Quick report about the MS ride

If you read the last post, you know that the local chapter of the national SM society held a bicycle ride this weekend. Actually, two chapters got together to hold it. About two dozen of us motorcyclists were marshals. Everyone was repeatedly appreciative of our work.
Davis and I rode up Friday afternoon, riding the route backwards to check the signage and familiarize ourselves a bit more with the terrain, so to speak. We fixed a few corners that were easy to miss. Got to the friend's place about dusk, showered and crashed.
We arose about 4AM Saturday, found a gas station that was open and snarfed down some breakfast. The park was already active when we arrived. We gathered up our gear—safety vest, signal flag, detailed route sheets, first aid kit, and a couple inner tubes. We got our instructions and headed out. I've marshaled events like this several times, so they paired me with a new marshal, who rides what has to be the most uncomfortable-looking Motorcycle I've ever seen. One of those Italian crotch rockets. —Now I remember, a Ducati. The idea was for us all to take turns riding along the line of cyclists checking on their health ("Feeling ok? Got water?") and managing traffic at troublesome intersections.
600 people on bicycles (I saw one reclining bike, one tandem) makes for a long line, and they certainly didn't stay together. Besides that, the event had four routes, depending on how far you wanted to ride (one was 100 miles, each way). Population density ranged from several bikes at once to one rider every ten or fifteen minutes. We spent a lot of time in the sun (did I mention it was in the high 90's?) chatting, waiting for someone to come along.
But I got to ride all over rural eastern PA. The scenery varied from vistas of hundreds of farms to deep woods. It was deep Amish country, so you had to watch out for horse exhaust. The stuff is slippery. Roads were mostly pretty good, but in a couple places the driveways were nicer than the patched stretch that called itself a road.
We arrived at Millersville University tired and hungry. The hospitality was great. The food (and it was good) was free, and the dorm rooms included linens.
At supper I sat across from a young lady, one of the marshals, whom I had figured was one of the lady Mac-Pac members, because I recognized her, but didn't know her name, and she said she had seen me around. She is from VA, rode up for the event. Later we figured out that we had apparently met in Jacksonville FL, where we had both qualified for our Iron Butt Association membership. That was three or four years ago, and neither of us remember meeting, but we were both there, so we must have. The mind is a funny thing.
Sunday was about like Saturday, except the very end of the ride got rained out, and I rode home through the tail end of a big thunderstorm. Not being made of sugar, I didn't melt. But I'm tired, so goodnight.