Had a wonderful ride in the Pioneer Valley of western MA today, despite still feeling under the weather. In fact, it was perfect, since it was totally flat (381 ft). There is no way I could do a 24 mile flat ride around where I live. Now, there is plenty of difficult climbing where we were today, but you have a choice.
We got out there at around 5 yesterday, had a little happy hour with our friends at their house, and then went for Nepalese Indian food. Very good, indeed. We got to the ride start around 9:30 this morning, although the participants didn't have to be there until 10. Also, they were training a new leader, so we talked with her. Of course, there's always one outlier in any group, who comes late, is unprepared, bike not ready or even in good working order.
It was 70-82 during the ride, slightly overcast, but beautiful. We stopped at the "big tree" in Sunderland, which is a Dutch maple, dating from the 1600s. Another cyclist stopped and took a group pic for us, which I will try and post when I get it. Then we had a rest stop at the general store there, where there were tons of cyclists. People are generally friendlier than in the Boston area, out there, so we talked to a lot of them.
The ride was at a slower pace, and I stayed up front, as there were a couple of squirrelly riders, and this ride began and ended on a bike path, which is another set of worries for me! The end was kind of cool, and changed from when we did the ride last year. We rode through the U Mass Amherst campus and onto a bike path on campus, that used to be a sidewalk, but is now a bike path. Then, this connected back to the path where our cars were parked at. The university has grown, even since my son graduated in 2005.
Beautiful rural and semi-suburban roads, farms, and rivers today, and no nasty drivers. We ate lunch outside, at a farm market next to the bike path, headed back to our friends' and cleaned up. They headed out to the Berkshires for 2 nights and we headed to the local winery, bought some wine, then bought fresh strawberries at a farm, and finally had ice cream, before we headed home.