Who's on First?

Assunpink Creek at Mercer County Park

2 April 2017

There was rain on Friday. Lots of it. It was predicted to taper off during the wee hours of Saturday morning. Erring on the side of caution, Tom moved his ad hoc ride to Sunday morning.

This left me with Saturday morning free. Ron M was scheduled to lead from Allentown, 14 miles away. I could ride over there and do my own thing if nobody were to show up. I emailed him to find out if the ride was on.

Hi, Ron. When you make the decision about tomorrow's ride being on or not, can you please shoot me an email? If the ride is on, I'll head over on my bike at 9:00. Thanks!

He replied, 

I'm working tomorrow. Ken W is taking my ride...Shoot a line to see with his intentions are.

I did, and Ken answered,

I'm confused. I wasn't leading a ride tomorrow.  Ron M was leading the B Tri-County Cruise on the 1st.

I said, 

He sent me to you. He said he's working tomorrow and that you'd be leading.

Ken wrote, 

First that I heard that I was leading but it looks like the weather should be okay.

So at 9:00 I left the house with Kermit. The roads were mostly dry. I had a strong tailwind under heavy clouds as I made my way south towards Allentown. 

Chris, who had the same conversation with Ron and Ken that I did, was in the parking lot with Ken. Sue M had one rider for her group.

Ken took us northeast, back up Gordon Road (I have a Gordon Road quota of once in each direction per day), and over to West Windsor. We spent a handful of miles on Old Trenton Road, something that is not advised under normal circumstances. But when one finds oneself having to throw a route together two hours before a ride, a bit of leeway is granted. 

We crossed over a handful of streams, some leading to the Assunpink, some to the Millstone, all overflowing their banks, all cappucino-muddy.

We stopped at Teddy's in Cranbury. I haven't been inside Teddy's in years. Across the street from the usual Sunday "Back By Lunch" ride with Winter Larry, the diner is usually closed when we return. Ken and I sat at the counter while Chris wandered off to find pizza a few doors down. The folks behind the counter were out-of-their-way friendly, and I wondered why we don't come by here more often.

I needed to get home in time to clean up and fetch a guest from the Trenton train station, so when Ken's route looped us back on Perrineville to Old York Road, I stayed straight when they turned left.

As I passed Working Dog Winery, the sky was clearing to the south.

I wondered what the Assunpink would look like at Mercer County Park. I could hop on the paved trail, cross the bridge, and, if the pavement wasn't under water, get out of the wind a little.

 

How many pictures have I taken from this bridge?

(About a dozen, and this one, from 2015, is my favorite:

)

The park being a vortex, the trees along the path didn't help shield me much from the wind. At one point, a gust seeming to come from the south took me by surprise and pushed me sideways.

As I pedaled the final mile along Princeton Pike, a few drops of rain fell.

Today was completely clear, and warmer. I started Tom's ride wearing too much and had most of it shed before the first dozen miles were over.

The windbreaker came off first, when I stopped near Chesterfield to take a picture of a Trump voter farm:

I was the weak link in the chain today, the chain consisting of Tom, Chris, Pete, Jack H, Joe, and me.

We had some help from the wind on our way south towards Vincentown. Pemberton Lake was looking especially pretty.

We stopped in a Vincentown park to use the port-a-potty. There, a fellow was flying a radio-controlled helicopter. It was flying upside down, vertical, doing loops, zooming up, zooming down, and generally moving so quickly that taking a picture of it seemed a worthless endeavor. I pulled out my phone and tried anyway. By sheer luck, because I couldn't see if the thing was in view, I caught a few seconds of it. If you make this full-screen you might be able to see the copter.

We went across the street to a Wawa for our break, and then headed back, into the wind.

As we crossed Route 38 on Smithville Road, Pete asked, "Are we going across, where it says 'bridge out'"?

Tom said, "Yeah, don't worry about that."

Pete clearly hasn't been on enough rides with me and Tom.

When we got up to it, I said, "Piecea cake," and we were across in no time.

Somewhere between here and Bordentown, I ran out of steam. I got it back in the last half mile. Better late than never.