Fish, Flowers, and Fowl

This year's edition of "Fish, Flowers, and Fowl" comes in two parts -- the Saturday ride and the Sunday ride. This message is basically about the Sunday ride. As always this is the "Team Wells" report on the ride -- other reports will be different and valid.

Part One

Saturday morning was abysmal. Low clouds hugged the horizon, and a fine rain streamed down over both Morris and Warren Counties. Linda and I called Walt and Claire to discuss the ride. Walt made the final decision to cancel the ride for Saturday and have it on Sunday, assuming the weather was going to be a lot better. There was one "however" in the decision, though. A new tandem couple, Christina Chan and Rich LeGrand (Mr. and Mrs. Richard LeGrand), (not yet DOGS members - at least before they started their ride on Saturday), were already on their way from their home in Bergen County. Because nobody knew their telephone number, they were unable to be contacted to let them know that the "Saturday" ride had been cancelled. Since they bought their first (congratulations Chris and Rich) tandem from Mel last week, Linda took the initiative to call him to get their home phone number. By the time Linda got thru to their house, they had already left and on their way to White Township Recreation Area, where the ride was to begin/end. Now, what to do? Linda and I were going back and forth over the issue--wanting to ride but not wanting to ride in the rain, while at the same time, not wanting to miss meeting the new tandem team because of the several e-mail we had exchanged with Christina. Well, Claire and Walt rode their tandem to the Recreation Area, found Christ and Rich waiting for everybody and the four of them went off on Walt's and Claire's ride. That ends Part One of the Story. (A ride report from the new members would be a good way of introducing yourselves to the club...)

Part Two

Sunday morning wasn't a whole lot better looking than Saturday except that it wasn't raining--at least when we left our house on Brook Drive. We picked up a Starbucks (nothing like caffeine and sugar to get you going) and got on to Route 80 West. It would drizzle and stop, drizzle and stop until we passed over the mountains. Still, gray and overcast, it wasn't raining in White Township when we arrived to find Dave and Marji unloading their tandem. Soon Walt and Claire showed up--Claire with that all important key--to the "facilities"--something needed by Team Wells, due to the other side effects of the Starbucks. Mark and Cheryl showed up right behind Walt and Claire. Now the contingent for the "Fish, Flowers, and Fowl" Ride had all arrived. (The Doubles DOGS -- a.k.a., Larry and Brenda Isherwood and Dave Snope and Susan Nicolich, were on their way to the races in the Financial District of New York City--hope to see you on our tape).

It was humid, like Walt said about Saturday--approaching 200%. But, the overcast kept it a bit cooler and it still wasn't raining. So, we started out from the park at 9:45 AM (Linda looked at her watch). We were off to see "Fish, Flowers and Fowl--and climb a bunch of hills (we did get to see a whole flock of geese along the ride). Like the subject line says--this was Team Wells's day. We had not gone more than about five miles and we were "off-the-front" with the fearsome-threesome behind us. I (George) figured that it would only be a matter of the first climb before they caught us and spit us out the back. But, we were feeling good and we managed to push strong over each grade. (There are plenty of hills in Warren County!) I still thought--any minute now, we will get gobbled up. But it never happened! We stayed off the front all the way to the rest stop, where we were, only 3 minutes 35 seconds ahead of the fearsome-threesome. So, we socialized, adjusted fluid levels, consumed some calories and got underway for the second half (back nine, as Mark would say).

Shortly after we started, Mark and Cheryl pulled alongside and promptly pulled ahead of us. Nice draft guys--we really appreciated that assistance. We played "switch the leader," as we rode the second half of the ride. Claire had "modified" the route a little, but there were the usual suspects, including ā"hades of Death Road" (What a nice name for a road???!!!) We knew that the climbs were going to get steeper and longer and we were sure that we would get "spit-out-the-back" soon. But it was Mark and Cheryl, George and Linda making our way through the route. We even managed a 10% grade in the middle ring (38-34 combination) because George forgot to shift into the granny ring at the right time. (That hurt!) Mark and Cheryl were only just ahead of us (waiting?) as we went through the undulations of the back half of the ride. And, as promised by Claire, there were even some flat sections on the "back-nine" although grade-induced-amnesia makes their memory a bit fuzzy.

Now came one of the changes: a left where the right had been and the ominous warning on the next cue "climb right after turn." It was there, and it was both steep and long. (I think Claire was watching the Alp-De-Huez Stage of The Tour when she added this climb--aarugh!) This time, we made sure to be in granny/alpine and pushed our way up and finally crested. Phew! Stoker power--that's all it was, pure stoker power. From then on, the roads went up and down all the way to the Recreation Center. Dave and Margie along with Walt and Claire were, maybe two minutes behind us, but with the hills, they didn't know that we were so close.

Following the ride, (12:51 PM--Linda looked at her watch, again), we sat at a park bench to talk and enjoy all of Claire's delicious refreshments as well as all the additional goodies that were brought by the other teams. The sun came out just as we started to lay out the table with goodies. It was fortunate that it was overcast during the ride, it kept us a bit cooler -- well, as cool as one could be in that humidity. George's legs were screaming at him and cramping when he got up too fast after having sat down to eat. A while later it started to sprinkle and we all packed up and headed home. The tandem got drenched and we removed the seatposts and hung it upside down to drain any rain that got into the seat tubes. (Yes Mel, we remembered your words of caution/advice!) Fortunately I had recently applied a good coat of Proofhide to both sides of the Brooks Saddle so it didn't get soaked -- just wet.

All-in-all it was a really great ride and the hosts did it twice -- one can only imagine how sore their legs are today. (Thank you so much, Walt and Claire). BTW: Rich and Chris are our newest members of the DOGS and Walt reported that they are pretty strong. We look forward to meeting and riding with you (as well as seeing the rest of you) at future club rides.

Linda and George Wells
(a.k.a., Team Lantern Rouge)
Leaders, Doubles Of the Garden State (DOGS)