Where is Everybody

The last two weekends I have had to do some rides without most of the usual members of the posse as they have been traveling or otherwise occupied. I posted a ride last Saturday that only got one person to sign up and then had to cancel the ride because of rain. I ended up doing a ride on my own on Sunday and then the All Paces on Monday. I was planning on leading my own ride at the all paces assuming enough of the posse would be there to join me but besides Jim, who was leading his own ride, nobody was there. I ended up on Dave's ride which was in the upper B range. I bailed after the rest stop because I wanted to swing by the old house the see it on my way back. 

This Saturday I posted a ride from Bull's island to ride through some of the covered bridges on the PA side. It was going to be perfect weather for this ride so I thought I would get a good turn out but only got 4 people to sign up. Two people I didn't know and Chris and Jim. I was surprised that Chris sign up as he hadn't been riding in the hills the last few years.

It really was a beautiful day for this ride. We walked across the bridge to the PA side and then headed up Fleecy Dale which had a road closed sign across it but the only problem with the road was it was full of large pot holes which were annoying but easy enough to ride around. The toughest hill is at the beginning of the ride after the turn on Wisner and has two steep climbs. I hadn't done any tough hills in a few weeks but had my triple with me so just shifted it into the low gear and ground up. I actually had to stop and kick the front derailleur to get it into the bottom gear so I need to adjust that before the next ride. Chris was the last up the hill. 

We continued on towards the first covered bridge but right before we got there Jim got a flat. After he changed it while his tire was on the ground and he was putting his tools away the tire blew out the side. Apparently the tire had a defect. Luckily Chris had a spare tire so Jim put that on and then decided to head back instead of continuing on. The rest of is continued on through the three covered bridges. 

The part of the route has a nice rhythm as it has some gentle up hills followed by some twisting long gentle downhills. The only problem is that most of the roads had just be rocked so in the shade it was hard to see where the rocks were and I was worried about the bike sliding out from under me. 

We did make it through with out falling and ended up at the Upper Black Eddy deli at the bottom of Bridgeton for our break. This is one of my favorite places to stop for a ride. It's got a nice set of tables out back by the canal that you could just sit out and relax all day. 

 

After the break we headed to the NJ side and climbed up to the ridge and rode past Sky Manor airport. It was a little warm in the sun but not uncomfortably hot. The clear sky now had some clouds which made for some good pictures. 

We finished the ride with a screaming decent down Federal Twist. Although there were a few problems with the ride is still was a good day on the bike. Hopefully most of the posse will be around for my next ride.

Lunar Eclipse

 

On Sunday night there was a lunar eclipse. Despite predictions of overcast and cloudy weather there were a few clear stretches that allowed me to get a few pictures of the eclipse. Even when the clouds cleared there was still a lot of water vapor in the air so the view was still hazy. I managed to get a close up pictures of the moon. One right before the total eclipse.

And a couple after the full eclipse started.

Because of the conditions these aren't great pictures but I'm glad I did get a chance to see part of it. Each lunar eclipse is a little different. This was the darkest moon I have seen during a lunar eclipse. It was almost hard to see. That was probably because of the conditions. A little after midnight the clouds started to close in so I didn't get to see the rest of the eclipse. The next one will be November 7. Hopefully the conditions will be better.

Rainy Weather

As the weekend approaches I always pay attention to the forecast when deciding where and when to ride. Last weekend was a washout so I didn't get a ride in. This weekend the forecast was a little better but there was still the possibility of rain in the forecast. The forecast for Saturday was fog and clouds in the morning followed by heavy showers. The hourly forecast from the couple of sources I use showed only a 20% chance of rain until noon. 

Sunday's forecast was better but Jack had sent out an email wanting to get a ride in Saturday before his trip to Missouri so we took the chance and did an ad hoc ride in Saturday. Now I knew the forecast Saturday was not great and I did expect to get rained on a little but the weather we got was a lost worst than the prediction. 

I did do the blessing of the Holy Kickstand at the start as the insane posse had some health and family issues and I wanted to do something to ward off future problems and protect the posse. The Holy Kickstand does not control the weather so we had to leave that the other bike gods. 

The ride started off with a little fog but that lifted to a hazy cloud cover as we headed south. I was optimistic about our chances to stay mostly dry until it started to rain a little and then got harder. As the rain got harder we had to stop to change one of the four flats that we had on the ride. The rain let up for a little while then started and stopped a couple of time. The rain was harder than the light sprinkle that was predicted and eventually the number and force of the rain caused us to cut it short and head straight back. The only good thing about the weather was that it was warm so we were wet but not cold.

We got back with 36 of the planned 48 miles. One of us didn't make it back as they had a flat a few miles before the end but Jim went back and picked them up.

I know weather is not a precise science but I expected the forecast to be more accurate. I know that weather models use  "Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow" (i.e. Chaos Theory) to predict the weather so there are a lot of conflicting factors in the model that can prevent it from converging to get an accurate result. I could blame the fact that we got caught in the rain on a bad forecast or the fact that Jim and I were on the same ride (which for some reason this year has been very rare) or the fact that I brought my hill bike to a flat ride but the truth is if you ride enough and push the envelope you are some times going to get wet.

