I just erased 3 paras of my post y hitting one button, fudge. So I had a great time on this run, the early morning weather was perfect. I got to the meeting spot, as usual, an hour early. And by 8ish there was quite a bit of traffic heading to the south coast for the holiday break. Marty's route selection was impressive, every kind of road imaginable from expressway to county lane masquerading as goat tracks. My bike was handling just fine with the new front tyre. We arrived at the Cafe and snuggled 3 tables outside, a very pleasant affair. Although I found their pricing kind of odd, Bacon and eggs,$15 and any side orders and extra $5. So Bacon and eggs plus sausage Mushrooms came to $25 and their big breakfast with a few more selections was $25. So guess what I ordered. The strawberry Milkshack came on a half-pint milk bottle, that had some style. Then the debate was between the 2 options for the trip home, it was starting to heat up and I would have prefered staying in the highlands where it was cooler but nope we ended up heading to the coast and yes it was hotter and there was a bit of traffic. But NOTHING like the traffic heading further south, it was gridlocked. I thought we were bypassing Macquarie Pass but that didn't happen. Such a great road usually but we lucked out and did the slowest run ever down the hill. I don't think we cracked 25kph, someone up ahead was obviously scared and braking constantly. Shit happens, you cannot win them all. By then it was well hot, or at least in the heavy traffic around San Sussie it felt hot but my phone said 26c, it felt more like 46c. So, in the end, the last ride of the year was a cracker, sadly the North Beaches Mafia missed a ripper, bloody covid shit stricks again. Here's hoping next year will bypass any catastrophes and we do lots and lots of similar rides.
