rides on a hot july weekend

I like that one of Jack H. 

Two rides this weekend: one an invitational, and the other a club ride. Laura OLPH had decided to stretch an 80-mile ride with Neil C & Mark H (because of their incessant jokes and unflgging good humor, we refer to 'em as Statler & Waldorf, after the wisecracking, grumpy old guys from the Muppet Show) into a 100-mile ride. She asked who of her Hill Slugs might want to accompany them, but I think the only taker was Ricky H.

For centuries (a term for 100-mile rides), I take my cue from something I heard from Tom H a year or three ago -- he said something to the effect of, "I've never been 80 miles into a ride, and said to myself, 'Y'know what I could really go for right now? Another twenty miles' ". I've never said it either, and on the hottest weekend of the summer, some others must have agreed, because when Tom sent out an invitation for 45 miles in the Pennsylvania hills as an alternative, he had four takers among his Insane Bike Posse: Jack H (photo above), Peter G, Mike M (newly back riding with us), and very truly yours, Plain Jim.

We met at Bulls Island. The main parking was closed, and there was some kind of time trial starting, so spaces were at a premium. I sent some time chatting with the staff.

We crossed the pedestrian bridge and climbed Fleecydale and found Mike M at the top.

He rode with us for a few miles, and started complaining of a worsening bump in his wheel.

I should say he did; the rim had worn out and the tire pressure was tearing the aluminum rim. As Tom said in his blog, it might last one mile or 200, but it was no wheel to ride on (and as for the interval before it failed dramatically, I'd vote for a lower number rather than a higher). Mike called for a ride home; the rest of us proceeded.

Of course there was a bridge closed, and of course the condition was good enough that we got across anyway (it's one of the local covered bridges).

We proceeded to the lake at Peace Valley.

From there we went to the Pearl Buck Historic Site, and apparently every map in the universe says that there's a navigable route through... but that was not our experience.

I suspect it's a newly-closed road after a new neighbor decided s/he didn't want so much riff-raff passin' through. The sign on the other end of the road now says it's a dead end.

We stopped at a CVS because the neat coffee place we used to go to has dried up and blown away (but the CVS has toilets, cold bottled water, and a shady side). And we also saw this covered bridge, that wasn't closed:

It was hot.But it was a pretty ride, given the day. I'd had some GPS weirdness, so the ride is divided into two pages: the first part, and the second part.

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For today, I'd listed one of may last-Sunday-of-the-month C+ rides. After no takers last week, I was surprised to see eight for today: Winter Larry, Mini B, Allen & Gale C, Alan B, Bob S, Luis C, and a non-member tryin' us out, Justin A. There was a whole range of abilities in the group (Luis was riding as a recovery from the day before, and I suspect Justin could have cleaned all our clocks, while some of the others were happy with the promise of a no-drop ride), and we kept it together.

We started at the Claremont School, my new start location (I can almost roll out of bed and be ready and there in 30 minutes).

Luis, knowing I collect bike socks, was rockin' these (are they the beaver socks?):

...and Larry had the hot peppers:

We rolled out and headed across the canal and up into Hillsborough, where Mini told us the humidity was too much for her and went home. The rest of us went on. We stopped at Veteran's Park in Montgomery. Below, you can see Justin's eyes glazing over as Larry and I try to persuade him, for the umpteenth time, to join the Freewheelers:

We weren't even halfway through the ride yet.

At Devon Road:

We stopped again at Bessie Grover Park.

I had planned to stop at the Thomas Sweet, but on a day like this I thought the gang might do better if they could buy water, so we went to the Wawa (hey, neither of 'em had toilets open). From there, we came back across the canal.

Pace was nice and slow, as verified on the ride page. Given the interest, I'm thinkin' of doing more C+ rides. What do you think?