Put a Stamp on It - November 24, 2017

RIDE REPORT

Frriday, 24 November 2017, Put a Stamp on It (aka Day After Turkey Day)
Ride Leader:  John Allen
24 miles, 10:00 am start from Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History, Weston, MA

Riders (9):  John, Bill Wachur, Chuck McWilliams, David Fay, Don Buchholtz, Ellen Gugel, Francie Sparks, Wing Chow, and ?????.

The call to postpone the ride ‘til Friday may have reduced the number of participants, and this was not the only ride available, but those who did show up were in good spirits.  The day was sunny but chilly:
puddles from Wednesday's rain had left puddles here and there, with patches of black ice to avoid, in addition to the usual potholes.  The ride got off to a bit of a late (if slightly warmer) start:  your ride
leader had suffered a snakebite flat and arrived at the ride start walking his bicycle.  Thanks for the help with it!  [Memo to myself:  from now on, I will carry a spare inner tube, not only a patch kit and pump.]

Before the wheel was reinstalled, a leaderless group of five left to do the longer ride, thanks to the wonder of GPS.  The official WW ride got going a few minutes later and navigated the very scenic route.  We stayed together rather than using human arrows, as this was a small group - except that two of us chose the more scenic dirt road option, while the other two chose the paved option in Wayland and Lincoln.  All four conveniently arrived at the same time where the two options rejoined.

On return to Weston, Don and David left for home, while Chuck and I had lunch at Dumpling Daughter.  A tire lever that went missing during the morning's flat-tire fixing episode *was* found on return to the Spellman Museum!

Francie reports that she and Ellen had a fine time riding together on the long ride, while the three men on the long ride went off by themselves.

Report by John Allen

Desperate Wheelers/Helen Birthday Party - November 15, 2017

At the start

Regrouping

The guest of honor

Chowing down

Doug's Bonsai Ride - November 8, 2017

RIDE REPORTS

Wednesday, 8 November 2017, Doug’s Bonsai Ride

Ride Leaders:  Doug Hobkirk & Clyde Kessel

34 or 40 miles, 10:00 am start from Bonsai West, Littleton, MA

Riders - 34 mi (6):  Doug, David Fay, David Wean, Jack Donohue, Peter Shaw, and Ron Beland.

Riders – 40 mi (16):  Clyde, Barbara Martin, Bill Lane, Bill Wachur, Bob Wadsworth, David Cooper, Gene Ho, James Hsia, Judith McMichael, Julie Dodd, Lindy King, Ray Komow, Steve Carlson, Steve Delaney, Wing Chow, and first-timer Duncan Warden.

Boy, what a delightful ride!  Excellent weather, although it was chilly (gloves required).  The trees still had a lot more color than seemed reasonable for November.  With only six riders, we rode as a group and didn't use arrows.  Jack acted as a sort-of sweep, just to be certain that we didn’t lose anyone.  (Thanks, Jack.  I felt more comfortable knowing that you were helping.)

There were some traffic problems - we kept running into the "faster" (longer) ride group!  We passed the entire group on Martin Pond Road (possibly my favorite cycling road).   A short distance up the road, Jack stopped us for a photo, in front of a house with barn that houses a gifted teenage bagpiper whom I've heard practicing twice over the years. 

Wednesday Wheelers are quite wonderful!  All fourteen people who had ordered sandwiches were truly gracious about the ordering screw-up.  Most walked around in the courtyard, and I sent those who wanted to eat elsewhere a mile down the road to Crossroads Cafe (my favorite eatery in the area).  I drove down to join them after the last of the riders had left the courtyard.  Oops!! (Damn?)  Crossroads no longer does lunch during the week.  So this turned into a WW ride without lunch!  Ouch!  Sorry, and I won't allow that to happen again. 

Thanks to Clyde for his help before and at the start of the rides and, especially, for leading the longer ride option.  Great job!!

Report by Doug Hobkirk.

First, before I start ranting, thank you to Ray Komow for being a capable and competent sweep and to all the loyal arrows who remained at their posts.

Now, the rant.  Several arrows left their posts because they had waited ten minutes!  It was chilly, but not cold enough to leave your post.  Somehow, the arrows became convinced that the sweep had gone home or gotten lost.  He hadn’t; he'd been delayed, but he came along in due course.  I think the problem is that Trump is making everyone anxious and upset, and people are no longer able to relax and enjoy the roses.

