Thread City Cyclers

OK OK, I need to jump on the bandwagon and tell you about the B+ ride. So, sometimes you go on a ride and it's just OK, or even pretty good. And sometimes, you go on one of those rides that makes you really glad you ride a bike. This was one of those rides! There were just 4 of us on the B+ ride. When I realized who I was with, I saw that I was privileged to be my little ol' self riding with 3 former bike racers! That's Ron, Christian, and Dave Etchells. The plan was to do a 45-50 mile loop, return to the school and then do extra miles. But, all the folks on the ride had the time and desire to simply extend the ride! So off we went out Boulevard Rd. (funny name, like Street Rd. in Philly) to Rt. 6, and climbed up Lynch. Then we powered down Back Rd. and climbed Kemp. After turning left on Brooklyn Tpke, Dave realized he needed to make a chain adjustment, so we stopped, and The Mighty B Ride caught up to us. We waved at all those people (I always love Kerry's peace sign greeting) and chilled for a minute; then we followed them down the rest of Brooklyn Tpke. left on Windham and rode up the hill with them; they were almost at N. Society and I fear we took a couple of them with us as we were headed for the end of Windham Rd. Sending them back to the Mighty B, we powered on across Rt. 6 and made our way to the Golden Lamb hill (huff, puff) and greeted 3 cute women who are friends of my friend; one really wanted to know how I liked my Pinarello and I suggested she go see Dave Barrow. Then we went on Kearney Hill and some other gorgeous roads I didn't know...wound up on 97 and then to the Vanilla Bean! For all you Gluten Free folks, they have EXPANDED both their awareness and GF menu. There were like 3-4 ready made GF pastries: black bean chocolate brownies (yum), GF chocolate chip cookies, and the piece de resistance, a delicious chocolate covered macaroon!!! We sat and chatted and admired the Harley's, BMW's, and Ducati's, and waved at a couple of nice Harley dudes making Kerry's peace sign and yelling "2 wheels! 2 wheels!" Camraderie all round. So we continued north to Woodstock to get the miles, and wound up by the Java Jive and Mrs. Bridge's, but we didn't need to stop (rats). Off to 169 to Roseland Park Road which is a fun downhill and now to the Steeplechase Route; but we DIDN'T take 197 because Ron is thinking of taking that out. Instead we climbed County Rd. which is much more shaded, and more of a roller coaster than an endless unshaded climb. We wound up on 171 and took my new FAVORITE road, BUNGAY HILL! There are some intense climbs but there is a WICKED FUN descend with some twists and turns, and my descending has improved so much that I couldn't wait to see where the next turn would take me. Tammy, you're on this one next time. John H., remember when I used to CLIMB hills faster than I went down them??? Those days are gone...Some rich guy lives on that road and has a landing strip! So Bungay Hill lets out onto 198, so we went north and then crossed to East Center and to the Baptist church. THEN, met up with Boston Hollow...and the nicest DIRT road in NE CT!!! Totally flat, well maintained, hard packed, and we avoided those harsh rollers on Westford Rd. Met the pavement again, climbed to 89...descended down those grand 1st 3 miles...and then for about 5 miles or so practiced the ol' ROLLING PACE LINE!! beth we needed you...Powered the rest of the way down 89, a woman on a Trek tried to hop on but we were on a mission, and I once again got to use my new vocabulary word, "shelled"...and then 4 happy campers made their way back to NW School, crowed about the great ride, got the A story from Ed, and Ron and I back home for a total of 71 miles and 4200 feet of climbing, at not quite 16 mph!!!

I'm just so psyched. I highly recommend "get lost with Ron rides" because he generally knows where he is, and you WILL ride on some gorgeous roads. HAVE A BLAST!!! thanks for sharing...qb, Fran