marty's double-trolley ride

 

The Excellent Wife (TEW) spent some time leading the group on this one.

Fellow club member Marty A has a route that follows the old Trenton Trolley line in both directions, out to Conover Park and then back in. TEW liked it enough that she suggested I steal it from him, and, as he was leading the route today at a pace that both of us could manage, we decided to go along. TEW has been in such good shape that she suggested we ride from home and back, extending Marty's planned 25-ish-mile route to about 36 miles. So we did.

After some cancellations, we wound up with eleven.

 

We left from Village Park in Cranbury. With my recent health issues, I was a bit worried about the pace and distance, but I needn't have been. I swept, but there wasn't much need of that, either; despite a large range in ages, everybody kept together, and rode with courtesy and predictability.

 

The stop on this route is at the West Windsor Community Park, with a good restroom, but no place to buy drinks or snacks; you have to bring your own (which TEW and I had done).

 On the way back, got a pinch flat on a block of wood, and mystified one of my fellow riders with my tire-changing prowess. (Nothing to it, really, between having a decent technique, a tire that was stretched out from many miles of use... and using a tire brand known to be easy to change, unlike that brand starting with C that some of my fellow riders prefer*.)

When we got back to Cranbury near the park, TEW engaged her feminine wiles to woo me away from the ride, and into the clutches of Gil & Bert's Ice Cream. I am a sucker for her feminine wiles.

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* Yes, they perform well on curves, but other tires do, too... and if they're so tight you can't change them on a ride, and have to call an Uber to get home, I submit they are not the best tires for the amateur rider.