Riders (6): Clyde, Bernie Mango, Catherine Widgery, Gary Williams, Gerry Sheetoo, and John Kitchen.
What a beautiful day for a ride. It was raining as we drove to the start. For some of us it was drizzle, while for others it was real rain. In the restaurant parking lot, we all put on light rain gear, except for the ride leader who forgot to bring even a wind breaker. We then all mounted our GPS devices on our handlebars, except for the ride leader who forgot to bring his.
At exactly 10:00 am, the rain stopped and the clouds parted to reveal the sun. This turned out to presage a lovely bike ride. Since there were only six of us and the leader did not have an effective navigation device, we agreed to stay close together so we wouldn’t need arrows and so the other riders could help navigate. We ended up using a peculiar system - someone in the back would call out the turns and the info got relayed from rider to rider up to the leader whose only remaining job was to simply set the pace - and remember where the restrooms are. Bernie, in a bright yellow shirt, was the sweep.
Our first planned stop was at Our Lady of Fatima Church with a huge empty parking lot. Sadly, there was a huge funeral in progress and we weren’t able to use the facilities as planned. Haskell Field, five miles up the road, filled the need.
We did stay close together for the first 2/3 of the ride, but eventually the hills extracted their due and we started to spread out a bit, resulting in two riders missing a turn. Almost immediately, we noticed we were short two riders, and they noticed they were short four riders, so we all took steps to reunite and continue the ride happily.
On the ride, we saw two turtles and the ride leader saw two more while driving to the start.
Five of us stayed to have lunch on the new patio at the Dudley Chateau (a product of Covid, no doubt). We had a wide-ranging conversation about everything from the viability of software businesses to airport art installations and plenty of topics in between.
Thank you, Bernie, for sweeping and thank you, Brett, for designing the Dudley Ramble family of rides.
Report by Clyde Kessel.
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