds). She's been here in NJ for a few months making arrangements to sell her condo, and she's ridden frequently with the Old Guys during the duration. She's got a birthday about this time, and will be going south again soon, so she asked a couple of her friends to put together a 60-mile ride, and invited a few more friends along. I was lucky enough to be one of the invitees.

Eight of us met a Cheryl's condo. Joe M picked a route that he and I had done a couple of years ago, up to Sergeantsville. (I tried to get some en-route pics, but they're pretty bad.) Along the way, we picked up Peter, a quondam Hill Slug, who was out for a solo 45; he paced us for a while.

We went to Sergeantsville via a route that led us the other way on roads I often only use in one direction (since I don't lead and am so hopeless at navigation, I place myself at the mercy of other leaders; they often know where they're going, but they have preferences of routes).

We got to Sergeantsville, a bit less than halfway, to find that the store, while open, was undergoing renovations which meant that the toilet was unavailable. There is, however, an ice-cream-and-coffee place across the way which was accommodating.

I loved that old steel Schwinn (I think) in the pic above.

(We met those three guys on the right two or three times before we met them at the store. They looked and sounded like they were having a great time.)

After Sergeantsville, Tom H went his own way, and we continued Joe's route. I got some pics of the folks on Gulick:

And it was a great day.

We had a second stop at a Quik Chek near the golf course where we turn to go to Pennington.

And from there, the seven of us continued to Cheryl's nearly-empty condo, where we had a celebratory ice-cream cake.

Here's the link to the ride page. We maintained a mostly-easy pace...except when we didn't.

---

In other news, Nevada has these nifty brakes on her bike; I think the brand is "Gravity". Does anybody know anything about 'em? I really like the looks of 'em.