bastille day

There was nothing particularly revolutionary, or French, about the ride today, but, of course, today is July 14; it's the 230th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, so the event has to be commemorated.

The only thing that we did was storm across the newly-reopened bridges on 518 (yes, there are two of 'em; see yesterday's post), but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I looked early yesterday, and two of my regular friends, Laura OLPH and Ricky "Front Wheel" G,were registered for the ride; I checked a few hours later, and two more, Andrew A and Jack H were registered; this morning, Gary W and John W (not related to the best of my knowledge, despite the similarity of last initials) had signed up; this morning, John K, and Mindy N and Jeff P showed up at the start... good heavens; there were TEN of us! (Andrew complained that I had chosen this route just so he couldn't cut it short but cutting out at the break, but I pointed out that at the time I chose the route, I didn't know he was coming, as I hadn't seen him in some time. I chose the route so Laura couldn't cut it short... but she sort of did anyway.)

We started at Blackwells Mills/Six Mile, headed down to Princeton, went through ETS, chuffed our way up the hill to Mount Rose (courageous cyclists among The Usual Suspects; that hill was right near the edge of some of their capabilities). Thanks to Gary W for taking on sweep responsibilities.

Somewhere along the way, we encountered a group that might have been the East Brunswick Cyclepaths (they were in the distinctive, de rigeur safety-yellow jerseys). I thought I recognized Steve S, and I'd swear I saw Dov K among them.

We stopped at the Boro Bean.

(There's one more, with the WORST picture of Laura ever. I'm not posting that one; my friendship with her is worth more than that.)

John K had an old Lotus, replacing a Lotus he had decades ago, and Laura and he were discussing pictures of that, and bike pictures in general, at the stop.

... which, for me, was just an excuse to take more pictures of the bikes.

That's John's new-old Lotus right in front.

Someday I'll get over my love of bike pics... but not today, and probably not soon.

We went across the newly-reopened bridge at 518. It's not pretty... but it's OPEN.

That's enough.

On the way back, Laura and John W rolled off; the rest of us returned. Ride page here.

When we were at the lot at the end, Ricky showed me pictures of the great improvements at the New Brunswick Bike Exchange. They've made great strides; I'm very impressed.

Bastille Day, right? Off with their heads! Let 'em eat cake! Allons enfants de la patrie...

Oh, never mind.