Canal Road south of Suydam Road
One day at a time. There's not much point in looking farther out than tomorrow.
Last week our lab donated what little PPE we had: 3 N95 masks and a half-empty box of surgical masks. The front lines need these things; our lab is shut down, so we don't. This week word trickled down that maybe we should all be wearing masks. On a whim while out food shopping yesterday, I bought a pair of stretchy cloth hairbands. They're the perfect size and shape to cover my nose and mouth, and they're washable.
I figured I'd test one out on my ride today. I was able to breathe almost normally. It's still cool enough outside that the covering was comfortable. Another month and it won't be.
First was a stop in the lab to do the very last step of a project that I'd been working on since the end of January. From now on, I'll only be going in occasionally, to check on the lab, check on the mice, and water the plants in the alcove next to my office.
My route would take me up Raritan River Road again, with a quick stop in the Rocky Hill canal path parking lot. It was drizzling; I wanted to put my camera in a plastic bag, and also to say hello from six feet away to Jack H, Tom, and Pete. All of us had ridden in on our own, and we rode out again on our own. For a few miles our routes overlapped, but to stay out of each other's snot zones we stayed so far apart that we couldn't talk to each other. We were so far apart that a call of "car back" wouldn't have been heard. Not that there were many cars back.
I wanted to see what lay beyond on River Road after Amwell Road, so I crossed and climbed the little hill into Weston. If I've been there before I don't remember it. There are some grand old houses on top of the hill. There's a wide shoulder. In the before times this road would have been too busy for us to use. Today I was just about the only thing on it.
I turned east and then south to follow Weston Canal Road to Mettler's Road back to Amwell. I could see the Watchung mountains between the trees as I turned. They're on the other side of Manville. Someday, when this is all over, the Slugs are going to have to do some exploring.
Weston Canal Road doesn't have much in the way of a shoulder. Mettler's isn't much better. I think the lat time I was in Colonial Park for a ride must have been back when John S took us to the Stanton General Store, back before I knew Round Valley Reservoir was a thing.
I stopped across from Six Mile Run State Park for a snack. In the before times we'd have found a coffee shop and hung out for a while. Now my breaks are caffeine-free, standing up. At least I know I can do a relatively flat 50 miles on half a Balance bar.
On my way to Princeton and Rocky Hill I'd been rained and misted on. On my way back, the sky began to clear, and it was dramatic. I stopped on Canal Road south of Suydam, where that farm with all the old equipment out front is, to get a picture of the sky:
I accidentally got a picture of my front tire. Photography through gloves lends itself to these things.
The sky was especially good over Carnegie Lake. I pulled in for a better look. The entrance was blocked. I didn't try to Hill Slug my way around it. I've seen too many cops on the road this past week.
On our bike club's Facebook there's been discussion not only of proper safe distancing, but also about whether or not any of us should be riding at all. Should we be injured, the argument goes, we'd be taking up much-needed hospital space, and would probably come home with COVID-19.
For what it's worth, I saw a lot of cyclists out today. A few were in pairs. Some looked to be novices. I waved to them all.
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