The Old Road To Fall River

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Distance      32 miles
Time             2:35
Max           33.2 MPH
Ave speed 12.5 MPH

Fall River and New Bedford, two industrial blue collar cities in Southeastern MA. have always been banging heads.  From high school sports, to politics to tourism.  New Bedford High and Durfee High of Fall River have been bitter rivals in soccer and basketball for decades.  Both towns had the expressway built pretty much cutting them half so traffic could pass thorough quickly on the way to "the Cape".   New Bedford bought  billboard space on that expressway, right in the center of Fall River that says, "Feel better in New Bedford".  The old road to Fall River has none of that.  It was built when cars traveling at 35 miles per hour were considered speeding.  It's rural farm country,  hilly, and has little traffic and the lanes, complying with state law, are wide enough for bikes to travel safely.

Rolling hills never seemed to bother the builders of roads circa 1950.  There must have been as much down shifting of those old jalopies as there is on today's carbon fiber bikes. Certain sections of the ride seem like nothing but shifting..  But doing close to 80 miles a few days ago, made today's 32 seem kind of lame, shifting and all.

Today's ride was inland with no ocean, ocean smell or ocean breeze. No fishing boats, lighthouses or beaches. This is farm country and some city riding.   Before moving to Austin, Texas,  Brandon was my riding partner. We have done a lot of miles together including a 400 mile bike ride of the Erie Canal .  We had planned on circumnavigating Lake Ontario this summer and we used this route as one of our training rides.  Everything got squashed when he moved.

Then

Now

The temperature hovered around the 80 degree mark with little humidity.  Combined with a lightly traveled road, those conditions made for a nice late morning bike ride.  In the country.

Three generations of tractors

Not many of these old slate silos still have their roofs. 

Abandoned a long time ago

Religion is a fading phenomena and the old churches are being remodeled into more useful buildings like homes and coffee shops.  Beans in the Belfry  is my favorite remodeling.  

As the ride reenters the urban section, riders are greeted with this WWII vintage tank. It sits on a memorial square to a city native killed in the war.