of livestock and lockups

Tom H's ride listing offered 20 (edit: 50)-60 miles over "flat to rolling terrain", and that sounded good to me. It apparently sounded good to Ken G, Martin G, Laura OLPH, and The Other Laurie, because we were all there ready to go at the start.

We headed out of Mercer Park East, and towards the Assunpink. It was a chatty ride. In the Assunpink we came upon what I thought might be a shepherd... but it was a dog breeder or trainer, with a pack of what looked to me like Golden Retrievers. None were on the leash, and all stayed int he pack (we DID stop and wait for 'em). A couple of the dogs turned with interest as we rolled away, but none barked or gave chase, and they were soon following their trainer witht he rest of the pack. I'm kicking myself that I didn't get pictures of 'em.

Somewhat later, we came across these guys:

I'm sure they're destined to be sirloins... but I couldn't help wondering how those wide horns would work as handlebars.

Tom had planned the stop at Charleston Coffee. He warned us that not all of his planned roads might have actual paving atop... and when we tried to turn off Brynmore onto Inman, we found he was right to be concerned; we didn't make the turn, and cut perhaps a mile and a half off the planned route. But we then got to the stop in good order.

There was a singer-guitarist doing songs from my college days.

That's gotta be a tough gig, doing Saturday morning at a coffee shop. Neither we nor the soccer families were paying much attention.

In an earlier post, I had saved some pictures of the excellent bike socks some of my riders were wearing. I noted that Laura and Laurie BOTH had good socks today:

That's it. I'm setting up a tag for "socks"; plan on seeing some sock postings on this blog.

 Early in the ride, Laura had some difficulty with the front derailleur (she was riding her bike Kermit, the Waterford frame); it got stuck on the big ring. The cable was loose, so that was not the problem; Laura figured some mung had gotten into the doings of the parallelogram during the rain last week. The derailleur then worked again for a while, then didn't... and on Nurko Road, it gave up and locked up the chain. Laura got herself pedaling again, but this is a bike that needs a visit to the spa. Laura indicates she'll take care of it this week.

Ride page.

And off goes Laura OLPH to get a rescue kitten tomorrow. She's driving to DC to get it handed off; the supplier is driving in from Virginia. I'm sure she'll post on her blog about it afterwards; don't you HAVE to know that story?

ride for sunday Sep 15

I want to go back to the Pig at a time when they ought to be open! On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, I led a troupe over there, but they were closed, and we had to repair to a second-best bagel place Laura OLPH remembered.

We'll have none of it. I called to make sure they weren't permanently closed, and the voice a the other end said it was only for the holiday weekend. So we'll do the route I did last time (more or less); it's got as much elevation as the earlier route, but by avoiding the climb up to Mount Rose, the elevation is spread in a less annoying manner.

A smidge over 44 miles. Leave from the usual Six Mile Run/Blackwells Mills lot at 9 (if the mountain bikers have taken all the parking, there IS parking on Blackwells Mills road... but you'll have to be a bit early to get to the start in time). September 15, 2019.

I won't be able to do the ride the following week, and the 29th will be planned for a C+ ride. So come on out. (Except you real fast folks; you can go off the front, and the rest of us will carry on at a pace.) Princeton Freewheelers Club Ride: guests are welcome on one, but then you're really expected to join, at about half the cost of a tire.

when almost none of the pictures come out

You'll see below - that's the best of a bad lot of pictures. I've already deleted more than half of 'em.

I needed this ride. I'm just back from Buffalo from visiting my mother, who's old enough to be my mother and who's developed a bit of age-related memory loss (a fall and ensuing probable concussion last spring didn't help matters), and my sister and brother-in-law. Sister is charged with the care of my mom; she's pretty much ensured that I have nothing to do with my mother's care except to listen to the two of them complain. I'm grateful for the quality of the care my mother is getting, and I'm sure I could not do any better than my sister is doing, but it's uncomfortable to be so completely left out.

There's also the fact that our family life was not idyllic. The quality of our family relationships appears to improve as the distance between us increases, and to deteriorate as we are more and more in contact with each other. It's not as bad as those depressing and tedious plays by the likes of Eugene O'Neill, but I'm glad I don't live with them any more.

So we just got back yesterday. I'd listed this ride once I knew the weather was likely to hold, and I hoped some folks I knew, or others I would like, would  come along. I wasn't disappointed.

Laura OLPH, Winter Larry, and John W came out, as did Rama K, who hadn't done a B-rated ride before, and Cindy H, a non-member who spent a lot of the ride off the front.

I got a number of pictures, most of which didn't come out, mostly due to my impatience. Below are the least-worst of the lot:

I like the pics for the blog posts, but they aren't the most important part of the ride (they certainly weren't today). More important is that, after almost 50 miles on the bike, 35-or-so of it with (mostly) club members, I'm somewhat less wacky than I was on the drive home after seeing family for the past several days, sleeping in an unfamiliar place, eating things I'm not used to on someone else's schedule, and so on.

