Pilgrimage to the Coffee mecca

Most Thursday mornings, we are content to get up, join a few others, and run around the town of Easton. I very much enjoy these outings for the conversations we have with each other, the feeling of contentment when we are finished, and lately the faster paced race to the finish at the end of our runs. But, forgive me for saying this, running around Easton in the dark can get a little old sometimes.  There are only so many variations on a basic loop around town that even creative folks like ourselves can come up with.  Sure it is fun to joke about how clean the streets look in downtown proper as we see the street cleaner diligently making his morning rounds, and it is interesting to wonder what random people and drivers are doing out and about at that hour, but sometimes, one longs to venture out past the confines of Route 50 and the bypass and see what lies ten miles West on Route 33.

Yes, today we ventured to our mothership of sorts, the wholesome, organic, fair trade and shade grown-supporting coffee shop that spawned both our group name and logo: Rise Up Coffee.  Truth be told, we were itching to get back on Route 33, that lovely stretch of highly traveled road with just the right camber to induce twinges in the knees. But more so, we were jonesing for a really good cup of java, and we were willing to run for it.

Mike and I decided to drop a car off last night around ten pm, so we could make it a point to point run. We opted for the Maritime Museum parking lot because it wasn't quite far enough to go only to RUC, we thought it would be nice to run through a deserted St Michaels in the dawn hour, and most important, we thought the support vehicle would be less likely to be towed from that location.

At 4:15, Valliant and I headed out from our respective houses and planned to meet at our favorite thrift shop at the head of Bay Street. Mike was uncharacteristically late by about 4 minutes on my watch. It allowed me window shop a few minutes and to also confirm that there was not a woman in the window, only a manequin. Sure enough, Mike arrived before I had to run to his house and start throwing rocks at his window, and we were off. I brought along some new gear in the form of a blinking red LED light that straps to the arm as well as a cheap party favor version of something similar that my son Will got a year ago. I tried to convince myself that the more expensive version that I just purchased was somehow better, but all I saw were similar seizure-inducing blinking red lights.

We had prearranged to meet Dominic at the pincushion park and ride at around 4:45, and we arrived right around that time. Dominic had borrowed Joel's headlamp so we all were sufficiently illuminated at this point. We then set out as a threesome at a pretty good pace towards St Michaels. As usual, there was more traffic than seems possible at 4:45, but overall it was a very comfortable run. By the middle of the run, a pretty stiff headwind had developed, but the rain held off and the temperature, while warm, was never too hot. The time seemed to pass pretty quickly as we eventually made it into St Michaels, past RUC which was just about to open and to the waiting car.

We then doubled back to RUC in the car and picked up some tasty drinks served up with a smile by Matt. We even managed to deliver Mike back to house prior to the important 6:30 cut-off time. All in all, it was a very nice run and a good change of pace from our usual routine. I hope it becomes a recurring event.