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06 Nov 2006, 8:29 am / Happy
so yesterday, november 5th, 2006, SCRC 501 ventured out to double r leathers in erin, ontario for their 3rd anniversary sale.
we met at a tim hortons in hespeler, and it turned out that our 1st officer has managed to wrench 5 tendons away from the bone in his arm. for reg's sake, i won't go into the details of how his mother in law crippled him, but he definitely wasn't riding!
after calling all the road captains together for a pre-ride meeting, he asked who wanted to be the lead road captain. i asked how he planned to get from our rendezvous place in guelph (where we were to pick up some additional riders) to double r, and was told that since i was the first one to open my mouth, i'd be in the lead for the day! 
so, with 3 new-to-group-riding members tucked in behind me, followed by our 5th officer terry to keep an eye on the newer folks, off we went! reg's directions: turn left, then right on ellis, then turn on hwy 31 and head to hwy 7. made the right on ellis, found hwy 32 (which i know goes to hwy 7), and saw the end of the road ahead! so, via 32 we go, wondering if this is going to be indicative of reg's directions for the rest of the day.
got to guelph (ok, the tim hortons is on the left. we'll call it "lane change practice", ok?  ), and added another new-to-group riding member. ran down hand signals and general group formation rules with him, and off we went again!
across woodlawn, under heavy construction, giving us a chance to practice our slow ride in formation. ride for sight here we come!
psych! nope that's not the road we want, scrub off that signal!  now, got the corner we need, and half the group is left behind at the intersection (stupid in-town left turns!). pull the group over in the right lane just before it ends, and get everyone back on track. yeah! 
fairly uneventful ride to erin, because once i'm on 124 i could do that ride in my sleep (well, except the 400 popping one of its plug wires off - but tanker discovered it'll still do 90km/hr on one cylinder!). a brief stop at double r, picking up a couple of patches, some new trik topz (they make spades now!) for tanker's bike, and a couple of stickers. then, back on the road to orangeville 
hmm, different route to orangeville than i'm used to. glad i saw that sign saying turn right to get to orangeville as i was slowing for the stop sign! supposed to bring me out right by the tim hortons i know on hwy 10 - nope! reg says "when you reach the tim hortons, turn right, then the restaurant is on your left". reach an intersection, look left: there's the tim hortons. signal right - a couple of members start honking horns behind me. ok, turn left then! 
got to the restaurant, apologised for the confusion, and was told there wasn't any!  our membership really are great folks!
at lunch, passed a card around for a member whose birthday was that day. once everyone has signed, reg (who was driving his jeep as a chase vehicle) tells me that as the lead road captain, it's my responsibility to announce the birthday, present the card, and start the singin'! he might have been trying to test me, but i know the 501 too well to be intimidated  announcement made, card presented, birthday wishes sung with as much harmony as a bunch of hungry bikers can manage, and then back on the road!
out of orangeville, into construction. group gets separated at another light - have to pull myself and alex over, wave a few cars past, then join up with the rest again. looking in my rearview, thinking "jeez, where'd everybody go!". apparently, my stately 40km/hr through the dirt and gravel they were calling a road at that point was a little faster than most people wanted to travel 
onto hwy 3, and this time we didn't get rained on, frozen, or blinded by darkness! a first for tanker and i this season!
had a beautiful zen moment on hwy 3 - the second group (there were 3 groups, mine in the lead, moe's following, and chris's bringing up the rear) caught up to us in the construction zone, and coming around a curve at 95km/hr i see a mile-long line of bikes streaming out behind me. everyone leaned over, still in perfect formation, gliding along with a smile on every face. a sight i won't soon forget! 
got into fergus, went to turn right the way tanker and i always go, and notice that the hand is flashing at the green signal. bring the group to a stop, because there's traffic waiting in the other direction, and i know there are going to be some quick maneuvers, so want to keep everyone together. hear horns behind me - they want me to go? fudge 'em! my call! 
well, it turns out that i didn't have to make the right turn - could have just gone straight through, and would have got there faster. ahh well, shaken blake says he enjoyed his first tour of downtown fergus, and it was only a couple of extra kilometers 
from fergus, most of us went our separate ways, but a few stayed on for a backcountry ride back to cambridge. starting to get much chillier as the sun goes down, we battled a headwind most of the way, much of it with the sun right in our eyes just visual inches above the horizon. we arrived back in cambridge without incident, just before the sun set, and bid our fellow riders goodbye with a honk of our horns as we all split off to get home and defrosted again.
however, the warmth i felt of being a part of such a wonderful group, especially folks so supportive of me in my first ride as a road captain (particularly since i was travelling many roads i'd never seen before), will keep a smile on my face that cannot be quashed by mere weather! 
no u-turns, noone lost out of the group, and no demands that this little girl who's only been riding a year and a half return her road captain patch! a great day, and certainly one i won't soon forget 
~ 501! ~
you can see just how wide awake all of us were for this trip!
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