This ride was great for me. At one point, we were joking about the traffic and asking why these people weren't in church of a Sunday morning, and (I think it was) John W said, "This is church for me". That's not exactly true for me, but it's closer than a number of other things I cold have said.

Ride page. Includes my rides to and from the start.

At least one of the next two weeks, I won't be able to lead this ride; family conflict (this one's on The Excellent Wife [TEW]'s side of the family). I hope to dragoon a substitute leader. We'll see.

ride for Sep 8

I'll have driven back from Buffalo the day before, so I'm not sure what kind of shape I'll be in... but a reconnoiter on the day I post this indicates that the construction conflicts I had feared might conflict with my routes are either easily circumnavigated or are out of the way. So how about 35 miles over some of my usual roads with a stop at Thomas Sweet in Montgomery? It will be more-or-less this route, although I may make some changes.

As my last ride was back to my "B minus" pace, I expect this one will be also. If youse wanna shoot off the front, a bei gezint, or however you transliterate the Yiddish. We'll let you go.

9am start from the parking lot at 6 Mile/Blackwells Mills. This is a Princeton Freewheelers Club ride; you're entitled to one free, but then it's expected you'll join. Sunday, Sep 8, in case it's not clear from the post title.

labor day all-paces ride

No doubt you'll want to see all the pictures in the album... so for that, you can head over to the club Photos and Albums web page.

But the day and rides probably merit some commemoration other than just the photos. For example, The Excellent Wife (TEW) was agonizing over whether or not to go today. On the one side, there were varying, but generally pretty frightening, threats of thunderstorms. On the other, she knows that on days with All-Paces rides, I list a ride at a pace she can ride, so we get a chance to ride together. What to do?

She really hates to ride in the rain, so she finally decided not to go. and it worked out well, because then I didn't have to worry about her having a miserable time if the rain did come.

So I got down to Mercer Park for the start... and I was surprised, both by the large number of people there, and by the numbers that signed up for my ride! I had eleven, which is more than I get on my regular rides. Some of them have become "all-paces regulars", whom I see whenever I do an all-paces ride (like Judy F, Joe C, Lesley S); others were new to me.

I do the same route for all the rides from Mercer Park; I figured if the rains came early, we could just turn around and go back; if they came late, we could cut out a couple miles. But we didn't have to turn back; while we got spread out (this is a group that doesn't ride together), we got to Roy's for the break without incident, meeting, oh, pretty much every other Freewheeler group that had gone out. (The clerk lady at Roy's expressed her gratitude at our business - but after yesterday's fiasco, I expressed my gratitude that she was open!)

It was while we were at Roy's that the rain started.

Some of my group went on ahead while the others collected, and other groups went out. As we rolled out, we saw Mike V's B-pace group rolling in. Some of them elected to head straight back, and suddenly, there was Laura OLPH riding beside me,suggesting that we look for a one-way bridge that was closed that we could cross, a reference to something she said on yesterday's ride.

Even this smaller group got split up, and some of the more-experienced riders rode in each group. I made sure that each group made all the turns (this was a Plain Jim ride; it's not like there were a LOT of turns - I'm geographically-challenged, don't you know).

As we were rolling the last little bit, and the rain let up some, Mini B, who was with me, said, "Jim, I have to tell you something about this ride..."

The pause that followed got longer and longer. "What?", I finally asked, with trepidation for what was to follow.

Mini said, "This is the best ride ever! I LOVE riding in the rain!"

That was NOT what I'd been expecting... but I'm glad to have it.

pigward & pigless

My description of the ride for today included the following:

I want to go back to the Pig, especially after hearing that Laura OLPH stopped there after cutting out of my ride last time... but I hear there's bridge construction near the Veterans Park in Montgomery, so I might not be able to do my corner-of-Harlingen-and-Harlingen route. So I've set up a route, that adds a hill, but avoids the construction... I'll try to keep it to my "B-minus" pace, partly because I gotta lead another ride the next day (I'm leading a C+ for the Labor Day All-Paces; if we're still on speaking terms, you can come out and we can commiserate).

I had seven to start: Bill B and Dr Lynne, Laura. Ricky, Jack A, and Racer Pete R. (John W caught up with us, and then went off after a person he was planning to ride with went a different way, so for a few minutes I had eight, but not really.)

We went through Hillsborough and Griggstown over what are becoming some of my usual roads. When we got to the usual turn at Harlingen, I stopped to see if I could see detour signs; I could not, but I went the other way anyway... which included going the wrong way over a single-lane, one-way bridge on Dead Tree Road. So now, as Laura and Tom H have karma of going over closed roads and bridges,I guess I'm developing a penchant for the wrong way on single-lane, one-way bridges.

Laura later said that when we go the wrong way over a one-way bridge, that's closed, during a rainstorm, we'll have combined the characteristics of all three of us on a single ride. You might not want to come along on that one.

