Today I was the first to officially ride a new 117km Permanent I created and submitted. It was recently approved by RUSA as route #4411 (kinda like that number).
Temps were forecast to be in the 50s, so I wore shorts, which was okay, but I was glad I wore latex gloves under my fingerless ones. The route is mainly north-south, but the 10-18mph west winds pushed me around quite a bit, slowing my pace considerably. It had my cue sheets flapping up over my GPS at times, and apparently it was the reason I couldn't vocally enter Notes on my phone. On the plus side, I was able to work on my elasticity by spending a lot of time riding in the drops, trying to cheat the wind.
There was a lot of overcast, but at times the sun was out and it was glorious; the country roads looked great with plenty of signs of spring. At one point I caught a glimpse of something gleaming below, and looked down to find the sunlight was bouncing off my chain rollers. Nice.
Happy to report I didn't encounter the nasty cur on Compromise Road that chased me recently (and got an attack-stopping water-bottle squirt in the face for his efforts). I did see a couple friendly dogs with their owners, with whom I exchanged brief pleasantries.
Saw a yard full of maybe 15 wild turkeys and a small field with a similar number of guinea hens. Saw a hawk soaring just overhead, and a great blue heron coming in for a wet landing, until it saw me and turned the maneuver into a touch-and-go takeoff.
Used a new app to identify a saucer magnolia coming into bloom.
Made my first-ever stop at the little store in little Canton, because I heard they were nice people, which I found to be true. Bought a Coke and (coincidentally?) had a serious case of the pees, so by necessity I discovered a number of new spots for nature breaks. One involved making a last-minute decision to turn off the road onto some damp ground; in a bit of a late-ride brain fog, I didn't get fully unclipped and went down, softly but quickly, which gave me my first chainring tattoo in a while.
I am now 1/3 of the way to my second P-12. All in all, another good day on the bike (Spesh Roubaix, solo).
Route map, elevation profile and pics here:
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/86129088
EDIT: This route was used as a New Jersey Randonneurs Populaire on 6/19/22 (Juneteenth).
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