Today was another ride through very familiar territory. We left Somerset which is about thirty miles north of Lawrenceville , where I live of course, and headed South. We had wet streets but no rain when we started but we did have the morning rush hour to contend with. Normally at 7:30 in the morning, assuming that I am up and about, I'm thinking only of making the coffee and toasting the English muffin. I've lost my sense of how many people are in cars rushing off to work and it is surprising to be out among them - especially on a bike. It did not take long for the threat of rain to turn into the reality of rain and we found ourselves pulling over to get into the rain gear. For me this is a bright yellow rain jacket and a great Wegman's hat under the helmet to keep the rain off my face (more or less). And so we headed off into the part of New Jersey I call home. We went through the roads around Hillsborough, crossed the infamous Rt. 1 in Monmouth Jct and then headed to Plainsboro passing directly behind the Munich Re location where Tom (my roomie) and I both worked...of course we both waved and wished everyone well. On our way to West Windsor we passed Grover's Mill, the site of the famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast that scared half the American population years ago. Of course we had to stop and Tom and I became instant experts telling everyone in our group all that we knew of the fictional invasion of the aliens. From there we made our way through West Windsor, which of course will be home to Susan and I come November and actually passed within half a mile of our new house. From there we headed down a lot of roads that I have ridden for years and most recently Tom and rode in August on our training century.
Although the initial rain let up after a short time we saw the dark clouds again and in Mt Holly the rain started coming on again. Our entire group pulled into the parking lot of the first place that looked like it could provide shelter for eight bikes and might have a real rest room. It turned out to be a kind of old-fashioned restaurant with sandwich and soup specials, great hard-working waitresses and some local customers who were just dumbfounded when we all walked in in our biking outfits. We got into great conversations with both the owner (Cosmo's was the name of the place) who was very obviously of Greek origin and the other customers...you are going to Florida? on a bike? no way! etc....lot's of fun. More to the point, we had lunch and waited out the downpour and so when we left it was clear sailing and the sun even came out for the last 15 miles or so. We saw a little bit of everything today: horse farms where they train thoroughbreds for the track, lots of corn and soybean farming, and, as we neared Hammonton fields of blueberry bushes for almost as far as you could see - Hammonton does claim to be the worlds capitol of blueberry farming.
So for the day 84 miles but only about 2400 feet of climbing - the terrain is getting flatter but I have not noticed any complaints. If we could just get a little more sun we could really be flying. And, oh, I do have a couple of photos...including the restaurant scene. The cemetery was taken yesterday actually - an attempt to get the hill in the background in a photo - we had just climbed up that road with a 10-11 % grade but I'm not sure it really shows in the photo...In any case tomorrow is another day and another state...and I need to get the lights out and to sleep.
Today was another ride through very familiar territory. We left Somerset which is about thirty miles north of Lawrenceville , where I live of course, and headed South. We had wet streets but no rain when we started but we did have the morning rush hour to contend with. Normally at 7:30 in the morning, assuming that I am up and about, I'm thinking only of making the coffee and toasting the English muffin. I've lost my sense of how many people are in cars rushing off to work and it is surprising to be out among them - especially on a bike. It did not take long for the threat of rain to turn into the reality of rain and we found ourselves pulling over to get into the rain gear. For me this is a bright yellow rain jacket and a great Wegman's hat under the helmet to keep the rain off my face (more or less). And so we headed off into the part of New Jersey I call home. We went through the roads around Hillsborough, crossed the infamous Rt. 1 in Monmouth Jct and then headed to Plainsboro passing directly behind the Munich Re location where Tom (my roomie) and I both worked...of course we both waved and wished everyone well. On our way to West Windsor we passed Grover's Mill, the site of the famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast that scared half the American population years ago. Of course we had to stop and Tom and I became instant experts telling everyone in our group all that we knew of the fictional invasion of the aliens. From there we made our way through West Windsor, which of course will be home to Susan and I come November and actually passed within half a mile of our new house. From there we headed down a lot of roads that I have ridden for years and most recently Tom and rode in August on our training century.
Although the initial rain let up after a short time we saw the dark clouds again and in Mt Holly the rain started coming on again. Our entire group pulled into the parking lot of the first place that looked like it could provide shelter for eight bikes and might have a real rest room. It turned out to be a kind of old-fashioned restaurant with sandwich and soup specials, great hard-working waitresses and some local customers who were just dumbfounded when we all walked in in our biking outfits. We got into great conversations with both the owner (Cosmo's was the name of the place) who was very obviously of Greek origin and the other customers...you are going to Florida? on a bike? no way! etc....lot's of fun. More to the point, we had lunch and waited out the downpour and so when we left it was clear sailing and the sun even came out for the last 15 miles or so. We saw a little bit of everything today: horse farms where they train thoroughbreds for the track, lots of corn and soybean farming, and, as we neared Hammonton fields of blueberry bushes for almost as far as you could see - Hammonton does claim to be the worlds capitol of blueberry farming.
So for the day 84 miles but only about 2400 feet of climbing - the terrain is getting flatter but I have not noticed any complaints. If we could just get a little more sun we could really be flying. And, oh, I do have a couple of photos...including the restaurant scene. The cemetery was taken yesterday actually - an attempt to get the hill in the background in a photo - we had just climbed up that road with a 10-11 % grade but I'm not sure it really shows in the photo...In any case tomorrow is another day and another state...and I need to get the lights out and to sleep.
How about the missus? No Susan sightings?
ReplyDeleteSadly, no Susan sightings...We discovered it was over 50 miles of non-interstate roads to Hammonton and it didn't seem like such a hot idea for her to come down here. Would have spent more time driving than we would have had together...
ReplyDelete