good ride, great picture

 I'm not willing to say it was my favorite part of today's ride... but I do love those pictures of me in a helmet I had to borrow from Laura OLPH because I'd left mine at home. Her head is substantially smaller than mine (probably because of all the egotism and bad ideas I have packed in mine), so the best I could do was perch that tiny thing on the far back of my cranium and strap it on as best it would stay.

I didn't have my mirror, either, and the old one I found at the bottom of my bike-stuff-bag dissolved into crumbs of plastic at about mile 24. So the helmet didn't fit, and I didn't have a mirror, and let's hope that's enough to remind me to bring my helmet henceforward. (I have a list to refer to as I load the car, and the one time I don't refer to it...)

Laura suggested I keep the helmet in the car, but I have an old one that still fits that I think I'll leave in the car, instead.

Laura wanted to start a ride outside a cafe that has Haitian food on Saturdays, so we left from a mall in Lawrenceville.

I didn't get a good picture of that lovely Colnago that Tony was riding. Tony only rides gorgeous steel bikes.

It wasn't particularly cold, but it was damp and foggy most of the day. We stopped at one point for pictures, but I'm not sure it was worth it.

The route was... interesting. Laura complains about the annoying hills on one of my rides, but I feel like she sought out every hill available on this one, whether it was on the way or not. I am no longer apologizing for hills on my routes. Tony G had a flat-route bike based on Laura's description prior to the ride, and he indicated he now knew better than to bring such a bike on a ride that Laura leads.

Y'wanna see the route I'm complaining about?

We stopped at Blawenburg Bistro, to which I have not recently been, as they are no longer open Sundays, when I usually lead.

And three of the seven of us rolled off on their own as we proceeded back to the start, so after starting with seven, we finished with four. I call these "rides of attrition", and while the raw number isn't high, to have 43% of the ride not finish is remarkable. (Fun with statistics!)

I'm gonna put that old helmet in the car, though.