A Day Off (Errands and an 8th Grade Graduation)

My daughter graduated from the 8th grade today. Since I am working on the other side of the state I decided to take the day off. I was originally planning to get up early to ride but storms moved in last night and stayed around until early afternoon. We got lucky since it cleared up an hour or so before the graduation started.

For some reason it hit me that I had scheduled an appointment to get my moutain bike tuned up. I had scheduled it on the day I picked up my Langster. I was not sure if I was going to cancel it or not. I do not think I will be doing a lot of mountain biking now that I have the Langster but it is always nice to have options. One of the main reasons I have been concentrating on riding is that I was getting burned out in the gym. Since I am indoors all day at work I really do not want to spend the summer evenings in a windowless gym. Also, I have some pain in my elbow that I suspect is related to the motion of lifting weights. Typing on my laptop does not seem to help it either.

I will be picking up the mountain bike on Saturday. For those of you who are interested in these things the mountain bike is a Trek 820 that I bought in 1997 when Road Bikes were hard to find (I think we can thank Lance Armstrong for bike shops stocking a large range of road bikes again). I have not included any pictures of it since it has been neglected over the last couple of years and I would be embarrassed.

The Satz School 8th grade graduation was held at the PNC Art Center. My daughter was excited that she was going to be able to walk across the same stage that Fall Out Boy performed on. It is was a nice ceremony and all the students got dressed up. The ceremony was followed by a 4 hour reception for kids at the catering hall underneath the Art Center.

I have heard that this is the last year that they will be able to use the PNC Art Center for graduations even though the Arts Center shares the same grounds as Satz School and Holmdel High School (when we went to Fall Out Boy we parked next to Satz School). I am not sure if it has anything to do with the Township of Holmdel suing the PNC Art Center for back taxes.

Since the weather was nice and I did not have to pickup my daughter at the reception until 9:30 PM I decided to get a ride in. I did my usual Holmdel - Middletown - Red Bank - Little Silver - Rumson - Fair Haven - Red Bank - Middletown - Holmdel ride. I have made some changes to it. Instead of heading by Holmdel Park and cutting through Lucent I now go past the Municipal Center (High School, Satz School, Post Office, Police Station, Township Offices) and take Holmdel Road. It is a nice climb that actually looks harder than it is. The first climb out of my neighborhood is much harder. The only problem is the down hill. There is a light at the bottom of the road but it is hard to make a left hand turn so I have to continue into Holmdel and then take Rt 520 over to Middletown Road. Eventually I get on Front Street and head into Red Bank.

I pickup Rt 520 again and take it through Little Silver and into Rumson. This is the really fun part of the course. Rt 520 has wide shoulder that are in good condition. At this point I am probably only a couple of miles from the Atlantic so it is flat and it is possible to really pickup some speed. I usually head back to Front Street. I keep thinking I am going to take the Oceanic Bridge and either climb Kings Highway or Navesink River Road. The Ice Cream store in Rumson called Crazees is usually crowded on Summer nights. One of these days I might stop and get an ice cream. There are always a couple of cyclists eating an ice cream after their ride whenever I swing by.

I made it back to the house by 8:15 PM. I usually try to make it back by 8 PM just to make sure there is enough light. However, I have not really done that well. I am always adding on to the rides and I have often been back after 8:30 PM which can be a little scary since I am not sure the drivers really see me all that well in the daylight.

I am not sure how long the ride is. I am estimating that it might be around 25 miles. I will have to measure it one of these days. I just do not want to waste the fuel. I will have to check to see if the NJ Bike Maps have mileage calculations.

My reward for the night was a quick trip to Rita's Italian Ice (http://www.ritasice.com/). I look forward to the summer when the Italian Ice stands open. Rita's is my favorite although there is some competion in both Ralph's(http://www.ralphsices.com/welcome.html) and Strollo's Lighthouse (which is a local legend located right next to The Peddler in Long Branch and another location in Red Bank).

I am hoping to get couple of good rides in over the weekend. I am going to bring my camera since I have an idea for a picture. I will have to create a ride in an area I have not yet gone to.