Follow Me to Wilbur

It only happens once a year. Although I don’t remember doing it before, Ron claims I did it with him some years ago. It’s the Wild Ride to Wilbur, a 78 mile ride to unfamiliar territory. The ride starts out standard enough, heading up Old 37 past the Morgan-Monroe Forest, cutting across New 37 at Pine Blvd to connect to Paragon Rd and thence to Paragon, where we had our first real stop at the grocery store at West and Union, which re-opened this year.

 (Look carefully and you can pick out where we stopped in Paragon.)

It was the middle part of the ride that is unfamiliar and not so often encountered, roughly miles 23 to 46, including Wilbur itself at about mile 41. It is a hilly sequence of zigs and zags, where it’s easy to get lost.

(The portion of the route north of the Morgan-Monroe Forest.)

According to Joe Anderson this route originated with Frank Prosser, perhaps back in the 80s. He called it the “Follow Me” ride. He did not provide maps! (Did he even know for sure where he was going to go?)  As a scheme to try to keep the club group more together he didn’t announce turns until he got there. And often he let those riding off the front go on past the turn until he go to the turn and then yelled at them to do a U-turn. Not sure it did much good for keeping the group more together, but it did make for an interesting ride. Of course now we have maps, made by Joe. Even with the maps one has to be careful. And then there are those of us with pre-mapped GPS units who don’t have to worry.

We started out with about 15 riders, with leaders Jim and Sylvia mostly leading from the rear on their tandem. Joe and Doug did a short option heading up to Martinsville, where it was rumored they were going to get a ride home. It was good to see Doug out looking good, on his first club ride since a collar bone break early in the season.

From Paragon the rest of us were basically in two groups, a small lead group of 4, a middle group of 7, and a couple toward the rear.

We all met up again at the Subway in Centerton, where the route crossed 67 for the second time. Some had sugar and caffeine, while several of us had a full lunch of sandwich, chips, and drinks. Here again we left in three groups that mostly stayed together, with only minor adventures including one flat. Again the stretch of Bluff Road from Centerton into Martinsville is only occasionally encountered. It’s rather flat and one can fly along there. After Martinsville we were back in familiar ground again for the ride home.

We were all glad that the possible afternoon thunderstorms did not come our way. Altogether a good ride with good friends.