Hopewell Valley Stampede Part One: Pennington

23 September 2014

I. Took. So. Many. Pictures.

So many that I'm dividing the Hopewell Valley Stampede into four posts.  And that's with us cutting out some of the route.

My genius plan was to see almost 50 of the 68 oxen in 46 miles.  Not until the morning of the ride did it occur to me that 46 miles with one rest stop is one thing; 46 miles with 50 stops is something else entirely.  I feared we'd be out all day, which is something I didn't want to happen.

I'd heard from a few people who don't normally ride with me.  All three of them had been on the Ride for McBride the day before.  None showed up for the Stampede.  Instead I had a small contingent of Slugs:  Jim and Jack H, who started with me from home; John K, who was needed for bad cow puns; Celeste, who we haven't seen all summer because she was away doing research; and Bagel Hill Barry, who we unsuccessfully attempted to talk into getting a cell phone (even promising to pay for it, and to load in all of the ride leaders' numbers).

Before I get to the pictures, let's get some links in so that interested readers can find out who the artists are, what the oxen are named (brace yourselves), and awards (beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that). There's a hand-drawn map, too.

We started at the Hopewell Crossing shopping center, where there were two oxen.

Babe, the Blue Star Ox:

love the eyebrows

Daisy:

damn near got a bee up the nose

At one of the schools in the Brandon Farms development, the Star Spangled Ox:

8-speed cassette

We just didn't get what Color Ox (Lawrenceville-Pennington Road) was all about.

It's "art."

or maybe S&M

Oxford is at the dog park on Federal City Road.

hipster 'stache?

On Main Street in Pennington, Moo'ondrian,

this one is worth seeing if this is the sort of thing you like to see

Patches,

Um, okay...

and Music B. Ox

At this point, we were beginning to notice creepy eyes.

DigiBull was somewhere near Route 31 in the mess of small office buildings off of Main Street.

another one to chalk up to "art."

Cointreau on the Ox, at the Straube Center, was the first one we unanimously adored.  Click to enlarge and look at the poster reproductions and the story behind the ox.

this is why we keep John around

I like Babe the Blue Ushi better than Cointreau.  If you're driving on Route 31 north out of Pennington, pull over for this one.

it's all fabric

Recycle Me is made with rings of crocheted plastic bags.

or Froot Loops or pineapple rings

Ox Tops was the first  one to look like a cow

I missed the point of this one.

There were two at the Tree Farm shopping center.  You can see Van Gox from Route 31, but he needs a closer look than a drive-by provides.

two ears, though?

Dancing with Oxen's mirrors look like holes from far away.

insert deeper meaning here

At one of the schools on South Timberlane is A Puzzling Oxhibition.

Jim was able to name most of the artists.

I'm going to stop here for now.  This is where I decided to cut out a southern loop from the route.  We'd miss a handful of oxen, but for the time we'd been out, we hadn't covered much distance.  Nobody objected.  Nobody was complaining either -- well, not about the nature of the ride, anyway.  Everyone knew what sort of ride this would be.  Jim, though, was feeling uncharacteristically wiped.  I figured we'd best be on our way to Hopewell for some Boro Bean caffeine.