The Wind Is Our Friend. The Hills Are Our Friend

Crossing the Dighton Bridge

Four of us did one of the rides I stumbled upon this past summer. It took us through the Massachusetts towns of Somerset, Dighton, Berkley, Assonet, Freetown and Fall River. It was around a 25 mile loop with the temps in the low 50's.

 The outward part of the ride was with a pretty good wind in our face and a couple of short hills. On the return sections we had the wind at our back but we were riding through a place called the city of hills.

 While riding the hills, "10-40" was  tossed around as the title of this post. Ten MPH climbing, 40 MPH on the descents was close to the standard speed. We did our usual stop at a Dunkin Donuts for a light lunch before setting out for the hilly section of the ride. In the past this is where we encounter the angry drivers. Today wasn't bad. Only one pickup truck took offense to us being on his road. Everyone else had no problem sharing.

Lunch At Dunkin Donuts in Fall River. 

The Assonet Inn

Nearing the end of the ride crossing the new bridge spanning the Taunton River. Fall River to Somerset

Commuting Again

With the holiday season upon us my volunteer work allows me to bike commute 10 miles daily.  I drive the Salvation Army Bell Ringers to their morning stations at local businesses. It's my third year doing this and the bike commute is the best part of the day.  Just like when I was in the corporate world.

Here is a glimpse of my commute this morning.

Night Rider

The night was sultry......

With that in mind we did a short night ride.  The sky was clear.  The stars were bright and the temperature was comfortably cool.  

The ride took us around the town of Fairhaven and to the hurricane barrier that let us ride to the middle of the New Bedford Harbor.  This is a file photo where you can see the opening for ships and boats to enter the harbor.

We did have to move some debris from a section of the ride.  The tree had been sitting across the walkway for a week and we decided to fix this dilemma. 

Newport R.I.

  All the photos are HERE
 None of my riding friends want to leave the comfort zone of being close to home.  It's the same route over and over and over and over again.  I was beginning to feel like the world had me locked in and was trying my best to be set free.

Today two of us took the plunge and  packed up the bikes for the short drive to  Newport R.I. Midway through this ride we both agreed that this was the most spectacular ride of the year.   We didn't go fast and we stopped a lot.  We talked to people, made killer sandwiches at the local market with fresh ingredients and two of us ate for under $10.   We rode Thames street and visited The Black Pearl, winner of the Newport Chowder Festival.  We saw Newport Yacht Club, home to The America's Cup for many years.   We stopped at the sight of the Newport Jazz festival at Fort Adams.

Leaving Fort Adams took us back to the main road leading to the famous 10 mile drive.  On this road is Hammersmith Farm (Jackie Kennedy's summer home).  We stopped and visited with some very friendly Animals.  Llamas, cows, donkey's, rams, and more.  When we did hit the ten mile Ocean Drive the views were spectacular. There were more photo ops on this short stretch than one could shake a finger at. (did I ever tell everyone that I hate analogies and avoid them like the plague).

At the end of Ocean drive is Bellview Avenue.  That's were the mansions of Newport are located.  Behind the mansions there is Cliff Walk which is another spectacular sight.  We ended the day by building a lunch at the local Stop and Shop.  I had a killer seafood salad on a Kaiser Roll and Brandon had his favorite, ham salad on the same bread.  We split an order of just fried chicken wings and washed everything down with a cold chocolate milk.  We ate our food along side the main court of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

All in all if you want to be oohed and ahhhed for a few hours, ride your bike (slowly) around Newport, Rhode Island.

The Black Pearl Chowder House.

Everyone loves llamas

One of our new animal friends

 

CLICK HERE to see all the photos

Before The Storm

 One last chore before the storm.  Clean the guddah.

Tropical Storm Sandy is bearing down in the Northeast and the calm before the storm as always is a nice time for a bike ride.  Both Brandon and I hadn't ridden our road bikes in a few weeks and both of us struggled at first.   Once we accepted we would not be able to hammer, we settled in for a easy 30 mile spin along one of our usual routed. 

Here are some of the sights of Mattapoisett and Rochester, MA.

Rt. 6 Mattapoisett

Riding past Mattapoisett Harbor

One of the two Inns on Main St. 

 A perfect sized home for two people

While everyone was shopping for milk, bread and beer we had the roads to ourselves. 

Not much longer for this world without some maintenance. 

This is the place wife and I stumbled upon last week.  A perfect spot for star gazing.

Tuesday Night Ride

We left my house around 5:45 PM and it was already getting dark.   We had to turn our lights on 20 minutes into the ride on this cloudy evening.   Three of us rode a 25 mile loop covering four towns.  Fairhaven,  Acushnet,  Rochester and Mattapoisett.  It's one of the standard weekday night rides but not usually done in the dark.  For me, riding at night is very cool.

For obvious reasons there are not photos. CLICK HERE for the route.

Friday Morning Ride

Sue and I decided to explore some areas close to the house and accessible from the Phoenix Bike Trail in Fairhaven and Mattapoisett,  MA.   We found a couple of gems.

The first is Shaws Cove in Fairhaven.  Houses are built in the hurricane corridor and must be on stilts above the highest recorded tidal surge.  That's pretty high up.

Click any photo for big.  Click again for bigger.

 

 

 

 

The next area was the Department of Conservation and Recreation area in Mattapoisett.  We had a few choices of trails and decided on the Saltmarsh trail.  It was a good choice and this is the ideal spot for swimming and at night, star gazing or meteor watching.