What the Heck

They say lighting never strikes the same place twice, but if its impossible or improbable, Charles will overcome. For it was only last year that he invited us to ride to Linstead to have breakfast with a friend of his who works with the courts and was having a fund raising event. Well after slugging it all the way to Linstead and totally starving when we got there, we were informed that it was not a breakfast but a brunch so no food was ready. We ranted and raved and they did manage to come up with some awful food.

This time it was a similar situation .......another member of the court's office having a fund raiser, but the ride was to Port Esquival also in St. Catherine. So off we went at 5.30 am and it was a pleasant enough 50 km ride with lots of stops all the way.

As far as I know, there was only one mishap. It happened near Mccooks Pen when Chuck the non dropper's front wheel hit the rear wheel of Pat the dropper, but amazingly she stood firm and he spilled! Pat did not drop once on this trip so she still has to break her own record, that of having fallen seven times on the very first day she started riding with us. Chuck got a few bruises but he courageously got back on and completed the ride quite easily.

Saturday 20th November also seemed to be a day for careless drivers to go off the road into ditches as on the short trip , we did see two of those, one on Washington Blvd and another just outside of Old Harbour. Fortunately no one seemed to have been hurt in either. It is rather disgusting how the parish council has allowed the bush to have overgrown and protrude into the road by the exit from the highway just outside Old Harbour though and it is possible that the second spill was caused exactly by that.

But back to the ride. A group of us slower riders had left out early but by the time we got to Old Harbour, we had all converged. As usual though Barry had caught us up long before the others and unfortunately Damit had to go back to Kingston to give a lecture, so he left us there and took a minibus back .

Did I tell you were we were told to bring our bathing suits? Well when we got to a playfield just outside of Old Harbour with a sign saying "Port Equivel Sports Complex" we noticed that Charles got on his phone and rode in through the gate to the buildings there, no river or sea in sight. Minutes later we got a message that it as indeed our destination. A bit puzzled since the banner outside advertised an afternoon barbecue, we nevertheless entered. Surprise, surprise, no breakfast was there for us! I understand that when the scouts had arrived, the organisers were just unloading the firewood from a car.

Anyway immediately Charles went off in the support vehicle to try and find something for the hungry and angry riders to eat for breakfast. Thank god, while we waited Karen Chuck arrived in a pickup and Michael invited those who wanted a lift back to Kingston to travel with them . Well since my grandmother always told me 'Hog wash in the first water im see", I jumped to the offer, as did Stanford. So off we went just about when Charles returned with bags of breakfast which I understand contained stewed chicken, (which I don't particularly like) ackee (to which I am allergic ) and calloo.

Things worked out great for us for as I contemplated going home and scrounging for something to eat Michael suggested we go to Old Harbour Bay for fish. Unfortunately that area has become a virtual slum, dirty and full of stagnant water so we opted to go to Hellshire instead. That was an excellent decision as the Karen phoned ahead as we were starving so when we got there we did not have a long wait before getting some huge fish and delicious bammy. Only Michael opted for as swim however as he said he needed to wash away his bruises which had started to burn. As we drove out of Hellshire, Charles called and said they were in Kingston so I guess the other 18 or so riders did not tarry after breakfast and no beach!

Anyway as far as we four were concerned, it was a matter of "All's well that ends well." What the heck, just another eventful day with Fun and Thrills.

For other photographs, see my facebook album.