Last Ride of 2015

I had my last ride of the year on Wednesday. I did try to invite a few others to join me but got no takers so ended up doing the ride solo. Even though it has been very warm this December it hasn't been that great to ride as when it was warm it was overcast and rainy and the few sunny days we had it was cold. Wednesday was one of those overcast days when the roads were dry enough to ride but still wet in spots. I ended up with just under 40 miles. It wasn't a great ride but I wanted to get out when I can since we are now in winter and you have to get out when you can.

Since this is the last ride of the year I looked back on my year of riding which can be summed up in one word HIGHPOINTS.

I had a theme this year to get to the high point in every county of NJ that was on a rideable road. Except for Union Essex and Hudson. which are on roads too busy to get to, we got to every other highpoint in the state. I'm still not sure this whole highpoint theme was a good idea but we did have some interesting adventures along with a couple of rides that sucked. I have included a set of links to the high point rides below in case anybody is interest in reading about our adventures. It is amazing to me that after over 20 years of riding in NJ that I am still discovering new roads and new routes.

I did some riding in Virginia and Tennessee this year and they have some good roads there too but I still think NJ has a lot of variety and good scenery to offer any type of rider.  I don't have any theme or ideas for 2016 but I'm sure I will come up with something stupid to do.

Happy New Year. See you all on the bike in 2016

Middlesex high point
Mercer County high point
Monmouth  County high point
Ocean/Burlington high points.
Salem and Cumberland high points
Somerset high point
Hunterdon high point
Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester high points 
Sussex,Warren high points
Morris, Passaic,Bergen high points
Cape May high point

Muddy Monday

Decided to do a solo ride today since it looks like it will be raining for the next couple of days. Because of the cold I decided for a short trail ride to make sure my mountain bike is ready for the winter season. (Besides a slight seat height and rear break adjustment it worked just fine).

I started from Carnegie Lake and went up just past Rocky Hill and back. It was just over 40 degrees when I started and really didn't warm up much. It was sunny for the first time in about a week. The cloudy and rainy weather we have been having meant there were a lot of puddles to go around on the trail. Of course some times the only way over was through so I splashed some mud on me and the bike as I had to ride through some puddles that covered the whole path. 

My sun glasses were the cleanest part of me and from the waist down I was 50% mud. Despite the messy ride I do like this part of the trail as it has enough scenery to enjoy and it a little different every time.

I stopped by the dam to take the picture of the mill. This is the same shot I take almost every time I ride this trail. It looks much nicer when there is ice and snow.

I also got a picture of the lock by Kingston that had an interesting sun glint in it.

It looks like we might have one more mild day on Thursday so if the forecast holds I will probably try to organize a ride from Mercer or Etra.

Ye Olde Cranbury Ride

Our families really don't exchange presents since non of us needs more stuff. Christmas, for us, is more about getting together as a family. We do exchange some little trinkets like ornaments or candy. My sister also tries to find the most horrendous cheap Christmas decoration to give to us. A few years ago she gave us a rapping snowman which dances and raps Christmas songs and is offensive on many levels. We have tried to find something to one up her but there is nothing worst than the rapping snowman. This year a plastic deer that plays Christmas songs with flashing lights was the worst thing she could find.

With Christmas over it is now time to get back to riding. Today I lead a pick up ride out of Cranbury. When I first started riding with the club I would go out of Cranbury every week because if was a close and easy ride to do and I really liked the people that rode out of there. For the past 10 years I only go to Cranbury occasionally as I tried to add more variety to my riding.

 Today I didn't have any thing in the book but the HoneyDo ride listed the C++ leader as volunteer so I sent out a email to let few people know that I would be there and hoped a few would show.

When I got there at 9am Chris and Joe were waiting for me and then Peter and another person decided to join us. We did a 45 mile loop to Millstone and back with a stop at Roy's Deli. I have not been out in a couple weeks since I had a cold last week. Because of excess of Christmas food and the lingering cold I felt a little out of shape. Still it felt good to get out.

I am off for the next week so I hope to get a couple of rides in between the forecast rain. 

