SOFWASAS Society

    Friday promised to be a great day.  I had arranged to share my campsite with Jay(freedomrider1) and, although we had never met, we got along well.  He had driven from Ohio as had "Rtool" and John who were staying in the adjacent campsite.  We were scheduled to meet the rest of the group at a park in downtown Ann Arbor and bike to the lovely Zingerman's deli in downtown Ann Arbor.  The deli is a worthwhile destination which I will definitely visit whenever I'm in the area, I had an interesting vegetarian hash for breakfast which was excellent. The weather could not have been better and the only disappointment was the screwy way my camera was acting and failed to produce decent pictures of the day.  We whiled away some time getting to know each other, admiring the gear we had all brought.
   Here in the group I found a collection of leather saddles,

and vintage steel bikes like this mint condition De Rosa ridden to it's limit by "Oldfatguy"(a misnomer if there ever was one).

and a perfect Mondonico ridden by "Roadfan" who had made the considerable effort to put the ride together for us.  "Jim from Boston" and I bookended the career of Grant Peterson with his Bridgestone RB-1 (one of Grant's earliest) and my Hunqapillar (GP's latest).  Seeing all that experience on the road it's no surprise to see a nice collection of steel and leather.
  We spent a few hours riding along the scenic Huron River which runs through the city of Ann Arbor.  "Blazing Pedals" and "Oldfatguy" not only led the ride, they just flat disappeared while the rest of us maintained a cadence better for conversation.  I was proud to find some riders who didn't mind drafting off me rather than dragging me behind.   Ann Arbor is best known for  the University of Michigan but now it is home to the second office of Google.  I resisted the urge to find Google but couldn't help but wonder how long it might take to TP the office.  Good thing I'm too mature to do anything that childish.  I'll just quietly wish them evil things.
   After returning from the ride, we retired to the campsite, recovered and cleaned up for dinner.  We carpooled it over to Chelsea

for dinner at the Common Grill a 4 star restaurant where we spent more than we should on food better than we deserved.  After a little stroll through this charming little town

the SOFWASAS (Some Old Farts Who Are Still Accomplishing Shit) Society parted and went on back to the campsite to rest up for the real ride on Saturday.