Nice pics, GB, it was great to see you and everyone again! Also very cool to finally meet Alec, and some of the other "new to me" folks. I really enjoyed the ride (well, except for those completely out-of-the-blue leg cramps as I was crossing the overpass over Route 32, right before the 7-11 stop. What was THAT??? )

One of these days I'd like to actually do an entire Ramble, *without* holding everyone up too much! Maybe I'll blame my performance on this ride on loss of oxygen from too much laughing -- Tyler and Andy had me in stitches at Fado, and you, NR, and the Daves were on a comic roll for most of the return trip. (Billy Idol's "White Wedding" shuffled onto my iPod as I was out and about Monday evening, and I started laughing all over again . . . )

Bob, I hope you don't mind (well, too late now, so I guess I'm asking for forgiveness, not permission ) -- I needed an extra page for the January-February issue of the BBC newsletter, so I cut-and-pasted your Good Craic ride report (with credit to you as ride leader and author, of course!) and included five of your photos as well.

Max, don't mind at all. It's not too much of a report- more of a mental wandering. But if it works...

I liked it. Quite poetic.

Anybody doing the Xmas lights ride tonight from War Memorial? I'm fighting some nasty bronchitis and may need to watch the kiddies, so I am unsure. But damn I don't like to be off the bike!!

Happy New Year Peeps.

2011 cycling goals met: complete Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee, complete a fixed gear century, ride fewer miles than 2010, change my BF avatar.
2012 cycling goals: one double century, ride one lower mileage/easier-paced group ride per month, help my niece learn how to ride her bike
2012 personal challenges: Crush the Commonwealth. Ironcross

anyone else?

I would love to do the Crush the Commonwealth, was looking for that link the other day. Is there a date set for 2012?
I signed up today for the Total 200, one of only a few organized doubles I'm aware of.

Hey folks: I'm back, older and less wise. I signed up for the next rando. Will be good to see some old faces and meet some new ones. Usually never make New years resolutions but this year I am going to try to ride all of the rando rides. (at least try) . I also hope to hang out here more often. Things have changed at work so I can stop by once in awhile.

Hope to see some of you Sunday, weather looks great.

Charlie( lanterne rouge is all mine)

Hi, Charlie! Good to hear from you.

I hope to ride on Sunday. Just got a Garmin 800 and am trying to get to know it a bit better. Anybody know if there is a cue sheet for the Sunday Rando, GPX whatever. I'm trying to figure out the turn by turn feature.

Bob likely published a map on www.ridewithgps.com. Export the route in .tcx format. Drag and drop the exported file into the Garmin's newfiles folder. The next time you turn the Garmin on, it'll will change the file to .FIT and place it into the Courses folder.

all the details (as always) on the Ramble blog- see sig below.

Happy New Year, Maryland peeps!!

I've never been a big resolution-maker, but maybe my first one for this year should be to check my Yahoo e-mail account more often, so I don't miss it when GB invites me on NYE brunch rides to Annapolis. Luckily my inside source (a/k/a NoRacer) let me in on the details -- it was very nice to get in a few miles with you all to ring out the year.

They say you should set very specific goals, and the only such one that pops into my head right now is that I'd like to ride 200 miles during this year's 24 Hours of Booty -- which was what I wanted to shoot for last year, until Hurricane Irene intervened.

. . . which kind of leads into a non-specific goal, in that I guess I'm going to need to be able to ride a little faster to do that!

Now it appears I will not be attending the Rando. Father in law being moved into Alzheimers wing of their assisted living facility-and Melissa needs to be there all day Sunday. Oh the things that get in the way of my biking life. Maybe I can pay my 18 year old to hold down the fort-which probably means smoking weed while his younger brothers play video games. Ugh.

I'll help you with that as much as I can!

Of course I'm using dark humor here.

So what are you saying...the party is off

No doubt!

Maybe I should set another non-specific goal -- that if we do the Ocean City 4th of July ride again this year, I resolve to be able to ride more than 15 slow miles once I get there!!

I might be able to show up and do at least a few miles, but I can't be gone all day, back by noon.

Bring the weed.

Yeah, that'll help with the pain of all those hills!

Good to ride at least a few miles with the Rando folks, 36 miles and I was in a warm bath!!

Hey folks: Another excellent rando. Nice to see old friends and meet a few new riders. Sorry to miss you Isaias, hope you solved your drive train issues. Lots and lots of hills with very little traffic until mile 80ish. Great weather. We didn't need lights as the ride finished before 5:00

I did get the drivetrain fixed, but not quite right away. I thought that I was done, but a test ride to Severn showed that I still had a limit issue. I fixed that... had no issues riding in this morning.

Just looked out the window, waiting for this conference call to get rollling . . . it's snowing!!! WTH????