Monday, May 27, 2013

A Really Great Day

Yesterday was another wonderful day lyming with the Fun and Thrills family as we finally went on the frequently postponed ride to Robins bay which Charles 1st had been proposing for months. (as a good St. Mary man).

I rode out of my home at 5.30 am, assuming I would meet up with other riders at Stony hill, but by the time I reached the intersection of Allerdyce road and Shortwood roads, I saw Pat and Charles 1st. 

Unfortunately in an attempt to hail me up, Pat lost balance and had a slight spill, but only got a small elbow cut  although her bicycle suffered some trauma, but compliments of the experienced "mechanics" who ride with the group, she was soon sorted out.

All went well with me continuing my recent trend of riding non-stop to Stony Hill square but I was unable to catch up Charles 1st and Sheriff flew past me on Long lane, making me the third rider to arrive at the square. Poor Barry who has suffered an elbow damage and has been unable to ride, had wanted to swap that leg with me as he was reduced to driving a support vehicle but badly wanted a little ride,  but I had to inform him  "no way" as keeping my record intact on that stretch was very important.

 Incidentally  Jamie is now in my bad books as I  had asked Chully to load my mountain bike and bring it along to Stony hill where he lives with his grandma Elaine, as he had said he wanted to ride with us.  But would the boy wake up? So we ended up having to transport an unnecessary bicycle. 

Never again.


At Stony hill square we were joined by most of the other riders from both group one and two, and it was an uneventful ride to Castleton, our regular lyming stop, where most people can't wait guzzle down the delicious janga soup and boiled corn.

There Pat presented us with a huge batch of delicious energy cookies which she had made by herself  and I think she needs to patent it as it is not only very delicious but indeed really energy giving too, for when I  got to Robins's Bay I felt like I could have ridden another 40 miles!

At Castleton when we were ready to depart, the Ayatollah declared that we had to wait for Desiree who woke up late and was driving to meet us there. Some rebellious souls rode away but a number of us stayed behind to wait for her. However, when she arrived and we attempted to charge her for having overslept, she disabused us, revealing that she told the Ayatollah that she was not coming as she was late, but he insisted that we had all agreed to wait for her

Poor Howie had the shock of his life after Desiree arrived and we prepared to leave, for he was confronted with a puncture which caused  him  to arrive dead last at Robin's Bay.



On the other hand, Grace had been so energized by Pat's biscuits and maybe because she was abandoned by David who had been riding with her, she passed the turn off to Robin's bay and attempted to ride to Port Maria.  Fortunately a rasta man saw her going astray, jumped into his car, chased her down and brought her back to the fold.

Would you believe that shortly after we arrived we were joined by extraordinary riders Johann and Marcus who had ridden together, leaving Kingston at 9 am and proudly telling us they only made one stop and that was a pee stop for Marcus who declared that  he had a small bladder from he was a child! (He volunteered the info publicly). Incidentally, Lisa, who Howie just taught to ride, made a small go of it also on this trip too.

We were also joined by a number of other persons who drove down, among them Stefan and daughters and our visitors from Canada Aunt Gladys, David, Donnie and Diana.


While there, Chris (driver) found some dominoes and summoned me as his great partner to play against Chuck and Neville. We did not disappoint and dropped a six love on them.  Unfortunately, I was so into the domino game that I missed the best part of the breakfast, the mackrel run dung as horror of horrors,  when I went to get some food, only a little gravy was left. Fortunately, Chuck is turning out to be the Robinson Crusoe of the group in terms of showing us how he can live off the land, for not only is he our resident bird shooter/fried bird supplier, but yesterday Karen brought a huge container full of delicious fried fish, enough for everyone. 

When I asked her for one specifically caught by Chuck, his son Marlon informed me indignantly that his father had been the great fisherman who had caught all the fish! So delicious was the fish that I had to apologize to the entire Chuck family for having given the head of the household a 6 love. lol.

After breakfast, Howie, Maurice, (ride back) Michael, Kim , Bernadette, Johann, Marcus, Conrad, all members of the A team, for some inexplicable reason, wanted to do an off road ride into the bushes  to do God knows what, while we the civilized ones went to the beach.


Kim with her beautiful baby Riley, Donovan and his family and a few others headed for Strawberry fields which is really nice and structured, but I don't like the beach there as it has a terrible current and when you float there,  you end  up in all sorts of rocks and strange places. So we rode east to where they once had a nice beach with some bamboo huts and a bamboo fence. We had some difficultly finding it as the last hurricane had blown away everything, but after asking around, the Ayatollah found the right place and in fact they were in  the processes of rebuilding while we were there.


The beach was absolutely wonderful, the water so cool, clear and full of energy. We spent about an  hour there just interacting , swimming and sharing jokes, before I had to beg a lift with the first car going  back to town as I had to make connection with friends at 4 pm. Thanks to the competent driver Carol (Betty White's cousin) I arrived home is good time and boy that  jerk/barbecue pork we had for dinner made it  one of the greatest days of my life.

The only thing that spoiled the wonderful day, was the absence of our dear friend Jordan Hanlan who had not only been a reliable support driver for the group but also such a pleasant and always smiling friend to all of us. She lost her life in an auto accident earlier this month and was buried on the 14th. R.I.P Jordan, we missed you but we know you were with us in spirit.


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