the limits of politeness, and many greetings

 I lost control of this one before it even started; there's an understanding that Princeton Free Wheeler ride leaders will limit rides to fifteen riders. I forgot to put in the limit, and before I knew it, I had twenty-two registrants. I had to turn someone away. A fellow leader set up his own ride to trail mine.

 Almost everybody on this one rides faster than the posted ride speed. I make sure that nobody rides alone, so I'm usually in the back by the end of the ride. The faster horses in attendance rode behind as we started... but, by the time we were four miles in, the fastest group broke off the front. At about seven miles, another group went out front (although this one mostly waited at turns).

So I decided the limits of politeness for this group ended at about seven miles.

No harm, of course; I was riding with two others who apparently wanted to ride the pace I did, and I had a good time with them. One of them, David G, is a neighbor at the new house into which we just moved; in view of the temperature range, he asked for a ride to the start, and intended to ride home on his own later. 

My performance has been unpredictable recently, but I was in good shape today (probably as a result of loading up on good food and empty calories at dinner last night, in celebration of mine and The Excellent Wife [TEW]'s 27^th wedding anniversary [and how on earth did it happen that I'm married for twenty-seven years?]).

We rolled over my usual roads, on a great day that was just a bit windy (you can see the route and my performance on my ride page). We stopped at that Sweet Gourmet in Montgomery/Skillman/Franklin or wherever it is.

(I'm refraining from posting some incredibly unflattering pictures here. They're really blackmail-worthy.)

After the stop, we started to get separated again, and one of the riders in the back got a flat. Rickety G and I stayed behind to offer suggestions and judgment, and it took a while for us to get going again, but get going we did... to come up on "Wireguy" Michael S in a van (he'd led another ride locally), taking David G back to the start; David had gotten a flat, and had had problems in the past getting his disk-brake wheel back into place, and didn't want to risk more. David asked me for a ride from the start back home in the car; he would wait at the end of the ride, only a few miles further on.

Also with them, though, was friend Bob N, with whom I've ridden a gazillion times. Bob's involved in some new project or other, and between his busy-ness and my move, I haven't seen him in far too long, so we rode together for a few.

When Bob turned off, the rider with the first flat, Rickety, and I put in some pretty fast pacing on the way back to the start (it was fast pacing for me, anyway, especially with thirty-plus miles just under my belt). I chatted with the rider with the flat about riding the rest of the way home on a repaired tire, and how I never trust them, and always feel relieved when I actually get back to the start without further incident.

Don't you feel like that, too?