almost cancelled for rain that didn't come

My post for this ride read:

• IF the weather allows (and it's not lookin' good as I post this), we'll do 45 miles from Six Mile/Blackwells Mills to Pennington and back, with a stop at one of my favorites, The Pig (Sourlands Coffee). The usual Plain Jim low-B pace. If you pre-register, and I cancel, you'll get an email warning. Just sayin'... 

In case it's not abundantly clear, I was SURE I was gonna have to cancel for rain, as I did for five of my listings last year. Right up until the night before, the three-or-four sources I use for weather were calling for rain right through the ride time, and even this morning, while the forecast had improved, it was still iffy...

But I decided to run the ride anyway. Laura OLPH emailed that she was planning to ride from home; Ricky G was signed up, and a rider who hadn't been out with me, Andy M, said he was coming. As I got to the star, I saw Ricky unpacking the car (normally he'd ride in, as would I, but neither of us wanted to risk having to do the extra miles in the rain), and Andy turned out to be someone with whom I'd ridden out of Cranbury a few times, two or three years ago; his recumbent bike is memorable.

Shortly after Laura rolled up, so did Andrew A, and then Rick W. So we were six, with two Ricks and two Andrews. What are the chances?

Now, this was a 45-mile ride, which is long for one of mine... but I was working yesterday and didn't get a ride in, and I REALLY wanted to try this route to Sourland Coffee (not Sourlands, as I wrote above). Laura's Hill Slugs have been there a few times, including once over the winter when the weather DID forbid a ride, and Laura, Ricky and his wife Cheryl, and I went in our civilian clothes and learned that we like one another even when there aren't pedals under our feet.

(It's good that I did check out the route. It uses a piece of a major thoroughfare, NJ 518, that's scheduled to be closed most of the riding season, so I had to adjust it, and I don't like the way it goes through Princeton, so I'm likely to adjust it again. This is not intuitive for a guy like me, who can get lost in a bathroom.)

Only a couple of major hills (for which Andy on the recumbent was glad; they are not ideal on hills), and we actually came in at an average over 15mph, which is rare on one of my Sunday rides.

I call it The Pig for reasons outlined in this post, but these pictures below should give you some idea:

...AND they have "blue pig specials" for kids. So when Laura saw the loyalty card, she decided I needed to have one:

Laura has her Hill Slugs; Tom H has the Insane Bike Posse; I call my regulars The Usual Suspects. Here we are enjoying artisanal caffeine-and-junk-food:

On the way back, Andrew A, Laura, and Rick W wheeled off as they were closer to home than the end point was, so Ricky G, Andy, and I got to the end and packed up the cars to go home. I'm still waiting for that rain for which I was all about cancelling this ride. I'm really glad I didn't.