| Date | May 22, 2005 |
| Hosts | Claire Hamanaka and Walt Willard |
| Where | White Township Recreation Area; Warren County |
| Who (else) | (first shift) Cheryl Prudhomme and Mark Cook; (second shift) Brenda and Larry Isherwood, Sue Nicolich and Dave Snope. |
[Walt Willard's report]
What was it about the rides this weekend???!?!?
Midweek we drove the Bucolic Diversity route and found the road CLOSED.... in two places! Regrouping, we decided to pull a switch and do the Northbound Warren County ride that we normally do in the fall.
The weather looked great all week... until Saturday night. At 6am Sunday morning, we checked the radars, deemed it wet (the ground was wet and it was sprinkling off and on) and sent a cancellation email to the list. George sent a note that he had seen my note, and notified a couple that he knew intended to attend. Now, wondering who else might be planning on riding, we set off for the Rec Center in our gear just in case, a la Rich and Christina, but without the food. It was sprinkling when we left, and there was a shower on the way over.
As we pulled into the parking lot, we spotted Mark and Cheryl, the Mileage Junkies. Who would have thought the Techno Geek would not have checked his email??? After a brief discussion of the woes of calling a ride in these spotty conditions, we noted that it was not raining, and we decided to ride. The roads were wet, but nothing was coming down.
About an hour into the ride, Claire thought she heard my Camelbak ringing. It was the phone, and there was a message from Brenda that the radar was clearing and they were wondering if we wanted to ride in the afternoon. She had tried us at the house, talked to Claire's sister, and found that we were riding with Mark and Cheryl and had 'ditched' them!
A call back to her started with the expected abuse, then a plan to meet us at the Rec Center, whereupon they would set out. Claire called her sister Karen to bring down the food, and our post-ride spread became Brenda and Larry and Dave and Susan's pre-ride spread. After Brenda's dissertation on having an Option C, postpone the ride and do it later in the day, weather permitting, we decided that, in the future, we would try to detail the options better.
As I write this, I still feel bad for Stu and Julie, Dan and Michelle, Al, and Dave and Marji... because we were looking forward to riding with all of them. Going forward, I may have to adopt Malcolm and Judy's posture of 'Downpour Cancels'.
Cancelled Shmancelled!! We had a great time with a new twist--picnic at both ends. --- Susan
We...enjoyed the Sorry No-Ride Today Ride. We were glad to visit with you both and Mark & Cheryl before we ventured out as the second shift of your "cancelled" ride. The scenery and day was quite enjoyable despite the weather being somewhat unstable. The only rain we encountered was on the drive to the park and on the drive home from the park. We appreciate your generosity of the delicious post-pre and post-post ride goodies. We devoured most everything after riding the 33 miles at a moderate pace as we had said we would do. We look forward to your next cancelled ride but hope this one is listed as option "C" if the weather is iffy. Otherwise you may see us knocking at your door even if it's a downpour. :-) Boy, do we sound like we have a serious riding problem?... --- Brenda & Larry
The ride was so remote that one could count the number of cars that passed us during the 30 mile jaunt on a couple of hands. --- Mark