Field at Twin Pines, Pennington, NJ
25 November 2017
Once every few years I get a chance to ride with Team Social Security. Friday was that day. Bob N and I started with Tom from Tom's house so that we could get in a few extra miles. Also, it's an easier drive to Tom's than it is to Etra.
I'd chosen to take Rowlf with me. The ride would be at a C+ pace; the extra weight wouldn't be a problem. My legs were fresh, but I hadn't counted on losing some of that by having come down with a cold after Thanksgiving dinner. Receiving the news that my 13-year-old cat was in acute kidney failure and would have to be euthanized didn't help either.
Al P had close to 20 people signed in. Ira's group had another half dozen. In our mob were the TSS regulars, as well as us Slugs (including Chris and Jim), and even a B+ rider (Peter F). Somehow Al kept us all together.
The group was a little all over the road at times, despite many of us bellowing "car back" as loud as we could.
We took a scenic route to the Minit Stop in Jackson.
The road names out in Monmouth County don't tend to be as interesting as the ones in northern Hunterdon County, but there are a few that sound good together. By chance, on the way back, we stopped to regroup at the corner of Back Bone Hill and Stillhouse. It sounds very Hillbilly.
Before we headed back to Tom's house I took a few pictures of the field behind the gravel lot across from Etra Lake Park.
I didn't sleep well Friday night either. Between the shivering, sweating, clogged nose, and images of a dying cat keeping me awake, I had half a mind to somehow cancel my Saturday ride first thing in the morning. I didn't; I got dressed and drank coffee instead.
Jim started with me from my house. We met Ken G and Chris at Twin Pines. Ken decided he needed to get shoe covers and rode off towards home. We said we'd meet him near his house. We were about to leave when Chris noticed a bald spot in Jim's rear tire. Worn flat after 3000 miles, the tire was showing threads in more than one place. Jim nearly turned around for home, but Chris had a spare tire with him and I convinced Jim to take it. They made quick work of the swap and we were on our way. Ken didn't mind that we'd been held up. He had time to feed his fish, which he'd forgotten to do earlier in the morning.
I wasn't feeling ambitious. I didn't have a set route in mind either. I figured we'd go to Sergeantsville.
We took Pleasant Valley-Harbourton Road.
We turned on a newly micropaved (now Slightly Less Un)Pleasant Valley, and then onto Valley, where Jim saw the cat first.
This is what a happy cat looks like:
We climbed Woodens Lane, one of Ken's favorites. There is something of a car graveyard in a driveway near the top of the hill.
And also a "roach crossing" sign next to a three-wheeled car at the edge of the same driveway.
At this point I decided that I didn't have Sergeantsville in me. The guys were okay with going to Lambertville instead.
We visited our Mount Airy cows.
I don't know what's going on with this gal's markings. They make her eyes look enormous, like an anime drawing, or, as one of my online pals suggests, a mime. In any case, it's a little bit creepy.
With the leaves down on Alexauken Creek Road, the old stone foundation in the woods is visible again.
The road is photogenic during any season.
At Rojo's, Ken made the bold move to ask a lone cyclist if we could join him at his table. This is why Ken knows everybody. The fellow, whose name I've already forgotten, had come in from Bridgewater on a five-year-old Seven that was painted to look as if it crawled out of the 1970s. Ken, Jim, and I spent most of the time regaling the guy with descriptions of Wheelfine Imports and the iconoclastic Michael Johnson within.
When we got back to Twin Pines, Jim and Chris swapped tires again.
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