I lead my first ride of the season with my husband, on my new bike! We were supposed to get the bikes on Thursday, but we didn't get them until Saturday. Since it was raining on Saturday, we didn't get to ride them at all before our ride. We got to the meeting place early, and rode about 3 miles, just so I could get used to the feel of the bike. It was a great ride. We had 10 people, and all were evenly matched in riding ability. There were 2 women who were a bit slower, but my friend, who helped us and rode sweep was with them all of the way. The weather was gorgeous! After all of the rain, it seemed weird to have a sunny day. The ride went through beautiful areas, mostly wooded, lots of ponds, etc. We stopped and ate lunch at the grist mill pond, near the Wayside Inn (Longfellow's Wayside Inn, for you history buffs). There were tons of cyclists stopped there, like everyone had been let out of their cage. When we got back to our cars, a bunch of us went into the restaurant where we had parked (at a local airfield) and had a very weird combination of dessert, appetizers, soup, and champagne cocktails! It was a very nice group of sociable people.
27.4 miles, with a couple of good climbs.