I had a rather unusual urge to go on a bicycle ride last night.  I think I was feeling a little guilty about not getting up and going to the gym in the morning, and thought I needed some exercise.  I’ve only actually gotten up and gone to the gym before work once this year, so I don’t why it should have particularly bothered me yesterday, but such was the case.  I did a quick scan of the handy local ride calendar, and the “Martin City Brewery Ride” caught my eye.  Hmmm, a new ride on the calendar!  And, as it happened, I’d been wanting to check out the new restaurant also, so this struck me as a good plan all around.  So, I headed out that way and easily found the group forming up for the ride.  (It wasn’t very hard;  Martin City only has about 10 buildings.)  We took off right at 6:30, and after a rather dicey stretch down Blue Ridge we made a few turns and I began to recognize the route as a section of the much-maligned Summer Breeze ride from last year.  Rats, hills.  Hills, indeed.  Possessing one of the worst cardiovascular systems in the state of Missouri, I quickly lagged to the back of the group.  I did manage to hang with them for the 20 mile ride though, if mostly out of fear of getting lost.  I will definitely try the route again, it was really sort of nice in that there were very few stops and very little traffic.  Flatten it out a bit and it would be outright wonderful.  After finishing the ride, everybody went inside to hang out in the new restaurant.  At least I thought they went inside, so I snuck around back to grab a table by myself on the patio.  To my dismay, I found they had all gone through the building and were sitting on the patio also.  I felt I was somewhat obliged to join them at that point, so I pulled up a chair at the table.  The place is OK, but they have some kinks to work out.  Honestly it’s not a “Brewery” at all, it’s just a restaurant/bar.  Luckily I knew this beforehand by reading online a bit, so I wasn’t too disappointed.  I also read that their service can be a bit sketchy, and man did they live up to that.  Those poor kids messed up everything that could possibly be messed up, I kind of felt sorry for them.  Then again, when you’re sitting at a table with 15-20 people, all of whom want separate checks, you are gonna hit some snags.  (Another reason I didn’t really want to sit with the group.)  It would probably be a lot fairer to ride the motorcycle out there for lunch some day with Donette, we’ll have to do that soon.  (Soon as they come out with a coupon most likely…)