#14

23 August

"See what you started?" That's what I told Mike B. when it became a given that we'd ride from home to Bordentown for Tom's Saturday Pinelands 70-miler. Long ride short, we got in another century.

The temperature was, again, just in the low 80s, if that. I was actually cold in my sleeveless jersey when I left the house at 6:35 a.m. I blame all these centuries on the weather. Next summer, when I'm baking in 99-degree, 100% humid weather, I'll wonder how I managed so many 100-milers in 2008.

We had a good crew: Tom, Chris, Gen, Wall-E, Eva, Big Joe, me, and Mike B. I packed two PB&J's on Jack's home-baked bread. Mike ate his as soon as the two of us arrived in Bordentown.

Tom's plan was to get us to Smithville, where he said he'd found the Best Bakery in New Jersey, and we all had to see this place to believe it. He really talked it up, which made our arrival there all the more humorous.

I said, "Hey, Tom! I've been here before!" A few people started laughing. "Buncha times!" Chris had been there before too. Still, though, the Old World Bakery, out in the middle of farm fields in Smithville, is worth a visit.

Henry and I decided that if there's such a thing as karma then we're going to be paying for all this good weather. I told this to Big Joe.

He said, "Have you forgotten Belmar?" The lightning, the rain. Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Even then, though, it was cool out.

On our way back home from Bordentown, even though I had a map, I got us twisted around. I flubbed a turn and we wound up closer to civilization than I'd wanted to be. Since it was just the two of us we took the ugly route through the centers of Robbinsville and Mercerville both.

Anyway, here are the pics. Did I mention I need a real camera?

Eva got a phone call on Upper Mill Road, in Lebanon State Forest, so while we were stopped I took these pictures:


That's Chris in the yellow jersey. Tom is ahead of him, probably taking pictures.





Wall-E works it in a parking lot. I think it was the Wawa in Pemberton:



We haven't had a good, soaking rain in a few weeks. At this sod farm a tractor kicked up a lot of dust that blew in eddies in the wind:



Mount Pleasant Road outside of Mansfield:





On our way back from Bordentown Mike and I rested on Old York Road near Sawmill, across from a soybean field. We talked about solar power and the GOP's block on alternative energy tax credits; about how McCain voted against alternative energy eight times; about corn ethanol and the food versus fuel balance; about wind farms; about oil. Mike said he wants to see solar and wind power happen right away. So do I. Vote Obama. It's the only chance we have.