Pictures from the Princeton Event, as well as biking 'round Princeton itself, the next day.
Date(s): August 2-3, 2008. Album by Deborah Kosnett. Photos by Deborah Kosnett. 1 - 41 of 41 Total. 2096 Visits.
1 We've done the Princeton Event more times than any other organized ride. It starts at Mercer College, near Princeton, NJ.
2 Heading on down the road. The day was cloudy, early on, and we did get a sprinkle.
3 The route included nurseries in abundance. Maybe a couple dozen - in the space of 39 miles.
4 New Jersey is so incredibly ugly. It's just one oil refinery . . .
5 . . . after another.
6 Here's another particularly ugly one.
7 Well, OK, there are warehouses and corporate parks. But they usually are in a pretty nice setting.
8 Silver Decoy winery. We visited on Sunday, and got a couple of bottles. Good stuff.
9 Rest stop at the United Presbyterian Church of Millstone.
10 It was nice and sheltered, fortunately . . . because about an hour after we finished our ride (39 miles), the heavens opened up on all the riders yet to finish.
11 Old churches such as this usually have cool old graveyards. I find them very peaceful, not at all spooky. I wander amongst the headstones, and wonder about the lives of those buried there. "Gone but not forgotten" . . . at least I've remembered them, for a small space of time.
12 "Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike" . . . the ride could have been called the Ride of the Four Turnpike Crossings.
13 Stopping to look at the roadside wildflowers.
14 They really are astonishingly lovely.
15 Getting close to the end! All routes home. Just a few more miles.
16 Jeff felt really good the entire ride.
17 So did I -- after nearly 3 weeks of some sort of (probably food-borne) intestinal nastiness.
18 It's good not to take your statuary too seriously.
19 The next morning, we decided to bike into Princeton itself for breakfast. We were staying at the Westin at Forrestal Village. Lovely fountain - a little soaped up, though.
20 Route 27 into Princeton. I love early Sunday mornings; so little traffic.
21 A shot of the river, and the area that the Princeton Crew practices in.
22 Close-up shot, showing the lane markers.
23 Getting closer to town.
24 Pulling into town. Actually, the 3 - 4 miles in were at a steady uphill grade, about 1%.
25 Sitting on a bench on Nassau Street, looking at this building and pretending I'm in Bavaria, or something.
26 But I'm not . . . I'm just at Starbucks.
27 Looking down (I think) Witherspoon.
28 The gates at Princeton - one set of 'em, anyway.
29 Nice eagle.
30 Looking down Nassau Street.
31 Don't know what building this is, just that it's on the Princeton campus, and it is gorgeous.
32 And a cat's guarding the entrance. Cats are useful that way.
33 I don't know what this style of architecture's really called (shame on me) but I informally call it "ecclesiastical." Note the chandeliers inside are lit. It gave a wonderful, warming effect.
34 112 Mercer Street. Why did I take this pic? This is where Albert Einstein lived for about the last 25 years of his life.
35 Not quite as good as the intersection of President and Clinton, but not bad.
36 Lovely curving street with burl-y looking trees.
37 Princeton's Revolutionary War battle monument. Done in the Beaux Arts style, which in this case seems to mean "excessive." But a nice "excessive."
38 Inscription on the back.
39 Looking back at the town from the monument grounds.
40 Here, you can read about the monument. Now you know why so many things are named for Mercer 'round these parts. I do think it's a stitch that the paragraph naming every politico and monument funder is way longer than the description of the monument itself.
41 Plaque commemorating the encampment of Rochambeau's army, en route to their victory at Yorktown. Unfortunately, my inadequate memory card maxed out after this pic. I must get a much bigger one before we go to Montreal and Berlin . . .
