Leading Tutorial

Grumpy's inadvertent video offers a little taste of how the group photo gets done each week.

CT Bears in Eastampton, NJ, from left: Grumpy, Captain, John J., Anonymous Ed, CT Blogger, Mac, Marco and Pogy down front.

Polar Bear Motorcycle Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, ride to O'Connor's American Bar and Grille, Eastampton, NJ, December 15, 2019.

By: Chris Loynd
Photos By: Grumpy

Anonymous Ed and I swapped places this week. I led. He was sweep. I figured it was a good opportunity for him to compare my style of leading to his last week. You see absolutely everything from the back of the pack. Although I must say (actually I did say in last week's blog) Ed did a great job leading last week.

John J. was my wingman this week and kept close. There was only one time when we got ahead of the group. As we entered the Hutchinson Parkway, a tight, decreasing-radius, right hand turn, me on my Honda ST and John on his Beemer really leaned into the corner and had some fun. As we entered the parkway I looked in my rearview mirror. The lumbering Harleys and Goldwings were far behind.

Captain tried to talk Marco into taking his first lead on this ride. Marco pleaded he was still "fuzzy" from his bout with the flu last week, the same flu he claimed made him miss last week's jaunt. We supposed he can use that excuse just one time. At lunch when I heard of this, I told Marco he was in luck! He'd just witnessed a perfect job of leading, chock-full of lessons he could apply next week when he took the lead.

We were eight bikes this week, which can be a bit to manage. Ed was attentive and prompt in clearing lanes, blocking merging lanes and anticipating my needs. With eight bikes you have to think in long times and big distances. Hopefully Ed and Marco noticed how I waited, waited, waited to signal a lane change until I thought Ed had clear space to move over. Sometimes, though, you just have to signal, wait for your sweep to "make a hole," then wave the cagers ahead to clear room to move the rest of the group over.

With this size group, I tried to limit lane changes. Generally that worked fine. We kept a respectable speed. Anyone driving in their car behind us who felt we were holding them up was speeding, excessively. Actually, I had just one irate a**hole guy — of course at I-95 Exit 15 in Norwalk — who got jammed up in the left lane by his own miscalculation. We were in the middle and moving with traffic. This guy came zooming up on my left, purposefully too close to me, then cut sharply in front of me, crossing four lanes to catch his exit in the nick of time. (By the way, jerk, do you really think your bad behavior will make me change my riding style in the future? We were steady and safe. You could have gone one exit more and looped back without endangering anyone.)

Oh, there was one other cager on the Merritt Parkway on the ride home. We were in the left lane, yes, but passing cars. Some guy tried to race ahead of us on the right. He didn't have room and so cut in behind me and ahead of Mac. We prefer if you not cut into our line of bikes, although I do have to admit Mac can leave a lot of space ahead of him sometimes. I slowed to close up our line, then slowed even more. The car driver quickly got the point and moved his Audi back over into the right lane to wait his turn.

Other than that, the ride was pretty smooth. Morning traffic was uncharacteristically light. Afternoon coming back wasn't too bad, just some stop-and-go approaching the Tappan Zee Bridge. But by that point, my group was down to three bikes, Grumpy, Mac and me. We'd taken time out for a leisurely hot chocolate at the top of the Garden State Parkway. The other CT Bears had rushed home.

Weather was fine for Polar Bear Riding, except for a gusting and annoyingly strong wind the entire day. It was especially intense crossing the flat open lands of southern Jersey. I've written before how my Honda ST sits up high. It feels all too tippy in these conditions. Its flat plastic panels catch every sideways puff. I prefer the Harley in such weather. It's heavier, sits lower, feels planted. However since we've already had our first snow and DOTs everywhere are laying down their stripes of corrosion, my Harley stays in the garage until spring rains wash all the crap away.

EDP had us arriving at 10:45 a.m. We were not the first to arrive, but were one of the first big groups to be seated. Originally Captain and Grumpy grabbed a big table on the lower level. But an attractive, polite and insistent hostess convinced them to move us to the upper tier. She said she did not yet have servers for the lower level and that we'd get our food faster. That's a pretty good incentive for our long distance crew.

Unfortunately, our table on the upper tier was smack in the middle of everything. We were jammed into a cramped space that got progressively tighter as the morning progressed, Bears pouring in. Just behind us was the sign-in table. All along our one side was the gift table. This week was the amazing toy run. We appreciate, of course, how generous our fellow Bears are in toy donations. Still, there was a steady stream of Polar Bears going up one side of our table to drop off their toys, and then up the other side to sign in, and then back down the toy side to exit, running into each other and trying to pass belly-to-belly behind our chairs. It made our lunchtime conversation more than a bit challenged. Note to self: next year we stay down on the bottom level.

Service was prompt, as promised. Food was great. John Jackson and I had the crab cake BLT. Delicious! Plus a pleasant surprise, Pogy picked up the check, wishing a Merry Christmas to all. Thank you Pogster! (Hope that wasn't a secret. Kathy probably doesn't read this blog anyway.) Oh and Mac won the "Member of the Week" lottery. We were lucky all around!

Faithful readers of this blog know that Grumpy, Johnny Bowlan, is our staff photographer. Others contribute on occasion. But Grumpy is our go-to guy. Each week for years now, he comes prepared with camera and tripod to take the group photo adorning the top of every blog post. Over these many seasons he's gone through a progression of cameras and set-ups (still misses his Sony digital).

Captain's delight is to harass Grumpy each week as he sets up the photo, teasing incessantly about Grumpy's speed of execution. "Are we going to do this today?" is Captain's favorite line. And if you saw last week's blog, Grumpy somehow missed the shot. The camera was set. The timer went off. But when he got home the memory card had no trace of the photo. It can be difficult working under pressure.

This week Grumpy threw technology at his challenge. He came equipped with a cell phone on a combination selfie-stick/tripod with — get this — bluetooth remote control! He was showing off the whole system at lunch, taking dramatic aerial photos, surreptitious shots of Bears from other states, selfies and more.

Lunch done, we gathered in the parking lot for the perfunctory group photo. Grumpy was all set. Then his tripod blew over. He reset it, got in place with the rest of us, pushed the remote control button, but I could see the camera light stayed on instead of flashing. "Are you taking video?" I asked. He wasn't sure. He reconfigured the settings and got back in place. Meanwhile Pogy's knee was freezing to the pavement. As you can see above, and below, he got the group shot and then some. Well, there's always next week.

Oh, wait, Grumpy's not in the photo.

There he is, there we are, from left: Grumpy, Captain, John J., Anonymous Ed (behind John J.), CT Blogger, Mac, Marco (next week's ride leader) and down front on one very cold knee, Pogy.