Above, the Sunday ride crew.
Tom H scheduled a pickup ride for Saturday. Laura OLPH was going to be driving back from Maine on Friday, and didn't want anything too demanding, so Tom set up a flat 50-or-so-miler starting from Mercer County Park. When we got there, Sue M's ride was also gathering.
There were just a few of us for this one.
We rolled out and headed for the Assunpink. Rochdale Road hasn't improved any, but the lake was pleasant enough.
We did this route. We took a stop at Charleston Coffee, one of my favorite stops (double-chocolate crumb cake!), where I saw this tucked on a corner of a walkway.
Laura's got a new memento of Maine hanging from this bike, along with the moose on her top-tube bag.
On the way back, we tried to get across Miry Run on Holmes Mill Road...
...but it really was impassable. Here's Jack on his way back.
On the ride page, you can see that little appendix where we went to the bridge, and then backed out. A local said that the construction might last to Thanksgiving, but then also mentioned next March. So there.
One other thing I want to mention about this ride: Justice Ginsberg had died the night before, and I wore my custom "Justice" jersey in her memory.
But a guy in a pickup shouted something unintelligible (but clearly unfriendly) as he passed; another left turner flipped us a bird when I "thumbs-upped" in gratitude for letting us pass, and it seems to me a few more cars than usual passed unusually close. I think some of it was a response to the jersey, and I'm retiring it for group rides (except perhaps on Memorial Day or July 4). I may be seeing something that's not there, but I'm not going to put riders at risk.
For this Sunday, I wasn't planning to do a ride. I'd had an unpleasant experience last Sunday, and thought I'd take a week off (or more)... but Bob N wasn't going to get a ride in because of the Jewish New Year on Saturday, so I decided to run a ride.
I was surprised to get eight takers: besides Bob, Andrew A, Alan B, Luis C, Chris C, Eric H, Laura OLPH, and Sophie T all came out (some of them, I think, because Dave M had scheduled a ride that he had subsequently cancelled).
We did one of my usual routes. Eric had a flat, and was far too apologetic about it; he did a good job of replacing the tube with only Chris C and I overseeing (How many Freewheelers does it take to change a tube? How many do you have?)
We stopped at the Thomas Sweet in Montgomery, which still doesn't have the toilet open (we'd stopped once already for a potty-stop - it helps to know where they are along the route).
While there, I saw this dad with his sons out for a ride.
Let's check back in ten or fifteen years and see if we can enroll 'em as members.
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