Aside from that, it was a beautiful, if chilly, day on a beautiful route.

Report by Clyde Kessel.

Short ride riders

We had spectators

Magical Mystery Tours - November 1, 2017

RIDE REPORTS

Wednesday, 1 November 2017, Magical Mystery Tours

Ride Leaders:  Kathy Horvath & Curt Dudley-Marling 

37 & 50 miles, 10:00 & 10:30 am starts from Bikeway Source parking lot, Bedford, MA

Riders – 37 mi (14): Kathy, Annemarie Altman, Bill Wachur, Bob Wadsworth, Jack Donohue, Jack Mroczkowski, Judith McMichael, Richard Fortier, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Susan Sabin, Tom Allen, first-timer Gerald Sheetoo, plus one unidentified individual (in red bike jacket) who may have been absent during the taking of attendance.

Riders – 50 mi (14):  Curt, Barbara Martin, Bernie Flynn, Butch Pemstein, Dave Balaban, Frank Hubbard, Gene Ho, Kevin Donnelly, Lindy King, Marc Baskin, Ray Komow, Rick Carlson, Sandy Gray, and Wing Chow. 

Despite a surprisingly chilly, overcast morning, where the temperature went down to 31 degrees, thirteen enthusiastic riders gathered at the start and Barbara soon joined the ride.  The group stayed together and the sweep duties were nominal, but appreciated nonetheless.  Passing the riders on the short route, near Silver Lake in Tewksbury, confirmed that the riders were in a smooth rhythm.  Fortunately, very little debris was encountered on the road, despite the recent rain and wind storm; a couple of tree removal crews posed little difficulty.  With a well-functioning GPS route, the long route riders finished earlier than the short route riders.  Feedback was positive - although the route is a bit more urban than most CRW rides, the roads were quite different and interesting in their own way, and the segment through Harold Parker State Park is always scenic.

A half hour later start made little difference in the temperature due to the overcast sky. Very light winds were a small relief to the chilly weather, and several riders added layers and borrowed gloves to be more comfortable. As Lemony Snicket would say, there were some “unfortunate events” but nothing that resulted in bodily harm, thankfully.  This second-time WW leader learned a valuable lesson - be sure to designate an arrow when turning in to a rest stop; not realizing that part of the group got caught back at a stop light, we were separated and the first group yelled to no avail as we watched the second group go sailing by the DD on Winn Street.  Fortunately, the Sweep checked his phone messages and stopped to get directions to back-track and they were awarded bonus miles for their effort. One rider decided to ride directly home from DD, and the remaining thurteen rejoined as one group for the last ten miles.  Three riders took the bike path option in Lexington and the rest attacked the hill at Grove Street.  Tom subsequently sent some very useful suggestions to modify the route for the future, which the leader will certainly investigate.

Special thanks to Curt for co-leading, to Jack Donohue for sweeping, and to all riders for their gracious good company.

Report by Kathy Horvath.

Over the river (Ipswich) and through the woods (Harold Parker State Forest, which was our one and only stop).  The ride was cold at the start, cold in the middle, and somewhat warmer at the end (mostly because of the hills leading to Lexington and Bedford).  Kevin Donnelly announced at the start that this was the first ride he’d done where the temperature was below 60 at the start.  Well, it was at least 20 degrees below 60 at the beginning of this ride.

We were expecting Barbara to join us at mile 1.5, but she wasn’t there when we made it to the designated coordinates at 10:15.  We waited for a whole minute before moving on (remember:  it was really cold).  About ten miles later Barbara managed to catch up with us, bringing peace, joy and arnica to the group.  Good news story: near the end of the ride Ray Komow discovered that his wallet had fallen out of his jacket pocket.  So, he turned his bike around and began the search for his wallet.  Lucky for him, he found the wallet where it had fallen, only 50 yards from where he had realized that it was missing.

It was my first time leading a Wednesday Wheeler ride and we returned to Bedford with nearly all the riders that we’d started with (Marc veered off to Lexington near the end of the ride in search of some finer dining opportunities and Lindy left us earlier to ride home).  Having me ride at the front also spared the group my “quirky” sense of humor - no eye rolling on this day.

All in all, ‘twas a very good ride.  Following the example of our chief executive, I give myself a 10 out of 10 (and Kathy a 20 out of 10 for her hard work creating this delightful ride).  Thanks to Butch for sweeping.

Report by Curt Dudley-Marling.

Group sans Susan

Group with Susan