last ride before xmas

 Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and my Polish wife's family still do all the Wigilia stuff: the celebration is on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, there will be a number of different dishes, but none with meat (because on Christmas Eve, the animals* talked about the birth of Jesus, and you don't eat creatures with whom you might be in conversation at some point), the celebrations go on forever (so don't plan on doing anything else for the day). So I wont do a ride Sunday (for Christmas Eve) or Monday (for Christmas). So today's last-minute-listed-by-Laura OLPH-ride will do for the last ride before Christmas for me (and who's writing this blog post, anyway? Who else counts?).

*Either the fish didn't talk about the birth, or nobody was around to poll them about their views, because there is usually a plethora of fish dishes at the Wigilia celebration. One of the traditional ones is referred to as "Greek Fish", but it's Greek in about the same way as The French Disease is French. "Greek Fish" contains catsup (at least in the versions with which my Polish in-laws are familiar), so calling the fish "Greek" is a slander on things Hellenic.

This isn't much about a bike ride yet, is it?

Laura listed this ride late yesterday (late, partly out of busy-ness, and partly, I think, out of a desire to keep the riff-raff out). I found out about it from an email, and signed up. Ten of us started.

Tom H has been having some health issues, but came to chat anyway.

 Laura had chosen one of Tom's routes through New Egypt (after deciding the we, or she, or all of us needed a flatter route today). We'd done the route with Tom a few months ago; I like this one - we pass the longhorn farm, and there's a stop at Charleston Coffee and the attached bagel shop.

Longhorn farm?

Yes, longhorn farm. And if we pass anything bovine, Laura's gonna stop for pictures. As did Martin, above.

Above in grey, Eric H. We haven't seen much of him for a while due to medical issues, either; I'm glad he's back.

On to Charleston Coffee for the stop.

(I ducked out a bit early to cross at the traffic light. The mid-block crossing-and-left-turn, above, while not really dangerous, is more stressful than an old guy like me needs. And I got that pic at the top of the post from it.)

This is one of those front-loaded routes, where the stop comes 28 miles into this 43-mile route, and the fifteen miles back is more direct (well, direct for bike-friendly roads, anyway). You can go check it out on the ride page.

And so, tomorrow, while I'm doing the best I can to feel fellowship with the in-laws, I'll have this pleasantness as fuel for my patience and forbearance.