Saturday Ride Report

[Wall]

My cousin and I met in Ashby, MA and headed off for Vermont on Rte 119. They have done a lot of paving in NH and 119 is a very nice road all the way to VT. I am still amazed at the new fly over bridge between Hinsdale NH and Brattleboro VT. They had to build a temporary bridge for the cranes next to where the new bridge is going. I would say they have 80% of the new bridge in place. Not sure what the end of it Brattleboro will look like. Right now it looks to go nowhere.
We hopped on Rte 9 to Williamstown. It is a pretty ride. Stopped at Hog Back Mountain for a quick drink and a picture of or two. Unfortunately, I didn't take them with my phone and haven't downloaded from my real camera yet. Williamstown is always a cluster, but we made it to Rte 100 hooked a right and rolled the power on. We ran into very little traffic. Did see a lot of bikes along the way. We stayed on100 all the way to West Bridgewater where we turned right on Rte 4 and headed for Quechee Gorge. Unfortunately, they are rebuilding the Quechee Gorge bridge. Single lane, traffic light controlled and tourists. The worst part were the Tourists. Had a guy step over the guardrail into the single lane just so he could get around someone looking over the side of the bridge. Luckily my cousin and I don't ride side by side, (special in that type of traffic pattern) and my cousin was able to swerve and avoid the jackass. Of course being the second I was slowed right down and asked the guy if he was "running with the bulls." The couple he was avoiding laughed.
But I digress. We stopped at the Quechee Pizza Chef for lunch. Good food. My cousin had a ham and cheese sub, I had an Italian wrap. Fresh veggies, and bread. 9ur GPS showed another cluster f in Russtown on Rte 5 south. So we took some pretty nice back roads to avoid it. We picked up Rte 5 again in Heartland. We stayed on 5 south to Brattleboro. We jumped back on 119 and headed for home. Sorry I don't have pictures. I'll have to get better at that. (That was usually Kathy's job).
It was 310 miles, and just over 9 hours. Just what the psychiatrist ordered.
Be safe, roll the power on, and enjoy.

[GaryC]

Sounds like a nice ride!

[ybnorml]

Sure sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday....

[Tony C.]

That's a great ride Paul!  

[Tony C.]

I had a ride planned for Gary and I on Monday July 22nd. After reading your trip report, I decided to change it.

I met Gary at 10:00 in Sterling and we were on our way. That's a bit of a late start considering we were going to try to ride some of the roads you did. From Sterling we took 62 W to 32 N in Petersham to 2 W to Gil. We arrived about 11:30 at the Wagon Wheel for lunch.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ezvtTej1fxmN791C9

After nice lunch, we took I-91 N to 9 W in Brattleboro. It was nice change to ride 9 W because I'm usually going eastbound on it. We didn't stop at Hogback, but noticed that the parking area was virtually empty.

In Wilmington, we turned right on 100 N. We had planned to ride 100 N to 11 E to 103 S and find our way home from there. Probably hop on 12 S in NH. In retrospective, that was probably too long a ride for the time we had allotted. Gary lives near the RI border and I live in the Framingham area. So our ride home is an hour plus from your area.

It didn't really matter because we didn't do the ride. When we were on 100 N in Wilmington, we got stuck in traffic behind a road crew re-stripping the double yellow line. We were just crawling along. I wasn't sure how long this was going to last. I decided to pull off and talk to Gary about how we should proceed. Ultimately we decided to turn around.

But the ride back was still good. We took 100 S to 112 S in Jacksonville, VT. It's a great ride. From there, we road 112 S into Shelburne, MA, where we picked up 2 E for the ride home. We did a much needed rest and gas stop at the Shell Station at the intersection of 2 & 202. From there we headed home.

So it wasn't quite your ride (which was awesome). But I had 260 miles and 8 hours of riding by the time I got home. So it was close. 

[Wall]

You have to remember, only you and Gary are retired. Everyone else is working. Saturday rides are much nicer. 
112 is a awesome road. Even down to Amherst MA.
Glad you were able to salvage a decent ride.

[ybnorml]

So Tony, do you and Gary have yellow stripes down the side of your bikes ??

[ybnorml]

You have to remember, only you and Gary are retired. Everyone else is working. Saturday rides are much nicer. 
112 is a awesome road. Even down to Amherst MA.
Glad you were able to salvage a decent ride.

\
Every day can be a Saturday Paul....Just decide when having that first cup of coffee...

[Tony C.]

So Tony, do you and Gary have yellow stripes down the side of your bikes ??

Thankfully no. Although we were just a bit concerned when we crossed the double yellow to turn around.
 

[Tony C.]

Every day can be a Saturday Paul....Just decide when having that first cup of coffee...

Agreed!