Crazy weekend here.

Saturday I went out early just to get a few miles in and clear my head for what was going to be a long weekend. Encountered a friend coming the other way about the point where I was going to turn around - he stopped and I turned around, we chatted a bit and rode together for a few miles until we had to part ways, some "slowcial" and a little bit of hammering - good times. Got home about the time I needed to, to pack for the drive down to Philadelphia for a wedding in the afternoon, with the bike for today's ride in the trunk, ready to go. 31 miles, 1,900', with a couple of nice climbing PRs.

If things went to plan, I'd have three hours to get ready once I got to the hotel. Well, I lost about 15 minutes of that searching for my bow tie, to no avail. No biggie, I'd be in Center City, so I'd just pick one up when I got there. Needed to make a detour into Manhattan to pick up bib number and such, and it wasn't too much trouble getting where I needed to be, but it took FOREVER to get back to Jersey. At that point it was looking like I'd have maybe 90 minutes to get ready. Well, turns out, somehow the navigation system in the car mistook the address I entered for some place way up in Germantown or something. Making matters worse, when I tried using the navigation app on my phone, it kept losing gps signal as it tried to direct me through the most crazy maze of streets.... Finally got to the hotel just 40 minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to start. Fortunately, there was a Nordstrom's Rack right next door to the hotel, and they had bow ties! Long line, though. Woman in front of me, with a HUGE pile of stuff, though, kindly said "you look like you're about to have a nervous breakdown - why don't you go ahead of me?" Rushed up to my room, got cleaned up and dressed and back downstairs with about ten minutes to get to the church, which was a little more than half a mile a way. Could have walked, but fortunately there were taxis queued up, and got to the church with a minute to spare. But of course it was a few minutes before the music even started....

Very nice ceremony, and plenty of time before the reception to rest a bit back at the hotel. Most folks were staying at the hotel where the reception was held, and there was a shuttle bus for guests which I took, though my hotel was a short walk from there. After getting a can of Pringles from the mini bar (starved - no lunch!) and a 20 minute nap, headed over to the reception, but (here's where we get back to cycling) wouldn't you know - just as I was approaching Rittenhouse Square, one of those crazy nudist rides is going by, blocking the route Fortunately, it ended before long, but it was pretty gross. Not that nudity itself is gross, just that what happened to be on display - what was being paraded by - was not what one wanted to see. Anyhow... reception was very nice - one of those big fancy productions. Plenty to eat during cocktail hour (more like two hours), which was a good thing, because it took for EVER to get to the main course, what with all the dancing. Fortunately the bride and groom got around to our table around that time, so shortly thereafter, I took my leave. It was well after 10 already, after 11 by the time I got to bed, and I had to be up at 4:30 (ugh).

Trip back to the city was rainy, but uneventful. The ride was the NYC Century, - not timed or mass start really - just windows of time when the starts (Central and Prospect parks) and aid stations are attended, and I saw some of the first wave of riders go by as I found a place to park and got the bike put together. Didn't go to the official start, since I knew where I'd be able to park and didn't want to waste time driving up to the far end of Central park where who knows how long it would take to find parking.

It was a wet and chilly ride to Brooklyn, but not too bad. Unfortunately, about half way between the bridge and Prospect Park, I got a flat. A slow leak. For the life of me, I couldn't find the hole in the tube, and couldn't find anything in the tire that might have caused it. And I really needed to patch it, because even though I had a spare tube, unfortunately it was the wrong size. (d'oh!) So every mile or so I just pulled over and pumped it back up a bit. Of course it was too early yet for any of the local bike shops to be open, and there was no "neutral support" (or any form of assistance, actually) at the rest stop once I finally got to Prospect Park. There was one working floor pump, though, so I gave it a good pump, headed to the subway just to get back to Manhattan, and managed to ride from Wall Street back up to where I'd parked just before it went flat again. Even if I did manage to get the flat fixed, no way I was going to ride around Jamaica Bay in the cold and wet and run the risk of getting sidelined out there - too old, and too tired today for that kind of adventure. Shoulda blown off the event and stayed at the reception. Marked the ride as "NYC Decade," though I did slightly better - 17 miles, 500'