Sleep is Everything

 

Mount Airy

5 November 2023

When it comes to my being able to ride my bike without falling apart, sleep is everything. 

Duh.

Despite knowing this, more often than not, I enter the weekend sleep-deprived. Lately, I've made a point to break this habit. This means sometimes going to bed ridiculously early, so early that I sequester myself in a small, dark room, on a sofa bed, until Jack is ready to sleep (because reasons), at which point I stumble into the bedroom. It's not ideal. The sofa bed isn't as comfortable, and walking around an hour and a half into what should be sleep is disruptive, but it's better than 7 hours or less.

That, and a lot of extra PT for my back.

Saturday was the second rain-free Saturday in a row. I had to be home early, and so did Heddy, so I led a relatively short* ride with 7 other people to Sergeantsville.

Our destination was the Covered Bridge Market. This is a new cafe where the Bagel Barn used to be. There'd been some talk about it on the PFW's Facebook presence and I wanted to test their coffee game. 

The first thing we noticed was that there are two, count them, two, bike racks. They even have indented slats at the base to keep wheels from rolling. 

They redid the entrance well. I do miss the ceramic pig though,

Inside is spacious. The food selection is eclectic. They focus on coffee. Heddy's measure is whether or not a place can make a good cortado. These folks did well. There's a smattering of carbs, some lunchmeats, and a bit of prepared food off to the sides. 

The group liked the market. I've always felt like a traitor when I've gone past the Sergeantsville General Store. Not so much lately. When Sun retired and the new owners took over, there were some repairs to the place. Recently, though, it's fallen back into decrepitude. Sun made the decay charming. These new folks, not so much, 

The Covered Bridge Market has only been open since Labor Day. It might take a while for them to find their footing. It strikes me as the sort of place one would see in Lambertville or New Hope, not up in the hills of red-hat Hunterdon County. I wish them well. 

Our way back was more direct. I stopped for the cows at the top of Mount Airy. One rider, new to the group, wasn't aware of our (well, my) tradition and continued along the road without us.

I took the camera out again as we collected ourselves at the corner of Pennington-Harbourton and Bear Tavern.

After the ride, Heddy showed us the rough ideas for the 2023 ride leader jerseys. I don't normally take pictures of people, but the combination of Jim's dapper hat and his day-glow orange jacket over green suspenders was worth the shot.

Too bad you can't see the suspenders.

I don't normally do two hilly rides in a row either. In anticipation of having to do four or five hilly days in a row in nine months (I know, I know), I signed up for Dave S's Sunday Sourlands ride to Lambertville. It was listed as a C+ ride with the same elevation gain as mine over a few more miles. 

We got an extra hour to sleep last night. That helped. The ride was designed to be relaxed, and it was. The group was so large that some of us split off and went to Luminary Coffee while the rest crammed themselves into Lambertville Trading Company. It came down to which one did the better cortado (I don't know the answer). 

On our way back, I was at the front and turned onto Alexauken Creek Road from Route 29. I could swear that's what my GPS told me to do. A few hundred yards in, though, my GPS was telling me I was off course. Our Jeff was with me. The rest were close behind us. Dave S pulled up. He had planned the route when Alexauken Creek Road was still closed. We were supposed to have turned on Lambertville Headquarters. 

I apologized for leading the group astray. "I like this road better though," I added. "So do I," he said. We picked up the planned route at the other end, cutting off a couple of miles that nobody seemed to miss. 

Our last climb was the most difficult, up Rileyville from Saddle Shop. Before we started, I told Bolong, "The good thing about this hill is that you can see what's coming. The bad thing is that you can see what's coming." I think starting from Saddle Shop rather than Wertsville eases the agony a little; even though Rileyville is flat at Saddle Shop, there's enough of an ascent before it to take some oomph out of your legs. Anyway, we all made it up. 

There was that little bump at the top of Lindbergh, but we'll let that slide. The rest was downhill.

My legs are less sore now than they were after yesterday's ride. Sleep is everything.

(*Anything under 40 miles is short. This one came in at 39, although, with my ride in from home, I stretched it to 46 miles, which counts as a real ride.)