It's Saturday, This Must Be The Coffee Ride

And it was, the second week in a row. One more time, and we'll have a tradition needing to be maintained. Another mild, dry Saturday, another moderate southwesterly wind; only today was just about completely overcast. The sun did try to peek through between Tienhoven and the Vecht on the way home (which was very nice), but that was about it. Having learned last week how close Lage Vuursche really is to Nederhorst den Berg, I added two small detours to get the first part of the ride to last an hour (instead of 40-45 minutes). Near Kortenhoef, I took the Moleneind, and after that rode through Loosdrecht. This early right turn also gets you away from the continuous car traffic on the highway to Hilversum. That's still a very pretty road, but the traffic ruins it a little. Then, at the Hilversum airport (there really is one), I took the little road tracing the airfield's perimeter, instead of the main road to Hollandsche Rading. Eventually, this little road also gets you there, but it's much prettier, and you hardly run into any moving cars at all. At the Vuursche Boer, I had seventeen miles--just like the route of the original coffee ride between Milwaukee's East Side and Fiddleheads in Thiensville. No Eendracht group this week at the restaurant, but on the way home I saw one team member. I was chasing him down, but just as I was about to catch up to him, he suddenly stopped at a little bridge to admire the view. Wonder what was up with that. The ride home ran through Maartensdijk, Westbroek, Tienhoven, and polder Bethune, where there's considerable opposition against plans to turn this farmland into a wetland (no more pumping to keep the water level low enough for farming and instead let it flood and allow nature to take its course). We decided that certainly if flooding the area would also eliminate our valued Middenweg, we would add our own original sign protesting the plan. Absolutely lovely final couple of miles home along the Vecht river. 38 miles exactly for the day, and I did look at the average speed this time: 17.2.