Peace on Earth

This past week I was up at corporate headquarters in New York for set of technical meetings to try and bring three groups together to come up with our product strategy for 2016. There were about 25 of us there from all over the world representing at least 10 different countries. My main concern was that it would be hard come to consensus on our strategy as each group would want to promote their ideas over the other groups.

That turned out to not be the case and by Thursday afternoon we had a clear strategy that everyone could support. Some people may think that when you get a bunch of tech geeks together they calmly discuss the pros and cons of different technologies and come to a conclusion based on logic and reasoning. The truth is technical people tend to have as many turf wars and political maneuverings as executives in corporate board rooms or politicians in committee meetings.

As part of this trip I got to spend some time outside of work with the people from these other countries I normally only talk to by phone. Its nice to get to know them on a more personal basis and get their views on the world. Of course the conversation eventually lead to the recent set of attacks in Paris and the US.

If you haven't seen John Olivers comments on the Paris attacks you should check it out on youtube. In his moment of profanity he correctly points out that these attacks are not carried out by a group of radical Muslims but by just plain "Fucking Assholes" following an outdated ideology of assholery. I support the governments efforts to track down these people and do what they can to prevent these type of attacks but am concerned by some ideas certain politicians proposed to solve this problem as they amount to nothing more than blatant racism. I explained to my colleagues that the ideas of these politicians do not really reflect the opinion of the people and are just grandstanding to energize their base. They all understood since their politicians do the same thing.  

One of the outings we had after work was to travel to Times Square where the Statue of Liberty reminded me that what makes America successful is our ability to integrate many people from different parts of the world with different beliefs so that they can participate equally in our society

One only has to spend a few hours in New York to understand how rich and strong our culture is because of our diversity.  And it makes for a lot of good food too. (Although as my Chinese colleagues point out what we call "Chinese" food is not really what they think of as Chinese food and the same can be said of any ethnic food in the US although it all tastes good )

The politicians may try to have you believe that our society is under attack and we must take dramatic action to prevent "These people" from taking our way of life from us. However if you look at demographics and actual facts you will see that the world is getting safer. More than ever the different counties of the world depend on each other economically and need to get along. We still have disagreements, of course, but more of these are solved through trade agreements and treaties as oppose to wars.

The main thing that divides us is the hate that is bread out of fear and fueled by politicians and those who want to benefit from this hate. It is important that we don't get consumed by this. As I walked with my colleagues through Rockefeller Center and saw all the people enjoying the Christmas season it is easy to believe that people from different places with different backgrounds and beliefs can get together and find solutions to common problems. My conversations with my colleagues this week have continue to confirm my belief that if we learn to understand and respect each other we can solve the problems that face us and live in peace.

Day at the Beach

While some people headed to the hills this Saturday I headed for the beach. I had to some things to do at the condo in Avon so I rode from home to Belmar and met my wife at the condo. Its a 40 mile ride with a few rolling hills and not a lot of traffic until you get about 5 mile from the beach. I wanted to be at the beach by 11 am so I started at 8:30 am while it was still below freezing. The first 5 mile was a little cold but once I got going I was warm enough. 

The beach is a barren place this time of year which means you don't have to watch out for cars and people darting out in front of you as you ride only the ocean.  It was a good quick ride and by 11 am I was there and took care of the codo before heading out for lunch.

We didn't head straight home but took a detour to Tuckerton. There was a craft show there that my wife and I went to last year. They actually has some cool and unique things last year so we headed back this year to see if we could find some Christmas gifts. Unfortunately the craft show was no where need as good this year as a lot of the vendors that we like last year were missing this year.

Although the vendors were disappointing the museum where the craft fair was help is a nice place to walk around and includes a small light house which you can climb to the top of.  I also did find a new favorite dessert. Its called a cheese cake cone and it is exactly like it sounds only better. It is a cone filled with a really good New York Cheese Cake but what really makes it spectacular is that the cone is made of some hard caramel that perfectly comments the cheese cake. Its turns out the restaurant that makes this cheese cone is based on Cranbury so I will now know where I can get a supply of this new dessert. 

Besides stopping in Tuckerton we also made a quick stop in Smithville for lunch since it was only a few miles down the road. We usually eat at the Smithville Inn but since it was such a nice day they were completely booked. We ended up eating at the the other pub in Smithville before doing some more shopping and finally heading home.