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...along with some detours to mix pleasure with work. Since 70% of my bike riding is work related, and not having a lot of free time for the weekend joy riding, I try to cover some country roads in planning my longer commutes. This week I did a 600 mile roundtrip commute to work in Stamford, CT by way of Boston area stops for meetings, starting from central NH. Yes, I have to deal with travelling on sections of highway in order to maintain some time schedules, but do jump off on somewhat parallel secondary and country roads. Nothing like the challenge of rush hour traffic out of the I-95 loop in Boston to ratchet up the stress levels and avoid being crushed against the Jersey barriers, at the hands of inattentive drivers. But then I was able to enjoy some of the Rt16 area down through Uxbridge and Douglas, MA. Trying to get down to CT at a reasonable hour I sailed along at high speeds along I-395 avoiding the temptation to stop in at Foxwoods. Next time I'll leave more time to cover some of that CT country east of Norwich. Back to I-95 in New London and it's dark now, stop for gas in New Haven and expect missing traffic down that ugly I-95, 40 mile corridor to Stamford. Wrong! Traffic comes to a screeching halt and I grind my way thorough a 5 mile traffic jam due to night time road resurfacing. When I say traffic jam, picture a few cars, a sea of tractor trailers, and one little wacko on a Yammie Venture (that would be me) avoiding getting crushed like a bug under the shuffling semis jockeying for reduced lane positions in the dark.
4 nights of hotel stays and using the commuter train for work, while down there, left me refreshed for the return trip on Fri morning.
I started by cutting through the neighborhood streets of Stamford to jump on the Merrit Pkwy north. If you're not familiar with the Merritt Pkwy, it is a no trucks, curvy 60 mile stretch of 2 lane "race" course up to the Hartford area with crazy short on/off ramp access. This can be a lot of fun on the bike when travelling opposite of traffic flow, staying in the high speed lane at 80mph, while enjoying the fairly aggressive 45mph curves and avoiding the sudden merges of oncoming cars. Onward to I-91 into Hartford, I-84 out and now onto some relaxing roads. I took Rt 83 from Vernon up into MA, navigated some back roads to connect up with Rt 181 and Rt 9 up to UMass/Amherst to visit my son for a few hours. He was excited about his new bike purchase...a 2007 Ninja 650R . So the best part of the trip was ahead on Rt 63 up into NH. By then the rain and drizzle had stopped, the sun started to warm things up and dry up the roads. Plenty of tight turns to enjoy although I had to come to a screeching halt on one blind curve due to farm vehicle "traffic". Then I finished on the lazy 60 mile stretch of Rt 202. I would have explored some of the back roads of Antrim and Weare but I had a 5pm mtg in Concord.
Anyone in those areas I covered, please let me know of some roads that I can make a point of detouring off and enjoy on my next commuter ride. Maybe even hook up with you for a short stretch of riding. Keep in mind that even though I can stretch a 4-5 hour commute into a 7-8 hr ride, I can't get bogged down into a 14 hr marathon due to time schedules.
And I will try to make a point of hooking up with some of you in the New England area to get my pleasure riding with no deadlines up even with my commuter miles.
I left out more details as this was turning into a book, and I forgot the camera too!
4 nights of hotel stays and using the commuter train for work, while down there, left me refreshed for the return trip on Fri morning.
I started by cutting through the neighborhood streets of Stamford to jump on the Merrit Pkwy north. If you're not familiar with the Merritt Pkwy, it is a no trucks, curvy 60 mile stretch of 2 lane "race" course up to the Hartford area with crazy short on/off ramp access. This can be a lot of fun on the bike when travelling opposite of traffic flow, staying in the high speed lane at 80mph, while enjoying the fairly aggressive 45mph curves and avoiding the sudden merges of oncoming cars. Onward to I-91 into Hartford, I-84 out and now onto some relaxing roads. I took Rt 83 from Vernon up into MA, navigated some back roads to connect up with Rt 181 and Rt 9 up to UMass/Amherst to visit my son for a few hours. He was excited about his new bike purchase...a 2007 Ninja 650R . So the best part of the trip was ahead on Rt 63 up into NH. By then the rain and drizzle had stopped, the sun started to warm things up and dry up the roads. Plenty of tight turns to enjoy although I had to come to a screeching halt on one blind curve due to farm vehicle "traffic". Then I finished on the lazy 60 mile stretch of Rt 202. I would have explored some of the back roads of Antrim and Weare but I had a 5pm mtg in Concord.
Anyone in those areas I covered, please let me know of some roads that I can make a point of detouring off and enjoy on my next commuter ride. Maybe even hook up with you for a short stretch of riding. Keep in mind that even though I can stretch a 4-5 hour commute into a 7-8 hr ride, I can't get bogged down into a 14 hr marathon due to time schedules.
And I will try to make a point of hooking up with some of you in the New England area to get my pleasure riding with no deadlines up even with my commuter miles.
I left out more details as this was turning into a book, and I forgot the camera too!