Yorktown Bike Ride 3-28-17
On Tuesday, 28 March 2017, the weather forecast had changed from an afternoon rain around 3 p.m. to 80% chance of rain at 10 a.m. The reality was it started raining strongly around 9:30 a.m. Thirteen people had signed up for the ride and nine showed up at Newport News park. Only two actually went on the ride and the others showed common sense since the rain was heavy on the “radar”. In the the comic strip “Pickles” in the Daily Press on the same day, the grandson tells his grandpa that grandma said “he was just like grandpa since he had no common sense”. Grandpa replied that “common” means “ordinary” and nobody wants to be ordinary. He continued that they had “extraordinary” sense. How else could they explain that they could eat chocolate cake on grandma’s favorite new couch!
Well, Bill B and Brian displayed “extraordinary” common sense on this Tuesday. Actually, Bill wanted to ride and since Brian hadn’t cancelled the ride, he went along. Well, the gods shined on the two pedalers with their extraordinary sense as they rode out of the rain almost immediately and never again faced more than a misting. The Gods shone on them but also put them to task when they reverted back to common sense—the two decided to complete the ride before lunch and not test the fates. So the gods immediately gave Brian a flat tire in Yorktown. OK, that was easy enough, but then another flat tire about three miles after that. With no more cartridges or tubes to repair the tire, Bill B rode ahead to get his truck and Brian walked his bike to the Route 17 overpass and climbed down. Bill arrived and they went to lunch at the Pub after all. Life was good that day, and it never did rain heavily till after they departed.
Another great Tuesday. Bill is the real trooper who exults in the challenge. He was disappointed we did not get to ride in the rain. He is a man with genuine “extraordinary sense”.
Brian
Special thanks to Brian for leading the ride and to Jim and Bill B for the pictures.
Jim's: https://imagesbyjimarend.smugmug.com/Sports/Tuesday-Group-Biking/20170328-Yorktown-Ride/