Late Summer Coffee Ride

There was a need to catch up on a summer of riding separately, and so an out-of-season coffee ride was scheduled for this morning. As I stepped out of the house, it started raining, even though I could see plenty of clear spots around. It took about four miles of drizzle to ride out from under this grey, curtain-like cloud. It probably also got blown off my course a little. So the roads were wet, but it really wasn't bad, actually quite pleasant thanks to the Northwesterly tailwind. 14 degrees Celcius at 9:26 in Loosdrecht. I think I saw the guy with the dog again near the Hilversum airport, and of course the Sukkel butcher shop in Maartensdijk had customers in it. The girl at the Vuursche Boer brought out our order right away, but she had forgotten how it goes after all this time. (First round should be: two koffie verkeerd, two apple pie, one with whipped cream). Much impressed by the Ventoux stories of the Utrecht delegation (times ranging last Saturday from 1h28', to 1h33' and 1h38'). Windy ride back together to the Vecht river, and we wondered what ever happened to the campaign to prevent the Polder Bethune (near Tienhoven) from being flooded. All the home-made signs have been gone for months now, but I can't find any really recent information. After the turn-off at the Vecht river, all continued to be well with the Coffee Ride world, because I soon ran into the old guy on the tandem. Although, he was alone, riding a regular bike, and he barely looked at me, even though I was wearing long sleeves on what by then was turning into a pretty nice day.