after-the-funeral ride

 

The viewing of the body of The Excellent Mother-In-Law was Thursday, and yesterday was the funeral, followed by a certain amount of hanging around with the various relatives and the beginnings of the inevitable, ongoing discussions of property distribution, complicated post-mortem rank and relationship discussions, and the like.

We got home last night, and The Excellent Wife (TEW) agreed to let me do a ride today, so I quick signed up for Laura OLPH's ride from Lambertville today. Four other members came out (besides Laura and me, Ricky G, Peter G, and Lenny G), and as we were getting started, another rider asked if he could hang on with us; we saw no objection. Subsequent discussion elicited that fact that he'd been a FreeWheeler in the 90's, but not since. He also asked about A rides, and had no seatbag and little in his pockets, which suggested he was generally faster than we and we'd probably not see him again, but he was pleasant enough.

Laura picked this route, for which the worst hills between mile 8-10 and 28-30; for much of the rest of the ride we were on the ridge and riding more-or-less flat.

We stopped in Frenchtown, and a number of other riders were out, too.

After Frenchtown, went down 29 for a short hop, then climbed Fairview to get to the top again. Laura's plan was to go down Lower Creek, when she'd heard was open again but not all paved. At the top of Lower Creek:

The part that had been washed out by Ida still is not paved.

... and neither is a substantial section below Covered Bridge Road, although if there had been less rain yesterday, the surface would not have been bad (and we DID all get through today). 

We bombed through the last few miles from Stockton to the CVS lot in Lambertville where we started, with the traffic on 29 reminding us to stay single file, and were back before the heat got awful (and before the Pride Parade in Lambertville affected traffic!).

This ride helped get some of the funerary cobwebs out.

I've put in a last-minute listing for tomorrow; we'll see if I get any takers.