That day of riding wasn't too though. The scenery continued to be beautiful once I was out on the country roads. There were pockets of showers here and there but the temperature was a solid 65 -70 degrees and made for temperate riding. It wasn't an eventful day as far as interactions with people go but here were a few impressive scenes I had to stop and take pictures of.
A gray day to be certain but that wasn't stopping me from enjoying the ride or the view!
This is a view from Butts Bridge :-D
(sometimes I don't know if I'm 25 or 5)
Connecticut has some really beautiful scenery, I still can't get over it.
Towards the end of the day though the hills started to pick up but luckily I was able to make it to my campsite (Witch Meadow) by about 7 or so and camped out in the soggy mist. The total milage for the day was 62
The next day was an early one and I started on the road at about 7am. The hills continued to roll but I was looking at a 40 mile day if I made it to New Haven and got started on the East Coast Greenway, 60 miles if I made it to Bridgeport.
After an hour and a half of riding I was lead to a river where the only way to cross at that juncture was on the Chester-Hadlyme ferry, the second oldest working ferry station in CT.
I admit that I was confused as to what to do at that point as the ferry wasn't there but after looking around I noticed that there was a"Call Ferry" button very similar to the "Press to Walk" buttons at cross walks and about 3 minutes or so after I pressed it the ferry was on it's way to pick me up.
Here are some pictures from the ferry.
It was fun to use that as a way to cross the river, made me think of the Oregon Trail, except I couldn't caulk my bike and float it across to avoid the fee.
At about 9:45 or so I stopped in this cute little town of Chester CT and had some breakfast at this place.
I ate outside at one of those tables and had an excellent greek omelet. There were also several towns folk out front who were eager to ask me about my travels and to talk about the town. They had all been on their various journeys before whether sailing, hiking, or by car and we swapped stories for a good hour or so. The town kind of reminded me of Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls, where everyone knew of everyone and the buildings looked as if they were meant to be on a movie set. It was very cute and I would definitely try to visit there again to walk around if I could.
But after an hour and a half of resting and recharging it was back to the road where I would take on more hills. However I will say that the best reward for my efforts was even more beautiful scenery than before.
At about 4:30 or so I made it to New Haven just before the wind started to really pick up and my attempt to continue on to Bridgeport was cut short. I ended up staying at a Super 8 Motel that night to avoid the pending thunderstorms and had just checked in when the sky opened up and rained cats and dogs.
The next day, after a good night's sleep in a bed, I began the journey to NYC at around 10 and made my way onto the East Coast Greenway.
It wound me through some interesting towns and while it started out as a bike path it then followed the roads through Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Darien. I stopped to eat lunch at about 2 near Fairfield at this little haven where there were rows of cars with their drivers sleeping inside taking what looked to be a lunch time nap.
After another 2 hours or so of riding during that day, and this being my third day straight of CT hills, I was very tired and burned out. So after assessing that it would take me well into darkness to continue on with the 40 miles of road before I hit NYC I respected my body's messages to stop riding and hopped onto the train into the city.
I made it to Grand Central Station at about 5 pm and road up to the top of Central Park to meet with my friend Lacy who I am staying with in the city. I had forgotten how crazy awesome it is to ride in the city and the energy this whole place has. When I entered Grand Central terminal a huge smile spread across my face and I felt at home again. I've decided that I'll be staying here for a couple of days to rest to visit friends and celebrate my birthday and hopefully see some shows as well. (Pippin!?)
So until next time!
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