I rode the
RUSA Belmar-Princeton-Belmar 200K solo on Saturday in central New Jersey. Thick soupy fog, four torrential rains, beastly hot sunshine, and delightfully cool cloudy winds. All in one day. It was great.
I rode the four miles along the ocean to the 6am start. Dozens of police, vendors, and organizers were setting up for the day's Belmar 5K foot race. Luckily, I was able to bike through the cordoned-off road, rather than have to detour even before the start of my ride.
I rode the first three hours without eyewear since it was so foggy. Fog instantly condensed on the lenses. I missed my rear-view mirror.
The housing market is booming back. I saw several new housing developments since I rode last summer.
Roadside poison ivy is booming too, vines hanging from trees over the road, and lush ground growth encroaching along the fog line. Be careful.
As I rode through Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force base, I heard lots of booms, but encountered no black helicopters this year. A few miles later, a huge lumbering four-engine propeller plane passed directly overhead to a landing. Neat.
A first: As I passed one of many horse farms, I saw two harness-racing rigs racing around a track. It looked like two large men in little recumbent chariots getting mud kicked up in their faces from the hooves. I laughed.
Firemen were collecting donations at the main intersection in Hightstown. I got stopped at the traffic light next to a friendly fireman. He chatted me up, and asked my route. He immediately interrupted me, incredulous, as I started listing towns. "Wait, Belmar at the shore???" Excited conversation followed. Yay rando.
One of the checkpoints is at a pizza restaurant in Cranbury. I couldn't resist. I sat for a slice. Delicious.
As a kid, I loved biking in the rain. I especially loved riding through lakes that formed in a nearby park (where the only hazard was bumping into a submerged picnic table, but that's another story). Saturday's rain was a throwback. Each time I rode through a storm, I got totally soaked, raised rooster tails through shallow puddles, and the rain temperature was comfortable and not freezing. Yay.
I did zen cycling most of the day. I had memorized the route and its recent updates, never looked at cue sheet or GPS. And no odometer. I 'woke up' several times wondering where I was, and always recognized my location shortly. Fun!
This is a great route. Many thanks to Rando Paul for creating and maintaining it.
Click here to see a few
boring checkpoint photos
Four randos rode the RUSA Tar Heel 200K today: Jayjay, Mike O, Biker Bob, and me. Gorgeous weather, totally unseasonal for October. Pleasant traffic. Only 
I invited my non-cyclist wife to explore a new rail-trail which opened last year up in Virginia. We would cycle 5 miles from the town of Farmville to the namesake bridge, then back.
A guy named Michael Jackson is running for mayor in the town of Erwin, NC. Jayjay and I spotted dozens of campaign signs in the early morning as we rode the RUSA Tar Heel 200K. My mind immediately thought of the famous singer of the same name. Unfortunately, I also thought of his zombie song "Thriller", and the dulcet tones of Vincent Price's narration. It started playing in an endless loop in my mind and kept playing all day. Arrgh.
