| Date | September 30, 2007 |
| Hosts | Staten Island Bicycling Association |
| Where | Thompson Park, Jamesburg, NJ |
| Who (else) | Greg and Susan Adam w/Emily in her trailer, Ron and Barbara Anderson, Al and Deb Cudworth, Richard and Michelle Dittmar, Neil McPhee and Barbara Flint, Ed and Pat Gifford, Larry and Brenda Isherwood, Paul and Jane Kimmel with AnneMarie Cook on their triple, Dave Snope and Susan Nicolich, Jim and Lisa Osborne, Mark Cook and Cheryl Prudhomme, and a new team who as of the ride were Non-DOGS: Karen and Mike. |
It was a beautiful fall day, which was a perfect setting for The Pumpkin Patch Pedal Ride at Thompson Park in Jamesburg, NJ. The main group that met to ride at 8:00 chose the metric century. There were three daring teams who decided it would be fun to dress the part for the day and show up and ride in costume. They were us, of course (how could we miss out on that fun!), and Neil & Barb and Al & Deb. We had many compliments and laughs along the way. The route was a lightly rolling rural route through Central Jersey. Our group stayed together and we all worked together while we enjoyed the brisk casual pace along most of the ride friendly roads.
We had two rest stops, both having all the usual goodies and some tasty extras. The first stop had a variety of cheeses & the second had lots of tasty pies! The second rest stop was full of ghouls, pirates and other festive characters and decorations.
We had what appeared to be a hay truck pull out in front of us, and we joked about trying to hop on a "free" hayride, but we soon learned or, shall we say, smelled that it was a manure-filled hay truck and, we were very lucky that it made a turn very soon to reach its drop-off location. We then ironically got stuck riding behind a slow-moving pumpkin farm tractor with a trailer for a very short stint, which allowed him to move his fall harvest. There were two huge cardboard containers overflowing with festive orange pumpkins, and we joked about the possibility of the bumps in the road jarring pumpkins off the truck into our path and experiencing a great pumpkin massacre. But alas, he quickly turned into his dirt farm road and we could continue on our festive ride with little concerns.
After a splendid ride we gathered at some picnic tables and enjoyed our picnic lunches and all the goodies that others brought to share. Richard & Michelle did dress up after the ride, and we were entertained again by Richard with his silly antics and his Butt Butter Man routine. We watched as other cyclists completed their rides and cheered their accomplishments. This is when we saw Ron & Barbara complete the century ride and Paul & Jane with AnneMarie complete the 50 miler on their triple. They all came and visited and enjoyed the picnic with us. We only had chance to see Greg & Susan with Emily when they were driving home, but we were happy to hear that they did a tandem ride with their little girl.
Looking forward to the rest of the fall rides that the club and other organizations have to offer,
Larry & Brenda (TeamBreeze)