Crossing the Delaware

I do quite a few rides near the Delaware because of the interesting roads on both sides of the river. Most of the rides I do involve crossing the Delaware at one of the bridges. This usually means walking across since the law doesn't allow bikers to ride across bridges with pedestrians on them. However the new Scudder Falls Bridge now has ridable bike lane that makes it easier to cross the Delaware. 

This new bike lane has been open for months but I have not had a chance to use it yet so I took the opportunity this weekend to check it out when I did a ride out of Yardley. We did this route which takes us uphill to Tyler State park and then over Jericho mountain before a stop in New Hope for a break. After the break we headed toward the bridge to NJ. I took a new route to the bridge that involved going the wrong way up a one way street, walking over rail tracks and over a bridge with broken and up heaved asphalt. It wasn't as bad as it sounds and the road on the other side is now my favorite way to get to New Hope and over the bridge. 

After the long walk over the bridge to the NJ side we headed uphill and wound our way through Hopewell and the outskirts of Pennington before heading back down to the Delaware. This route has around 3000 feet of climbing but I didn't feel too stressed by it. I was able to turn the peddles up the hills without my heart rate blowing up and didn't cramp. It probably helped that the weather was cool. I of course wasn't as fast as the rest of people with me and I actually think Pete new knee has actually made him faster than before.

The trip over the Scudders Falls bridge was interesting. The surface is a little rough and bumpy but it is nice to be able to ride over the Delaware. I definitely will use it again the next time I need to cross the Delaware in this area.

Yard Work

Each season in our new home brings some new discoveries. This spring we discovered we have some flowering trees in our back yard. We have a couple of red dogwood trees and a really nice Kwanzan cherry tree

That has a rose like flower.

It brought some color to our backyard which is mostly pine trees. The spring season means things are growing again so we had to spend a couple of hours outside cleaning up the outside bushes which had been neglected. 

We do want do some more major changes to the landscaping but that will have to wait until later in the season once every thing has grown in and we know what we want to keep and what we want to remove. 

I did get a ride in this weekend. I lead a ride from Griggstown to Whitehouse Station. I didn't get a good turn out as most of the regulars had stuff to do. When I got to the parking lot no one was there. Then Pete showed up in the wrong parking lot but he eventually found his way over. Ricky showed up at 9am because he thought the ride was at 9:30am. The only person that showed up the the correct place was Ming. I doubled checked the listing and it did have the correct time (9am) and directions to the start so not sure what else I could do to make sure everybody shows up on time.

It was overcast for most of the ride. We did this route which takes us near but not around Round Valley. We stopped at the Brooklyn Deli in Whitehouse Station which is really one of the better places we stopped at. It has outside tables. Good food and a bathroom we can use. If it was closer to our normal starting points I'm sure we would go there more often. 

This was the first really hilly ride of the season for me. I plan to do some more hilly ride in the coming weeks so hopefully I can get my hill legs back.

Happy Easter

It's Easter Sunday and I have no plans today. Before the pandemic we use to host Easter dinner each year. It was the one holiday we hosted. We didn't host the last two years because of the pandemic but this year we could of hosted it if any body would have come. It the past two years all the nieces and nephews are now on their own and are starting their own Easter traditions. The older members of the family have either decided to do something else or don't want to travel on Easter Sunday. 

I'm not really sad about not hosting the holiday any more as it was a lot of work that wasn't really appreciated. Although we could of have a great dinner because I found this turkey on my ride yesterday.

As we get older a lot of these holiday traditions are changing as the younger members of the family start their own traditions with their combine family. This eliminated some of the gatherings and made others smaller and simpler. I was never a big one for the holidays so this is fine with me. 

This did allow me to get in a ride this weekend. I caught a mild head cold (not Covid) early in the week but was mostly over it by the weekend. I ended up doing a ride on my own of around 50 miles. Now that the weather is getting warmer I'm starting to get some real miles as last week I lead a 50+ mile ride to Vincentown. 

This wasn't a good winter for riding for me and I have fewer miles in this year especially in the hills. I definitely feel a little slower so will be trying to ramp up the miles and hills as the weather gets warmer.

In Bloom

It is now springtime but the weather doesn't feel like it. Last Saturday I lead a cold and blustery ride to New Egypt from MCP. It was mostly cloudy with the threat of rain. Luckily the rain held off until the we were almost back. It was a light rain so we really didn't get that wet. 

This Saturday I did a ride on my own since I had to be home by 1pm. I have a good loop through Freehold from where I live. Although it was sunny it was just above 40 degrees and windy so I had to ride with my heavier jersey and jacket. This ride did give me a chance to break in my new shoes. I bought the same shoes I currently have the Specialized Touch 3.0. They have a metatarsal bump that seems to prevent my hot foot problem. They are also very comfortable. The last pair I got took a couple hundred mile to break in but the new ones felt already broken in. I just had to adjust the straps a few times during the ride to get them to the correct tightness then they felt as good as the old ones. 

The trees are starting to bloom and I got a picture of a couple of the white hawthorn trees just outside of Freehold. The blooming trees and flowers added some color to the ride I am just hoping for some warmer an less windy weather soon.