Bike Boogie!!! 2007 #3 Sunday 9.30.07

Hey Peddie!

You all are invited for yet another Bike Boogie!!!, Sunday, at 10.30 from the brickage out front of the Science Universe. This week I think we may head south, through Allentown to Crosswicks and the Friends' Meeting Houses there (w/ the Revolutionary War cannonball still stuck in the wall!), and the, depending on the crowd, our mood, and the weather, off to other parts unknown.

Last week was smooth big fun. Eleven Peddie folks gathered at school and then headed out of town to Englishtown and the "Four Boys Ice Cream and Luncheonette." It was a "Peddie as world wide school day," a UN affair, with representation from several foreigh countries, including China, Lithuania, Italy, North Jersey, Korea (oops...yes!!), and Georgia. Caitie Heim, Ruta Ambrasaite, TJ Yoon, Cathy Xu, Lydia Cheng, Brooke Azcuy, Gabi Caglieris, Catherine Rodrigue, Marilyn Anker, Jennifer Gordon, and I all had a famous time, riding, eating, and then riding some more in a crisp late summer Sunday.

If you need gear, please e-mail me with requests. I've already promised one bike and helmet set-up to Ms. Jannely Almonte-Ortiz, so I only have three more sets for loan. In any case, if you think you might go, holler me back. Thanks! ..... spread the word....

-- PJClements

Bike Boogie!!! 2007 #2 Sunday 9.23.07

Yo Peddie!

You all are invited to join the traveling adventure that The Bike Boogie generally becomes, this Sunday at 10.30 am, starting from the little Science Center / Student Center / Trask / Annenberg mall. You need not have much, other than a go for it attitude, and basic bike riding skills (you can stay upright, you can go in a straight line, you value and will use brakes, that sort of thing). Having a bike is important too, and, of course, wearing a helmet is non negotiable. However, if you need a bike, or a helmet, I can help out the first few requests.

Last Sunday, eleven Peddie folks took off for a 21 mile spin. We headed down Etra Road, Cedarville and Nurko Roads, and then turned down into the village of Roosevelt, where we gathered up at the Post Office, the social focus of town. We then climbed up into Assunpink Wildlife Management Reserver, where we swooped down old Clarksburg-Windsor Road before taking a a break and checking out the "Jersey Warbirds" radio control model airplane Air Show (way cool, especially when you just stumble upon it), where we watched cute little R/C planes fly around doing stunts, and one rather scary looking Rising Sun Torpedo bomber making repeated low level passes over the corn field. We then stolled off to Clarksburg where we found the general store and some grub. A nifty seven mile ride ("Those are not hills, folks, those are "rollers.") back around Assunpink and Roosevelt took us home. Everyone had a great time, and Brendan O'Connor has a new appreciation for friction and low amplitude/high frequency vibration. Riders included Mr. O'Connor, Marilyn Anker, Mike Mirelman, Brandon Cunningham, Briget Lang, Gabi Caglieris, Melanie Szemis, rocket rider Dylan Klein, Jay Jung, Fernando Maldonado, PJClements, (and almost Derek Lam).

It's too soon to predict this week's route (where the wind comes from in the morning helps decide the direction fo the ride), but I have a feeling it might take us to Englishtown and a great little eight table diner, with butter-toasted corn muffins, and jam...

If you want to ride, please let me know. If you need gear, you MUST inquire early. Thanks!

-- PJClements

Bike Boogie!!! 2007 #1 Sunday 9.16.07

WHOO-HOO!!! It’s that time again! Bike Boogie!!

Everyone in Peddie is invited to join in the first Bike Boogie!! of the season, a low key bike ride designed to strip away your cares and woes as you pedal through some surprisingly delightful New Jersey farmland in the soft quiet of a Sunday morning. This is a "People’s Ride," and you don’t have to be a fancy pants cyclist (Lycra?) for this, though Peddie’s go-fast people are always welcome, and are all lovely, kind people and nifty riding pals for first time Bike Boogie-ers. Don’t fret about whether your enough of a rider for this. Heck, how can you worry anyway? We’re riding bicycles! Sheesh.

Participants include faculty and staff, partners and pals of Peddie people, freshmen and PGs, younger brothers and sisters, football players, swimmers, theatre folks, center campus people, grill people, left-handers, right-handers, the ambidextrous, the part my hair on the right people, people with no hair organization at all (think Calvin Lin), people who need to stretch, and people built with flexo-doodle bodies that bounce soft (think DLam). If you can breathe and can ride a two wheeler at the same time, and if you think getting out for a spin and feeling cool again like the third grader you one were might be good for your spirit at the end of the first week of Peddie, come on out.

We gather in front of the Walter and Lee’s Science Center at 10.30 am, giving us time to get to brunch right at 10.00 and fuel up. We usually head out ten miles or so (not far on a bike), stop somewhere thereabouts for food and drink and chatting, and then head home. Back by 1.00 or so, faster people earlier.

What you need :
....a bike, a helmet, water, a couple of bucks for snacks;
What I can provide for a few:
....a bike, a helmet, water, a couple of bucks for snacks;
but only if you let me know ahead of time so I can scare up enough gear. My supply of loaners is small.

Interested? Reply and let me know that you’re interested, or are thinking about riding. Need gear? You must let me know via e-mail, so I can find supplies. Even so, no guarantees.
By the way, check out the picture above of Big Al on a bike, and get a whiff of how smart you can be if only you ride your bike. Word has it that old Albert conjured up the relativity thing while riding his bike. I’ll bet that that’s true. And if it's not, I know it sure ought to be true. Anyway, we can all pretend it is true, since it would be nice to be cool, and smart, like Albert. And HE rode a bike. Some come on out and be a genius on a two-wheeler yourself. And Extra snaps for people riding in a sweater-vest like A.E’s. Or for anyone riding a bike like A.E.’s (hmmm… Paul Watkins????). Or that hair. Yikes.
-- PJClements