A Fortunate Day

Attention randonneurs:  this is the first post I've written in a LONG time that is mostly, maybe entirely, FOR the Irregulars.  As such, I won't explain certain things in detail.  However, if you know what happened in the rando world in Johnston County, North Carolina on Feb-20-2016, then you might appreciate the following, too. 

  

Looking back in my Excel logs, the first ride of what I would eventually come to call the Irregulars was Jul-22-2006.  Just Frank and me.
 

We met at PUE, and I truly mean MET, as in that was the first time we had met each other.  Frank had recently acquired a used road bike, but didn't know anyone to ride with or where to ride.  He had decided to ask a "superwoman" and the instructor in the Spin Class that he had been attending.  The "superwoman" was Lynn; the instructor was Lynn's friend Larissa.  As I recall the story, Larissa is the one that suggested Frank ride with me.  (Lynn and Larissa had been trying to hook me up with an existing group because they were concerned about me riding solo.  However, all the suggested groups had a at least one characteristic in common:  their rides didn't start until 8, or more probably 9 am, and I liked to be finishing by then.) 
 

Anyway, Frank and I met at PUE, probably at about 7 am, or maybe 6 -- Frank had a couple young children, so he wanted to finish his ride in time to get home and be a father.  We rode across Carpenter Pond to Olive Branch Rd (in those days, Doc Nichols Rd was in bad shape), then took NC-98 across to Kemp Rd so that we could ride up Virgil Rd.  And if I understand the cryptic notes in my Excel log, we also rode down Coley Rd to 98 and U-turned to ride back up to Carpenter Pond, from whence we returned to PUE completing our 31.0-mile ride.  (At an avg 15.6-mph while in-motion, it was the fastest ride I had ever done.)
 

You may be thinking that what was fortunate about the day Frank asked Lynn and Larissa regarding ride partners is that I got a ride partner out of it.  That is not what I am mean. 
 

The fortunate thing came from a long string of subsequent meetings, that is:

• Frank soon brought his neighbor Sean,
• who brought his co-worker Harvey, aka "Snapper," aka "Cheeta." 
• who brought another co-worker Big-Wave-Dave, 
• who brought his lifelong friend Bob, the "Duke," 
• who brought Lt. Dave and IvaHawk and some others.

There were others that eventually came to Irregulars rides, but this is as far as I need go to explain "a fortunate day."

 

Fast forward nearly 10 years, and I received a call from Lynn last Friday night, about 7 pm.

Skipping the background details, could I help get a ramp built at her house by Tuesday? 

Skipping some hand wringing, I wracked my brain, who did I know that would know people that might be able to help.

The answer I came up with was Lt. Dave. 

I drove to Lynn's house so I would know first-hand the exact situation.

Then I drove to Dave's house.
 

Laurie, Dave, and Dave's dad, Lew, welcomed me into the house.

I came straight to the point:  did Dave have any ideas on how to get a ramp built by Tuesday.

I think Lew was the first to suggest "Bay Leaf Builders,"

A group of retirees at Dave and Laurie and Lew's church that build a ramp every Wednesday.

Skipping some more details, by 8:45 pm, Bay Leaf Builders had agreed to build Lynn's ramp on Wednesday, i.e., today.

The ramp was completed by about 2 pm earlier today, Mar-30.

The day Frank asked Lynn and Larissa for advice regarding whom to ride with,

That was definitely a Fortunate Day for me.
And for Lynn.

The ramp.

Ramp nearly invisible behind the bushes.