Ride to the Ramer Store

Today was a "Club Lite" excursion from Pintlala Baptist Church down to the Ramer Store. We go there often, and by several routes, depending on how far we want to ride on any given day. Almost all the options take you past "The Day Lily House" and "The Blue House" so this installment of the photo journal has pictures of all those for all 3 of my viewers. Maybe there are 4 of you, who knows? :)

I got in between 250 and 300 miles last week, while off from work, so a lighter weekend sounds good to me. There were a number of folks in the parking lot this morning who wanted to go fast and far and they had a grand ride by all accounts. Dr. Buckner, our past club president, looked natty in a club jersey that about matched the paint scheme on his bike. He, Bilee, Dan and Vanessa, Robert and new guy David took off at a rapid clip. Wendell was the conductor of the Lite train today, and we also had Louise (on very hot new wheels. Fully Lugged Bianchi 928 nano-tech. More on that later) Jeff (on a bike with no wavy chainstays! Where's the Hetchins? I wanted to see you operate that suicide shifter! For everyone else: like Harley Davidsons of old, to shift the front gears, you reach down on that Hetchins and use a lever to move the front dérailleur. ) Trevor, Jack, Ann, and Kathy. They are in the picture of "the usual suspects," above. Michelle and Tom showed up at the end. Arriving late, they plotted their own 30 mile course and caught up with us. Good to see them anyway.

Both crews were headed to the store, but one got there way ahead of the other. When we got to the store, Cedric was there, having been warned of our approach by the others. At least they didn't leave any unpaid bills for us to catch the tab on. The Ramer store is a small grocery and they let us use the employee bathroom behind the butcher area. There are usually bananas and sports drinks available for sale and the A/C works. The indoor plumbing makes it popular with the ladies. Cedric has been running this store forever, and his father, a state legislator way back when, ran it before that, if I understand correctly. Pictures of the store and the proprietor are above.

While we were having a cool drink and our snack at the store, I noticed Louise had a new looking bike. This is a very deluxe bike by the way. As in, "Should I buy a small car or a bike for this amount?" Louise is a very dear lady and as genteel and Southern as they come. She proceeded to explain that she went to the bike shop just to get a flat fixed on her old bike, and the deal they offered her was just so good, she had to say "yes." This is apparently how Louise got the bike she had prior to this one, but which she traded in on the new model. Jack, Jeff and I got into a bidding war to fix Louise's flats. We ALL told her that we could do it for at least $500 less than the cost of that new bike. $700 less! $1,000 less! And so on.

We had some nice shady lanes to ride in but the humidity was omnipresent today. At one point I was dripping from the brim of my hat (cycling cap under the helmet) like a car drips water when the air conditioner is running. The breeze was mostly pleasant, but the final pull was into a stiffer wind that I could have done with out. Wendell asked to ride about 30 miles and the course was 32 ish. I got a few more miles in by coming back down the hill before you get to E. Hickory Grove
and climbing it again. we were going slow enough that I didn't mind the extra hill. It's funny how wind is so more a pain to me than hills are. It's all in my head, I know.

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend.

tailwinds!