it was closed

 

Making the most of a difficult situation.

After I'd posted the plan and route for this ride, I got a message that part of my route on Hollow Road between Camp Meeting and 518 would be closed for construction. So yesterday, after deciding not to do a group ride because I was recuperating from a vacation, I took a shorter ride to investigate. While I could see where the work was going to be done, the road was as open as open could be. So I decided to keep the same route plan.

But then I decided, just to be sure, to see if the Blawenburg Bistro, my planned stop was going to be open. After all, it was Mother's Day; I was sure a coffee-and-breakfast place would be rakin' in the cash from some of us negligent-and-feelin'-guilty children, trying to make up to our mothers on one day of the year.

But no. The Bistro was closed today! So after getting home, I changed the ride description and emailed the registrants to let them know that they would have to bring snacks and the stop would be at either Bessie Grover Park or Skillman Park.

Despite that, I had fifteen... no, make that sixteen... no, seventeen registrants for today's ride. And then we picked up two more en route. Nineteen! What is this, Cranbury?

Off we went. Faster folks would go off the front, and the rest of us would catch up, a turn or two later (several times, I thought the faster folks had just gone off, despite my pre-ride speech, but then we'd make another turn, and there they would be).

By the time we got to Bessie Grover Park, some of my morning coffee was petitioning for release with such vehemence that I could no longer ignore it, and I called for a stop. Apparently I was not alone in my distress: I was not the first into the tiny plastic structure, nor was I the last to use it.

Some of my associates decided to enjoy the playground equipment.

Some things work better as video:

While at the park, Peter G decided to go off home over Hollow Road... and shortly thereafter, returned to let us know that the construction had started since my ride the day before, and the road was impassable in the direction I wanted to go. I decided to head back the way we'd come, and dip down to Skillman Park and continue the route as planned.

And that, apparently was enough drama for the day. We made it back in good order. Some riders went off before the end to seek more challenges; the rest continued back to the start at Claremont. 

As I said in yesterday's post, I don't know if I'd upset Aperia, my newly-minted goddess of openings, or Janus, the Roman god of doorways, or St Peter of the keys, or whomever, but I hope I have made my penance.

At the end, a few riders were complaining that I no longer went to the bakery in Raritan, which I had not done because of the nature of the roads (partly milled, partly Main Street Somerville/Bound Brook)... but if that's a request, I'll fulfill it. Look for a ride there in the next few weeks.

vacation and bike trip reconnaissance

 The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I went on a bike club trip to Martha's Vineyard last year (from which I got three posts on the other blog). We both loved it, and TEW had the idea to consider the Eastern Shore of Maryland for a similar trip. She did the trip research; I found some rides on RideWithGPS, and off we went this past week.

We stayed in Oxford, Maryland, in Talbot County. It's a sleepy, but beautiful place.

That's the ferry we took to get there. You don't have to go by ferry, and if you do, it's only $18 for a car, driver, and one passenger.

The view from our table at one of the places we went to dinner.

We went to Annapolis one day.

... and did the tour, and got a picture for our anniversary (which was last month, but we often move the anniversary picture for when we're in a photogenic location)

And, of course, we took a few rides. Here's TEW on the ferry when we included that in a ride one day:

We loved this trip. We had a great time with each other, on a relaxing, fun vacation.

But we're not sure it will work for a bike club trip. There aren't many towns in the county we went to, and the towns that are there, are connected by single roads with a 50mph speed limit. There are huge shoulders, but TEW was unhappy with those roads. Further, while there are some loops that can be made without these roads, the loops tend to be short; we had to add miles to get up to 20. Instead, most of the roads are dead-ends that go off the main roads... so you can extend the routes, but you do a lot of out-and-back.

If we do go back, we'll probably stay in a different town. We took a trip to St Michaels, and there was a LOT more going on there. In Oxford, where we stayed, little was open this early in the season, and NOTHING was open Monday to Wednesday, except for a tiny general store for which we had high hopes, which were not realized. (I had visions of all the residents being pod people, who had to enter their pods to rejuvenate for three days, after acting like normals for four days in the week. I watched too much terrible science fiction in an earlier life.)

We took this ride on Wednesday (when TEW decided she didn't like the traffic), and this one on Thursday (better traffic, but only 18 miles).

We haven't completely given up. We may try a different location, and we'll report back when we know more.

second birthday ride

 

Above, Tony G makes obeisance to the god of the Dead Tree Run Bridge for sparing him from injury this time. He has not always been so lucky.

