We give thanks to God for His wisdom and His Blessings….

The October CSBA ride always faces the possibility of being a “wet leaves ride”. Fortunately, again, this year – because most of the leaves are still on their trees – we did not have much risk in that department as we prepared to ride toward Delaware for our rescheduled route from July.

Though the attendees had to endure a ride in to the diner around 40 degrees, we were quite fortunate with the weather for the day, as it eventually warmed up through the 50’s. During the pre-ride meeting, we discussed some of the special “features” of this route, which was supposed to include a detour around a recently chipped State highway. Because much of this route includes heavily traveled roads and revenue-generation opportunities for local law enforcement, we emphasized that this event would be more about the scenery and camaraderie than spirited riding.

We also suggested that riders unfamiliar with these roads join the “Chase” group, following Rusty. This advice went largely ignored and most of the 18 riders followed Rick in the Lead group, leaving 5 following Rusty.

One feature unique to this route, as the only one that runs primarily south, is that much of the day is spent riding directly into the Sun – and especially so in October. It was a beautiful day for a ride, but the bright sunlight made for some stark shadows in the tree-lined areas of the route.

Although Russ did a good job of outlining the rules of the road while discussing pace and cautioning the group on traffic flow and potential hazards, I think most of the crowd was itching to move. So when he established the 2 groups and he indicated we would be relatively sedate compared to the prior months ride, the lead group seemed to swell as we exited the Starlite. Alan and I had good communications via our Sena units at the start and rolled through the first several miles fairly smooth but when the group began to run at pace we spread out to more than 3/4 mile and we would lose contact. Lesson learned is we really need to try keeping groups to less than 10 if at all possible. The lead group dutifully followed me as I blew past a couple turns when my Scenic Moto maps app was lagging my actual ride position and I over shot the route’s required turn. In one case we enjoyed a 2 or 3 mile twisty detour having some fun in the process. There were tight lines and some nice pacing for everyone. We had an ‘incident’ with a road hazard that rendered our sweep’s bike out of commission. He didn’t go down but the bike got tweaked and he needed to roll carefully home after lunch.

We give thanks to God for His wisdom and His Blessings….

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something….. well that last one can be whatever you want it to be today, but it was anything from “Blue” as people were in great spirits and ready to ride! I would best describe today’s ride as “Epic”, but more on why that designation later in this report.

This ride was also pushed back 1 week. We had several challenges to deal with, and as we always do – we collectively decided it was best to postpone 1 week to overcome them. I know this ride is a favorite among many, so we apologize again to our friends, but we want our rides to provide an organized experience that all can enjoy, not just a select few – so we had to slide the date.

Chris A. (NJ) wanted to be fresh for this ride, so he came out the night before and stayed with me so he could be ready for the day. I was surprised not to see Zsolt among the ranks – he was missed. I did see new faces (Something new) was is always nice. I didn’t catch everyone’s names, but I’ll be sure to prior to our next ride and include them (here) on this report. We had 26 riders present and accounted for, so the message was clear – we’re ready to ride! Russ overcame all his challenges from the previous week, and Rick J was on deck, ready to lead – so we had three groups. We started the day also with two ladies (Annette and Lindsey), but Jojo and Lindsey had to break off once we reached the lunch spot for family demands. Hans and some of the ON2 crew showed up to rep their team. Derek ran into a little trouble on his Busa and broke his mirror, but I later heard he was ok. He promised he would be back, but his team came together and left together after the lunch spot. We had the usual suspects otherwise (Chris H, Russ's new friend Chris, Jason, Geoff and 2 of his buds, a new friend from DE and his brother, Alan, Rick J, and his son’s bud, and Bob) along with an honorable mention for Greg. Greg has not been able to ride with us for some time now but has shown his support by coming down to rides and having fellowship with us prior to our rides. I was very happy to see him in gear and ready to ride this day. The something old (me) was ready to get it in, so we assembled for our morning meeting and then we were ready to hit it.