Notes on a series of rides to be called Rambles....

In the interest of having a group ride that is not a training ride, but an end in itself, and not a no-drop club ride that goes out the local bike trail and back (not that either of those is a bad thing, on its own terms), I have decided to start organizing and leading a ride.  It will be approximately once a month, between 75-ish and 150-ish miles long.   Perhaps it will include some off-road, but nothing some fat slicks couldn't handle, and will definitely include some stops for something that, at least in spirit, evokes a picnic, because picnics are neat.  The pace will be comfortable but not slow, with an emphasis on covering a lot of miles in a timely fashion while still keeping the group together as much as possible: again.  I'm pretty sure that my average speed on some similar rides has been in the vicinity of 15 to 16mph, so it's nothing crazy, but over the course of a ride with several long climbs, that works out to a reasonable pace
  The details, to put everything together, will be as such, and subject to ongoing change: we will start riding from Santa Rosa, Ca., and go somewhere along the prettiest roads we can find, and then we will ride back along different, but equally pretty roads.  We'll stop for coffee someplace if that place is well placed on our ride, and we'll stop to eat some food that we have packed too.  Meadows and places with a view, but preferably no room, are nice for this.  We'll base our rides on number of miles, not number of hours, but you can plan on it being a whole-day affair, though I would hope it would be a little less than that.  You should bring a bike that will handle crummy roads, maybe dirt, and food, water, patch kit, etc. in addition to whatever else you like to have along on a ride, but make it enough for a whole day of spirited riding (and put it somewhere comfortable).
At this point, I'm thinking the first ride will be something pretty much like this:

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