So yesterday was my actual birthday, and I went on a ride that Tom H led. That was my first birthday ride (for 2023, at any rate).

But I've been leading rides on Sundays for years, and I wanted to have this one be a birthday ride, because the route would be only a few kilometers short of the ride-your-age-in-kilometers custom that a number of cyclists follow, and because I'm the one leading this ride. So today's was my second birthday ride.

I limited the number to fifteen, and the ride got filled, and then I got a call from a particular friend, and I heard his complaint and raised the limit to sixteen. And I registered him myself, to reduce the risk of someone sneaking in between my raising the limit and his registration.

At the start:

I'd adjusted one of my usual routes, one on which we'd stopped at Thomas Sweet in Montgomery (now closing or closed for coffee) to go to the Sweet Gourmet in Rocky Hill. We had great weather, and, while I'm tired as I write this, I was strong again today. Some of that, I think, can be ascribed to less wind; some more to a better breakfast for a cycling day.

As is common on my rides, we got riders of various abilities; some rode ahead and waited, while the rest of us maintained a sensible pace. Hrmph.

Wt the Sweet Gourmet, I pulled on the door, to find it locked. Closed on Sunday? But I'd dropped in during the week to be sure they were open!

No, you idiot; that's the tailor shop next door. Sweet Gourmet is definitely open on Sundays.

Above, Tony G's French bike. Tony on a French bike? Not Italian? Yeah, well, he'd tried to improve things with Vittoria Tire stickers, but I don't think it worked.

On the way back, we came across the bridge at Dead Tree Run, where Tony had had a crash last July; the picture at top shows him being humble in the face of power, or something.

At the end, Jen and Mark gave me a plant for my birthday. I'd hoped to carry it, pot and all, in the bar bag of my bike...

... but on the way home, an SUV and I had a dispute about which part of the road I was to be on, and in the roughness, the plant jumped out, ruining the pot. I got the plant home anyway, and transplanted it into an old coffee mug. Jen, it's at home and happy now, and thanks.

I don't generally post pictures of myself in cycling gear on these blogs, but other people take 'em sometimes. I got this from Martin G today:

Not bad-lookin', for such an old guy.

first birthday ride, and a reflection on aging

 

My 68th birthday is today, so when Tom H posted a ride for today, I decided to go, and to think of it as a birthday ride, even though I didn't tell anybody about it until today. I'm also leading a ride tomorrow, which I'm calling my birthday ride, even though it's not actually on my birthday. So that post will be my second birthday ride.

I know it's confusing. Try to keep up.

Tom had called for a start at the Prallsville Mills, just above Stockton, but when I got there (first, of course; I'm almost always first), the parking was closed for a private event. A flurry of calls later, we moved everybody up to Bull's Island for the start.

As far as I'm concerned, the Prallsville-Mills-to-Bull's-Island glitch was the only glitch over the entire day. Tom quickly adjusted the route to accommodate the change, and invoked the Holy Kickstand to keep us upright, dousing it with the Holy Water of Brita...

...and then sprinkling the assembly so that the Holy Kickstand's magical power could work through us.

And off we went. Early in the ride, one of the newcomers to Tom's group was a bit concerned that the ride would take off without him; he'd been on a hilly ride with another club leader, and been dropped enough times that he decided to come back on his own. I told him I didn't think that would be a problem today; a while later, the newcomer was remarking how he liked this conversational pace.

From Bull's Island, we took a roundabout route to Flemington, for a stop at Factory Fuel, a coffee shop that we like to go to. We don't go frequently, because some of the roads around Flemington get busy (and apparently get busier as the summer approaches). There were a couple of long and demanding climbs, which I decided justified the two gourmet donuts I got from a baker at the tiny farmer's market there.

The vibe at Factory Fuel is about cafe-racer motorcycles, but they also had two lovely examples of the old Stingray bikes:

On the way back, we paid a visit to the Sergeantsville bridge, preparatory to a trip down the newly-paved (after being closed for years) Lower Creek Road.

It was a nearly perfect day. You wish you had come along.

Ride page.

---

Now, when I first joined the Princeton FreeWheelers, say twenty years ago, there were some old riders in the club, and I remember looking up to them, and deciding that they were who I wanted to be when I got to their age.

In a not-entirely-welcome twist of fate, it appears that I have become one of those older riders, and other club members are deciding they want to be like me when they get to my age.

I'm conflicted:

• I'm honored, of course...
• ...but am I that old?
• And am I sure I want the responsibility?
  
• Are they sure they want to be like me? There's a lot of non-bikey baggage that comes with this carcass.

Hrmph.