Forced into Another Short Cut

John G came up with a good route that would intersect the "Rolling Thunder" COP ride by departing Granville at 7:00am and arriving in Gambier, 36 miles away, in time for the 9:00am sign-in. Scheduled distance was 101 and I was looking forward to doing the entire route, really.  My wife and oldest daughter were in FL for a vacation and due to arrive Saturday but no worries, there were plenty of people around to pick them up until there were not.  I reluctantly agreed to pick them up at 11:51am (how much is a cab ride from the airport to the Granville area?) but suggested after they get off the flight to head to the airport Max & Ermas and kill some time as I would likely be late.  Here, Farmer Mike and Matt, who is recovering from a mountain bike race in Breckenridge, chat about the race.  Hey, there's Muscle Dude (Craig) in the background.  Haven't seen him in awhile.  I suggested to him that body building and elite cycling were mutually exclusive but if anyone can pull it off it would be him.

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Jon Morgan, Peggy, Adele, Dave C, Ralph, Mike, Matt, Craig, John G, me and Gus were in the parking lot at the start and all but one of us remembered to bring all our cycling gear except Gus, who had forgotten his cycling shoes.  This has happened with an assortment of people so frequently that I'm going to start carrying an extra pair in my car as a loaner. Maybe even turn it into a positive cash flow event.

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We were a little late departing the parking lot so forgot about merging with the COP start.  We headed out Louden/Appleton, crossed Marion Road, got onto Mink, right on Johnstown Road and eventually reached Columbus Road or St. Rt. 3 for our entry into Mt. Vernon.  Along the way, John G led a very moderate pace that kept all of us together yet our average was still at 20mph when on Rt. 3, I decided at mile 24 I should turn around. I retraced the route to Homer Road, taking that into Utica where I enjoyed a very cold Monster.  Returned to Granville via Reynolds, Chattham, etc... and finished with 54 miles.  Arriving at the car I saw I had missed several calls from my wife beginning back at 8:30am.  Voice mail said their flight had been cancelled and they would not now arrive until 3:30pm......figures.  Oh well, good route set for Sunday that will make up for what was lost today.  As I was leaving, Mike rolled into the parking lot having separated from Adele and Peggy who were at Whits.  These three had also shortened the route.  

Finally, during the ride  I spent some quality time with my reluctant financial advisor, Adele.  I was not pleased that her suggestion for investing in Pakistani Rupees had resulted in a loss of 10% to my $100 investment.  I believe my comment to her was something like, "I don't like losses, sport. Nothing ruins my day more than losses. Now you do good, you get perks, lots and lots of perks."  I told her I would give her only a few more chances and asked for her next idea.  Adele said European bank stocks looked attractive.  I told her that was a dog with different fleas. Too much exposure to Greek debt.  Adele scratched her helmet and blurted out Chinese companies who were publically traded on US exchanges.  Now this sounded brilliant because if a company can't make money paying its employees $0.50 an hour then what can it do?  She gave me a few stock symbols and on Monday, I will buy a share or two and hope for the best. High finance is so exciting.

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