With apologies to Elmer Fudd:

Weather Was Warm, Windy, Wet, and Woevercast, The Woad was Windy, and the Wide Was Wonderful.

With a Weather Weport of Wain all Weekend, the Sungod Wose early to Weave a tale of Woe With his fellow Wind and Wain gods looking for a Window of Weasonable Weather.

And it Worked, sort of.

After raining all night, the sun rise (at least by the calendar) brought overcast skies (but with many promises of rain)and I dutifully headed for my car for the 45" drive to Hubbards, wondering how many may show for the Aspotaghan run to breakfast.

Arriving at 7:50am, I found Packitin/packitout hunkerd down with his lovely wife Linda in their 'warm, dry' Thunderbird. As 8:00 came close we wondered if we were 'it.' Then along comes the Viking and Helga. Fifteen minutes grace and away we went.

We had no sooner left, in steady drizzle, when a van went careening by us with a head sticking out the window-'We'll catch up' It turned out to be a couple newbies, old frind Mike O'Leary and his neighbour Ron VanderLyndin(sp). Maybe we can have a youth growth phase if we can get more youngsters in their early 40's.

No more than 5 minutes more had past when another van past us in the other direction with a head hanging out the window screaming, we'll stop a km up the road. Turned out to be 2 more newbies, Dave Jellecoe (a guy I referee with) and his friend from past journies in Algonquin Park, John McGraten(sp). A couple CFA's from Ontario, and both just youngsters, relative to most existing GONZOS. We 'are' having a movement.

The ride to Blandford was a wet, head windy, uneventful peddle, interrupted only by a mother Canada Goose and her 8? gooslings, parading across the road. There was not the usual show of waterfoul in the bays, the water being agitated by the wind.

The 8 riders, and Linda, arrived at the restaurant to find the lights on (that's good) and one young girl, around 15, on duty (not so good). As we took over the restaurant, making coffee and offering to help get the bacon going, Gordon said to the girl; " your'e going to be busy", She immediately responded; "No I'm not, I'm calling my mother."

Things were slow but this allowed for lots of conversations with our new friends, and besides, it was now pouring out. Bacon, eggs, and whole wheat (wer'e really athletes) bread all around, and 1 1/2 hours later we were back on the road.

It was raining pretty good now and for the first 15km we had a head wind. No one even looked at Bayswater Beach or thought of stopping at the Swiss Air 111 Memoriam. It was heads down and keep the bikes moving, until we finally made the turn toward Northwest Cove, now with a tail wind the rain didn't seem so bad, the ocean actually looked pretty in a wild way, and we cruised back to our vehicles, Soaked, Shivering, Saturated, Smelly, Sluggish, Sloven, Sniffling, Sodden, Somber, Spastic, Squalid, but Staunch and Steadfast, ready to do it again.

As the old saying goes, 'If you don't give your person the opportunity, no matter what the day looks like, you may miss the opportunity of being part of a good time.'

Cheers, Love and Kisses;

From the kennel of the Sungod, Birder, and C.S. Lewis