I rode a Randonneurs USA route today with a long-time randonneur, bike-club buddy Rick L. The route looped from New Egypt to Tabernacle to Jacksonville to Chesterfield and back, with stops at mandatory 'controls' per RUSA rules. The control in Tabernacle was the very familiar Nixon's Deli.
Last nite, Rick had emailed that I should take it easy on him, as he hadn't been riding much lately. As if.
At
one point early on, he was way up ahead of me. I yelled, "Am I taking
it easy enough on you, Rick?" He was so far ahead, he may not have heard
me.
The route took us past the Fort Dix firing range, where we
heard lots of rounds being fired. And there were a lot of low-flying
huge aircraft coming and going around McGuire AFB. Can't help staring at
them, they are that awesome.
At one point much later, a roadwork crew
necessitated a detour, and we wound up going thru the Doyle Veterans
Memorial Cemetery, the first NJ state-operated one (1986).
Along Burrs Mill Road I pedaled past my long-time good friend Len's driveway; I worked for Len for over 2 years 1975-1977.
We heard, then saw, a handful of chevrons of geese flying at the same time in the gray wintry sky; there must have been over a hundred geese in our view.
Again, double-digit winds, and of course they were in
our face during the long return thru open farm-field country. Glad I had
a riding buddy to share the misery. At one point Rick said, "Uphill
with the wind in our faces." I thought, Does it get any better than this?
I
had attached a larger under-saddle bag when I saw the temps were
predicted to be going from the 30s to the 50s, figuring I would start
peeling off layers and storing them in the bag. Didn't happen; I stayed
layered up. Wind-chilly day, but then it is January. We were glad we
could get the ride in.
Pictures, route map and elevation profile here: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/61499698
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