jelly beans, not chocolate bunnies

For years, Laura led a ride, sometime before Easter, that she called the Chocolate Bunny Ride; it had all the hills in the first half, and she'd give out chocolate bunnies at the end to the finishers. And then there were a series of mishaps, not least of which was my crash in 2015 (gory recovery pics here). Since then, she's had "Not the Chocolate Bunny Rides", which have, in the past, had chocolate bunnies anyway... but the routes were better.

For today, there were not chocolate bunnies; there were jelly beans. Perhaps she's trying to exorcise the last of the demons?

Maybe or maybe not. But I wanted this picture to be the first one in this post:

Lookit all that red and black! I think we look like the bicycle equivalent of the backup singers in a soul band (Laura and the Pips, maybe?. Laura insisted Ricky turn around to show off the red on the back of his jersey:

That one's reminiscent of an early-1970's album cover.

Anyway, she posted the ride earlier this week, and Andrew, Marco, Ricky and I came out (as you've already figured out, probably):

Laura wasn't that late; she'd stopped the same place I did for a bagel and the shop was busier than I expected.

Temps were in the 30's when we started and would be near 60 by the end of the ride; a certain amount of wardrobe adjustment was expected.

We were patient, mostly.

We stopped near this abandoned, now historical building, which is I don't know where, of course.

... and began the climb in the middle of the ride. It's not so clear from the ride page (or maybe it is), but almost all of the climb on this ride (except for a few minor annoyances)is in a fairly short band in the middle. Because the GPS screen is so narrow, the distance is compressed, but the elevation appears distended:

To me, it looks like an extended middle finger. Perhaps Laura was giving us one, planning such a hilly ride so early in the season.

Thence down Fox Hill, where there are two places where the vistas open:

...and which was far steeper than Laura and I remembered. Laura thinks it looks worse without the leaves on the trees. I think I need new brake pads.

On to the Oldwick General Store, where we did NOT see the crowds of cyclists at least one of us expected.

The other thing I remember about this ride is that we were mostly silent; perhaps we were dreading the climb (and then recovering from it).

Ah, well. Tomorrow to the Excellent Mother-In-Law's for Easter (the Polish Catholics will NOT have me escape Easter - Wielkanoc!). Glad I got this in; I expect I'll be carryin' some extra pounds on Monday.