Today was nearly perfect for a ride.
Tom H set a route out of Columbus/Mansfield that was flat,and about 60 miles. A number of people I like were coming, and we agreed to a slightly early 8:30 am start.
After a bit of GPS weirdness, we got going, heading first to Browns Mills. On the way I passed (as I have dozens of times) this place that I'm sure used to be a gas station. I remember the old Mobil Pegasus logo, and this old shop has one outside.
For no good reason I can figure out, that logo has a pleasant association for me. I'm glad I finally got the picture.
Laura OLPH has a favorite road intersection: one of the roads is, I think, Hog Hollow, and I can't remember the other.This one might be my favorite:
Four Mile and Mt Misery Road. I'd love to give directions to someone where that intersection was a landmark.
From there, we went to the Brendan Byrne State Forest, where Tom assured us the ranger station would be open for water and plumbing.
Yeah, not so much. It was OK though; we weren't desperate for water, and as for plumbing... we improvised.
No, I didn't get pictures of the improvisation. Hrmph.
It was a great ride, though; we had a tailwind for much of it, and even the headwinds weren't bad. And traffic appeared low (although not as low as in weeks past; apparently New Jersey is coming back from COVID-19). We were pretty quick today.
We stopped at Nixon's (because if you're in that neighborhood, you HAVE to stop at Nixon's), and some of us (including me) actually went inside! (Masked, of course, and I used hand sanitizer on emerging.)
I wound up with a bit over 60 miles, at an average speed of 16.4mph, which speed, on a ride like this, I haven't seen in years. Today was nearly perfect.
Thanks for the notes on the Ranger Station and Nixon's. Souy Place next week and Pasadena the week following.
ReplyDelete