Several of my routes around Hopewell include the climb up Hopewell-Princeton Road to Mount Rose. But when Laura cut out of my ride last time, instead of going that way, she continued on 654 to Moore's Mill/Mount Rose. The amount of climb is about the same, but it's spread over a longer distance and it doesn't feel as bad. I set up my route to go that way without really knowing where it was, because I've never made the connection in my head between that part of 654 and the part in Hopewell... but it turns out I've ridden on it a gajillion times, so the next time, I've got some tweaks that will make it a bit easier. And it only adds about a mile to my usual routes, so I may avoid Mount Rose completely in future. We'll see.

Well, bolstered with confidence, I let my band up to the Pig, to find...

Oh, drat. I'm making believe they're taking a long holiday weekend, and they'll be back; my life, bereft of the Pig, is a prospect too dark to contemplate. Edit Sep 3: I called; they were only closed for the holiday weekend. We'll go back and send some money there soon.

Laura remembered a bagel place a few miles away, so we repaired there. On the way, Laura decided she had come up with the name for this post: "Pigward, and Pigless". q.v. 
 
Shortly thereafter, we came rolling up to Udo's Bagels, which had the advantage of being open. (IM [not very] HO, they have few other advantages.)

They were open, and they had a toilet. So we refreshed and attended to the facilities.

While there, I noticed another sign of autumn's approach:

And Ricky noticed a Jaguar XKE.

Even better than bike pics! (We had a discussion about the dates of manufacture for these cars, with one suggesting the 70's, but I remember one in the slot-car set I had in the mid-1960's. It turns out we're both right; the Wikipedia page indicates they were made from 1961-1975.)

And back. Those who had ridden in from home rolled off at various points; by the time I got to the parking lot, Jack and Pete, who'd ridden ahead, were packing up the cars to go.

Because of the detour, the ride turned out to be more like 47 miles than 44, but I did bring it in at the pace I'd hoped. You can't really tell from the ride page, because that includes my ride in from home and my ride back. And I know that before the group ride started, my average was a little over 12mph, because I enjoy my pre-ride bagels while underway.

Here's hoping I'll see you at the Labor Day All-Paces tomorrow. Is it gonna rain? (If it does, is there a one-way bridge that's closed on which we can ride the wrong way?)

hills less intense; chipseal more intense

Tom H posted his ride for today with the following description:

Tom's Less Intense Hills around Lambertville
This will be a 45 to 50 miles ride from Lambertville. We will be climbing some hills but I will try to avoid anything really steep or long. Here is the planned route for tomorrow...

("Less intense", in this case, means either less intense than Paul I's more-demanding hilly ride, or less intense than Tom's own "Lyin' Bastard" ride, scheduled for an upcoming weekend.)

It sounded good to Ricky, Laura OLPH, and me... and to Blake, whom we haven't seen since I don't even know when.

We got going after the usual pre-ride folderol. We started up Alexsauken Creek and headed to the covered bridge near Sergeantsville. Somewhere or other I got these:

I don't remember which climb it was that we first noticed the chipseal surface on the road. (For the uninitiated, chipseal is a paving process [undoubtedly inexpensive] where oil is applied to the road surface, and then a layer an inch or two thick of crushed stone is layered on top. The theory is that the passing traffic will push the crushed stone into the oil, making a hard road surface. Until the surface is hard, though, the chipseal is essentially loose gravel, with all the drama and excitement for a cyclist that riding on loose gravel can entail.)

Paul I has diligently been reporting the chipseal on the Freewheelers
Facebook page. However, I don't know where all the roads are, and so it was a surprise to me when we started our first climb on the chipseal. I found it was a little easier if there were car tire tracks where the mix was a bit more stable.

I don't remember the names of all the chipsealed roads (some apparently had enjoyed enough traffic that the surface was not too bad), but I'm perfectly willing to believe that every township and county road in Hunterdon has been chipsealed in the past month.

(In other news: shortly before the break, I came upon a house that had this construction at the postbox. There are two: the upper one says "Air Mail" [and has the flag up; evidently, something's waiting to be dropped off or picked up]; the lower is that wonderful fish mailbox. Under it is a plaque that reads, "I'll do it tomorrow; today I'm going fishing". I'm not sure whether or not I actually want to meet the owners of this house.)

Tom had had the good idea of getting up to the top of the climb, and riding up there for a while, until we descended into Flemington to Factory Fuel.

...and then we climbed out, going up the chipsealed road.

On the way back, I found evidence that autumn is coming.

And there we were, doing fine, until we got to this downhill at Buchanan Road.

Yeah, that's loose chipseal; even more treacherous on a downhill than on a climb. There was some discussion of changing the route, until one of us saw what appeared to be a possible line down the hill that appeared to be adequately packed. We proceeded, and made it back to the start.

There was some discussion of gravel bikes and mountain bikes today. I think I'm gonna ask Tom to ride some paved roads next time.

Y'wanna see where to stay away from for a few weeks? Ride page.

Trust me, gang; we are NOT gonna be workin' that hard on my ride tomorrow.