A lunch ride with PWTC

I have to learn to check the ride calendar sooner.  I am a new member of the Portland Wheelmen Touring Club. I haven't yet got into the habit of checking the online ride calendar.  The forecast today called for decent weather, and I needed to ride.  I was mulling over where I should ride, and finally decided I should check PWTC's online ride calendar. Sure enough, there were two rides offered today.  Though the first one was longer, faster, and closer to me (better for me) I was already too late to make it to the start on time. That left the second ride, which was a slightly slower and shorter ride, and involved a drive across Portland to get to the start.  I quickly assembled bike gear and took off.  There was a bit of mist falling, but blue sky was predicted by afternoon.  I arrived in plenty of time.  The ride leader was waiting there, and shortly more folks arrived. The mist had ceased, and the roads were rapidly drying off.

 One more cyclist arrived after I took this photo. There would be 7 of us total today.

The ride leader informed us that the planned lunch stop had unexpectedly closed 3 days ago.  We were at his mercy for routing to an alternate location, in the opposite direction. He said he expected the ride to be about 25 miles, but was not sure. His route brought us out next to Pier Park. I believe this was the first time I've ever been to that park. It is always nice to see new areas/roads. After 16 miles of pedaling, we arrived at Panera Bread.  There was a line waiting to order that stretched out the door.  I figured they didn't have anything on the menu worth waiting in that long of a line for, so I staked out a chair at the table and waited. One other cyclist joined me.

After the others finished lunch we hopped back on the bikes and pedaled out. I wish I would have brought my camera, it is much handier to take photos with as I ride,  but I did the best I could with the phone.
The sky had cleared up nicely.

I was thinking that with 16 miles to lunch, that we'd probably end up with about 30-35 miles.  That seemed just about perfect for a nice day.   Alas, we took a more direct route back, and ended up with 24.4 miles.
I was considering going for some bonus miles, especially considering that snow and freezing weather are predicted in the next couple of days,  but the phone started ringing and life got busy.

It was a nice ride, I just wish it had been longer.

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .........24................0..................0.......................0..........24
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........310...............0..................0.......................0...........310
August.......40.............0....................0......................0............40
Sept..........100..............0...................83......................0...........100
Oct.............29...............0....................0......................0............29
Nov............600..............0......................0......................0...........600
Dec............63...............0......................0......................0..........63
YTD...... 2830.............0...................83.......................0..........2913