Community

It was cold today. For last weeks ride I had a light jacket and it felt like early fall. Today, a week later, it felt like the middle of with winter. I had to put on most of my winter wardrobe to keeps warm. Given the weather report I wasn't even sure I was going to ride. It was 25 degrees when I woke up this morning and I usually don't ride on the road if its not 35 or above. However I didn't feel like a mountain bike ride and Jim had the Cranksgiving ride out of Cranbury today. I wasn't really planning on doing Jim's ride but because it was so cold I was afraid nobody would join him so I thought I would just ride over to Cranbury and just say hi then do a long loop back home to get a few miles in.

When I started out for Cranbury it was 27 and I felt very constricted in all the cloths I had on. I had enough layers on to be warm but it hurt a little to breath in the cold air. It got better as I warmed up some more and got the Cranbury.

Right before I got to the park I saw Jim, and to other people (Joe and Ricky) riding out of the park. It took a few seconds for them to recognize me in all my gear. I turned around and told Jim I came to support him but wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do the ride as I really didn't have a way to carry anything. He said that he could carry things for me if the Cranksgiving team didn't have people at the store to carry the food back for us. Some where along the way to the start of the ride I decided to actually do Cranksgiving. It just seemed the right thing to do.

After we got to the starting point at the fire house I had the boys pose for another picture for Laura. She again backed of joining us for a ride because of glass blowing class. We could have done the whole giving her the finger thing again but we decided to do something nice (which is so unlike us) and sent out the heart sign. I got the appropriate "Awwww" back but knowing Laura I think she might have been a little disappointed about not getting another middle finger picture.

Because Jim was leading the ride we got to the start of the Cranksgiving ride a half hour early. Since it was cold I wanted to keep moving so we did a loop to the Caspersen Rowing Center which is directly across from the Mercer Boathouse on the other side of the lake.

The Cranksgiving ride itself was interesting. We did a twenty mile loop on local roads that I'm familiar with. They weren't the best roads in the area because we had get to the different foods spots but it wasn't a bad ride. We stopped at three different places and bought some food. Stopping to buy food at each stop wasn't as hard as I was expecting and there were people at each stop to carry the food back to the starting point. All in all it was a simple well organized charity ride for a good cause.

When I do these type of rides I feel a sense of community. Its not just that I helped out a local charity but the fact that I was doing it with other people which gives you as sense of connection to others and the community as a whole. I also realized that this event helped me to connect to multiple communities. First I only went to Cranbury because I wanted to support Jim who is part of the Princeton free wheelers and a member of my insane bike posse. I sent the picture to Laura because she is part of our group and knew she would appreciated it. I did the Cranksgiving ride even though I hadn't planned on it because it gave me a reason to ride with people I like riding with. I had fun on the ride because I got to hang out with other bikers who are part of the overall biking community. I got to contribute, in a small way, to the Trenton area soup kitchen which helps the local community.

This ride reminded me that there are a lot small ways to connect to the different communities that I am a part of and have some fun while doing good.