The jolly riders

This weekend finally saw another Saturday night ride. Though I put several miles on to and fro, the actual ride didn’t consist of much riding. After leaving dinky town, the first stop was under a 394 overpass about a mile outside of downtown proper. Here people began to realize that we had been ditched by Aaron and Gwen. Jeremy left the group as well to go on a mission to find the lost comrades. When the rest of the group finally caught up with Aaron and Gwen at Mortimer’s bar, it became obvious that Jeremy had lost communication. Chuck verified this, in his drunken fumbling, by repeatedly calling Jeremy at home. According to Gwen, she and Aaron had heard that we were eventually going to have another campfire. She wasn’t much up for this so decided to hit the bar instead. Mark praised her genius idea, incorrectly amending it to include a phone call to the rest of the riders once the fire had been started and stoked. Though Gwen corrected Mark, several of us began to silently contemplate Mark’s spin on it for future rides. At Mortimer’s, I decided to take a group picture since my camera doesn’t work in the darkness. Gwen and Mark didn’t make it into the photo (nor did Chuck, who I believe was outside trying to find the bathroom at the time). Gwen’s absence was deliberate though. She was attempting to perpetuate her ability to keep her face from the lens of my camera. But in the end, she was unable to avoid the sneak attack photo.

It sounds as though bikeless festivities went on until early in the morning. I, however, still had miles to go. So I left Mortimer’s well before last call. I got home at a reasonable hour. The bike was caked with a salty slushy mess, but thanks to the new rear fender, none of it was on me.