palm sunday ride

I didn't know if I should lead this post with the obscure historical marker Chris led us to on Route 130 in Robbinsville, risking our lives in traffic after bobbling around into the wind (so we'd maybe have a tailwind back):

...or the ride down Woods Road, where the few paved places only made the mud feel rougher:

(That dark part isn't wet; it's dirt, and THAT was at the end; the worst of it had gone before.) But I did see this cool barn.

I worked yesterday, and on Wednesday, when there was all that snow, I was off, as was The Excellent Wife (TEW). We spent the whole day doin' chores, because, well, there was all that snow. So I was EXCEPTIONALLY cranky about having to work yesterday, and TEW gently encouraged me (ahem!) to drive down to Allentown to catch Chris C's ride.

Chris leaves from Jimmy Bruno's bike-shop-cum-candy-emporium, and Jimmy makes sure he's open early enough for some conversation and so we can use his toilets.

His shop is one of the few that will work on toy-store bikes, and one of the things we chatted about was whether it was worth it to even try to fix these things. But he's got a few nifty old bikes he's working on.

And there was a nifty cruiser in the window (it's not retro if it's the original model, right?), that I ddn't get a picture of. It's worth the trip. (Spend a sawbuck when you get there; Jimmy's the nicest LBS owner in Central Jersey, and such kindness and community-spirit should be rewarded.)

Chris led (I didn't get a picture of him, but here's our bikes):

and the only other person who appeared was Laura OLPH:

Laura told us the wind was gonna be from the northeast, so we rode in that direction, hoping for a tailwind on the way back. You already know about risking our lives for a historical marker and bushwhacking our way along Woods Road.

Somewhere along the way, we got to "Potholes to the left of me, snow to the right," which got Laura and me onto the the old Stealer's Wheel song. Laura decided that "gravel to the right" made a better line:

Potholes to the left of me, gravel to the right
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you

Laura came up with a whole verse, which I hope she'll remember to put in HER blog post (there's a link a few paragraphs ago where I first mentioned her).

We stopped at a Wawa near Dutch Neck, where I met the most uncommunicative biker; he had on a tank top and tights, and when I mentioned I got cold just looking at him, he shrugged and returned his attention to his smartphone (or it may just be that a smartphone is better company than Plain Jim; it's a reality that I might have to face up to).

After the break, though, we were feeling colder, and decided to head straight back (ride page here; do you suppose I'm ever going to get back up into B-ride ranges again?). I hung out at Jimmy Bruno's for a bit (and spent a smidgen of cash), and when I got into the car, was greeted with hail, snow, and other precipitation. I'm glad it waited.