I’ll leave the house at 12 o’clock sharp, after having eaten an early lunch of salad with chicken on top. This is nothing unusual for lunch, but it probably represents the healthiest meal I will eat in the next two days.
Today is a travel day, which really means I work in the morning, I drive to a park somewhere in New England, I ride my bike, and then I drive to the hotel. I am projecting how the day is going to go, but in reality this is somewhat of a rinse and repeat process. I will shower and then go get dinner. Sometimes I will get dinner before I get to the hotel but that is about the extent of my variability on a travel day.
I’m riding my bike somewhere in Connecticut today, west of Hartford. I don’t know where I got the suggestion to ride this park but it looked as good as any other place. It breaks the drive up into two roughly equal stretches. The second leg would be shorter but by the time I get there I will probably be in rush-hour traffic which always adds at least a half an hour if not more.
The weather is chilly, almost winter piercing cold. It’s not actually cold as it’s only 45° but it feels colder than that. Probably some combination of humidity and the wind makes it feel colder than it is. Having said that, I’m in my car with the heat on so I feel just fine right now. But I do worry that I’m going to be chilly out on the bike. Oh well, there are worse things in life than that.
At 12:45 I cross to New York State. I have to say I’m just not really into this trip at all right now. I’ve been really tired lately and sitting here and driving is just making me feel even more tired than normal. The day does not lend itself to an awesome one to ride a bike. So it’s just overall kind of meh in most respects. I am sure it will turn out fine but right now I feel like just going and taking a nap, which of course is out of the question as I speed down the highway talking into my phone.
At 1:39 I cross into Connecticut. I’m about an hour away from the destination of leg one of the journey. That sounds like this trip is a lot longer than it is but I’ve only gone about 100 miles to this point. I only have another 50 to go. The day has opened up and I can see blue sky which makes the drive a little bit nicer. I don’t know how long it will last but I’ll take what I can get.
I have to admit that I wavered a little bit about even coming here. I just wasn’t feeling it but in the end I decided that it would be a pretty lame day if all I did was drive to a hotel room and sit by myself.
Once I got out there I was happy I did. The park called Nassahegon but is part of a much larger network in the town of Burlington. I have no idea how I found this other than maybe a random search. But in the end it was a pretty good trail system and really easy to follow. One of the biggest things about traveling and riding is trying to navigate these loops and this was really pretty simple.
The Strava link can be found here.
Even though I have a tube in the rear I still have a slow leak. It’s just like last trip when I was here but I had tubeless then. I don’t know how this is possible or even how this thing is holding air. By the end of the ride I was almost to riding on the flat. This shouldn’t really be the case with a tube. It’s either full or it’s not. I’m confused.
I get dressed and hop in the car and the GPS tells me I’m about two hours from the hotel. That should get me there at about 6:30 but I’m low on gas so I’ll have to stop. I may look for something to eat before I get there just so once I get there I don’t have to leave. We will see. Either way I’m happy there’s not a ton of traffic between where I am and where I need to go.
I go through Hartford around 5 o’clock which should be a bad time for traffic. I hit a little bit but it’s really not that bad. I guess I’m used to New York City being a lot worse with the traffic. Maybe fewer people come into Hartford now or maybe it’s never been so bad. Either way it doesn’t affect my drive time. I suppose I could’ve done something in Hartford like grabbed a cup of coffee or found a really early dinner but I just wasn’t motivated enough. It’s too late for coffee and too early for dinner. But it does bring up the point that I really never stop in Hartford for anything and I’m sure there’s stuff to eat there. I know for sure there’s a coffee shop that supposed to be good but I have never tried it. Kind of odd given how many times I’ve come through it.
At 5:35 I cross into Massachusetts which will be my fourth and last state of the day. I know it’s not a big road trip or anything but when you’re behind the wheel you kind of check these things off. It’s obviously a somewhat random line across an otherwise homogenous geography. But it’s the last arbitrary line I will cross today. On to Groton, MA.
I get to the room bring some stuff up and throw my bike in the car. Normally I would take the smaller car on a trip like this but given that I’m at a customer site I don’t know how much I can trust locking the bike on the car here. So I like to put the bike inside the car to have for after the workshops. Plus it’s a lot easier to not have to bring the bike inside the hotel. I usually don’t care but this place is actually a bit nicer and I don’t wanna have to wheel it through the lobby of some sitting room with the fireplace and so on.
By 7 o’clock I’ve brought some stuff up to the room and have gone back out again in the search for something to eat. She recommends Red Barn but I end up at Gibbet Hill Grill which is the farm to table place I had looked up. Seems promising and is the parent of this Red Barn across the parking lot. Not a lot of options here. Apparently it was this or pizza.
I get free corn bread & whipped maple butter. The maple butter is so good I cut the corn bread in half so I can use it all.
Then I get roasted broccoli as an appetizer, which is phenomenal.
I wrapped up the meal with cod in a corn & potato chowder which was also delicious.
This was a great meal. I would say this is good enough to bring D up through here 1 day in the future, if I ever have need to come to this place again. One never knows what the future might bring.
I pay my bill at 7:55 and I’m back in my room by 8 where I work, read, write, and so on for the rest of the night.
Traveling Normandy 