2021 Rides

Happy Labor Day everyone! I think everyone and his brother and sister were out in their cars today, sadly, even on my empty back roads. I think I will remember next year to give Labor Day a pass for purposes of bike riding. Fortunately, I don't think I was still on the road by the time when most of the drinking had started (not me, the drivers). It was also hot and humid, which I always seem to forget makes the ride harder. Ironically, yesterday was in some ways easier, notwithstanding the rain, the late start and longer distance, because it was cool. Still, I'm not sure that staying cool by getting soaked is a trade-off I would always want to make. The real story for today was last night's dinner. I had deliberately planned a stop in New Haven so I could have dinner at a specific restaurant. No, not Sally's or Frankie Pepe Pizza (always good bets), but September in Bangkok . As it sounds, this is a Thai restaurant, and it is delicious! But what makes it special, is tha

First off, a big thank you to Tom and Robin for hosting me at their lovely retreat on Block Island. Not only was it restful, but Tom, who's been an amazing cook for the entire time I've known him, made a great Bolognese (that nicely came out as "bowl of knees" when first dictated) for dinner in order to carbo load me, and then made some egg and potato tacos for breakfast in the morning, with extra strong Java, to get me going.  More importantly, it was great to see them both and catch up. Among other things they have both migrated to being amazing artists, having originally each practiced medicine for a zillion years, and I got to see their amazing photo works in one of the local galleries. Tom's elegant description of his work The doctor background came in handy as Tom met me prepared with a home covid test kit - not the easy instant kind, but an actual 30 minute PCR equivalent test (an important step because Tom basically nannies their 2 year old grandchild, The

Today was about the shortest day I'll have on this journey - 45 miles to get to the ferry, plus another 4 on Block Island to get to Tom's house -which was a good thing given how tired I still was from yesterday. It allowed a nice late sleep-in until 9:00 before leaving. Leaving Providence was really no better than leaving Boston. In the first 5 minutes one driver cut sharply in front of me to grab a parking spot, forcing me to brake hard, and barely a few minutes later a truck tried to door me. Hah! I was ready for him. No watch stress alert this time, I guess I'm getting accustomed to it. Once out of the city, I got straight on the Washington secondary line bike trail, which ran for 12 miles and was paved throughout. A lovely way to start the day. And then for the most part, with a few ugly connectors in between, I was on lovely Rhode Island back roads for the whole day. My ride was capped off by a final 10 mile stretch on the Tip O'Neill bike path, which took me withi

 Well, I thought riding in New York would prepare me, but Boston almost took me out twice in my first 15 minutes. First a livery turning right went right into the bike lane and almost took me down. He stopped in time, but only because I first managed to swerve away. Then, only about 10 minutes later, I narrowly missed being doored. Sheesh. More amazing, my SmartWatch, which I didn't know did such things, right afterwards popped up an alert, saying that I seem stressed and maybe I should relax and take some deep breaths. In any event, those incidents aside, it was a great day of riding. 74 miles in all, which was pretty ambitious for day 1, but I had a little bit of a tailwind for a good part of it, which helped. I rode some great empty back roads and a very long stretch on the Blackstone River bike path, which leads into Providence. I had no idea it existed or was so nice. By the way, my worldly possessions for the next 5 days are all contained in the saddle bag jotting out from un

Well, as I head off from Cape Cod back to NYC, the first step is to figure out a route -- and ideally one that varies from the trips I have done in the past. This time around, I've built the trip around a small detour to Block Island, where my college roommate (Tom Kalb) spends part of his Summers.  There are a lot of ferries involved. First, it's kind of boring to ride down the length of Cape Cod. I've done it dozens of times, and 30 miles of it is a bike path. So this time around, I'll start by riding the wrong way -- from Truro to Provincetown -- where I'll catch a fast ferry (still almost 2 hours) to Boston.  From Boston, after getting off of the Ferry hopefully around 12:15, I'll head off to Providence -- which is a bit of a tall challenge, as it's about 60 miles -- which in a full day is certainly doable -- but starting in the afternoon means I've thrown some bike lights into my kit, just in case.  From Providence, it's a more reasonable 45 mil