pigward & pigless

My description of the ride for today included the following:

I want to go back to the Pig, especially after hearing that Laura OLPH stopped there after cutting out of my ride last time... but I hear there's bridge construction near the Veterans Park in Montgomery, so I might not be able to do my corner-of-Harlingen-and-Harlingen route. So I've set up a route, that adds a hill, but avoids the construction... I'll try to keep it to my "B-minus" pace, partly because I gotta lead another ride the next day (I'm leading a C+ for the Labor Day All-Paces; if we're still on speaking terms, you can come out and we can commiserate).

I had seven to start: Bill B and Dr Lynne, Laura. Ricky, Jack A, and Racer Pete R. (John W caught up with us, and then went off after a person he was planning to ride with went a different way, so for a few minutes I had eight, but not really.)

We went through Hillsborough and Griggstown over what are becoming some of my usual roads. When we got to the usual turn at Harlingen, I stopped to see if I could see detour signs; I could not, but I went the other way anyway... which included going the wrong way over a single-lane, one-way bridge on Dead Tree Road. So now, as Laura and Tom H have karma of going over closed roads and bridges,I guess I'm developing a penchant for the wrong way on single-lane, one-way bridges.

Laura later said that when we go the wrong way over a one-way bridge, that's closed, during a rainstorm, we'll have combined the characteristics of all three of us on a single ride. You might not want to come along on that one.

Several of my routes around Hopewell include the climb up Hopewell-Princeton Road to Mount Rose. But when Laura cut out of my ride last time, instead of going that way, she continued on 654 to Moore's Mill/Mount Rose. The amount of climb is about the same, but it's spread over a longer distance and it doesn't feel as bad. I set up my route to go that way without really knowing where it was, because I've never made the connection in my head between that part of 654 and the part in Hopewell... but it turns out I've ridden on it a gajillion times, so the next time, I've got some tweaks that will make it a bit easier. And it only adds about a mile to my usual routes, so I may avoid Mount Rose completely in future. We'll see.

Well, bolstered with confidence, I let my band up to the Pig, to find...

Oh, drat. I'm making believe they're taking a long holiday weekend, and they'll be back; my life, bereft of the Pig, is a prospect too dark to contemplate. Edit Sep 3: I called; they were only closed for the holiday weekend. We'll go back and send some money there soon.

Laura remembered a bagel place a few miles away, so we repaired there. On the way, Laura decided she had come up with the name for this post: "Pigward, and Pigless". q.v. 
 
Shortly thereafter, we came rolling up to Udo's Bagels, which had the advantage of being open. (IM [not very] HO, they have few other advantages.)

They were open, and they had a toilet. So we refreshed and attended to the facilities.

While there, I noticed another sign of autumn's approach:

And Ricky noticed a Jaguar XKE.

Even better than bike pics! (We had a discussion about the dates of manufacture for these cars, with one suggesting the 70's, but I remember one in the slot-car set I had in the mid-1960's. It turns out we're both right; the Wikipedia page indicates they were made from 1961-1975.)

And back. Those who had ridden in from home rolled off at various points; by the time I got to the parking lot, Jack and Pete, who'd ridden ahead, were packing up the cars to go.

Because of the detour, the ride turned out to be more like 47 miles than 44, but I did bring it in at the pace I'd hoped. You can't really tell from the ride page, because that includes my ride in from home and my ride back. And I know that before the group ride started, my average was a little over 12mph, because I enjoy my pre-ride bagels while underway.

Here's hoping I'll see you at the Labor Day All-Paces tomorrow. Is it gonna rain? (If it does, is there a one-way bridge that's closed on which we can ride the wrong way?)