this one was a little weird

 So after having eight, ten, twelve, fourteen riders on my rides over the fall and winter, I was a little curious (and not a little disappointed) when I only had three other registrants for today's ride, one of whom was completely new to me.

I was even more disappointed when one of them cancelled yesterday afternoon.

I have a hard time expressing my emotions when I saw that another cancelled this morning. The only one still registered was the person new to me.

I got an email from Laura OLPH that she might meet us on the way, so I rode to the start location for the 9:00 departure to tell the new rider about the plan.

At 9:02, he had not arrived, so I gave up waiting, and I rode to the place where Laura said she was planning to meet me. She wasn't there; I rode around the way I thought she might be approaching, but I didn't see her. 

My phone went off; she had texted that she was far beyond the meeting point. We had apparently missed each other. We agreed to meet on Route 27, and we did; we continued along the route I'd picked.

A short while later, another rider overtook us. It was Yuval B, the new rider. He'd gotten to the start at about 9:05, after some minor mishaps loading up the car for the ride.

Well, that made me feel better; at least I hadn't been completely abandoned!

Here's Yuval and a few degrees of Laura at Bayberry Road in Hopewell:

Bayberry Road! I'd chosen this route because I'd heard it was open again, and it's part of a couple of my favorite routes. We'd been along there after storm Ida, and had had to portage around the bridge that the storm had destroyed. But it's fine now!

New concrete, new retaining fences, new everything. Plan on a ride through there that includes Pretty Brook Road in a few weeks. It will give us something to complain about over coffee at the Boro Bean:

(Not even gonna apologize for the bike pics.)

After the stop, Laura rolled off, and I tried to keep up with Yuval. He was kind enough to let me believe I was almost in his class.

I hope to see him again. I hope to see some of my regulars again, too! And I hope to find out where everybody was this week. Was it something I said? Do I need to apologize? (Again? As usual?)

Ride page.