Sunday Ride re-cap

Posted September 12,2010 NLMC blog

The weather this morning was cloudy and cool, Woke up, watched part of the Grand Prix of Italy (Ferrari won), headed out the door to grab some items from the pharmacy for the parents then headed to Montville to fill the tank and make the 10am A.O.B.. I passed six gas stations on my way over, pulled into the station across from the D&D and found that their pumps were out of service, back tracked up 32 to C.F. to fill.

Arrived back at the D&D, picked up Linda S's vest from Margo and joined the N.Y.C. war story group. Even with all the things that went wrong during the ride (or maybe because of it) everybody had a fantastic time, and all of them plan on doing it again next year.
Ten o'clock came and went before we departed, It was alright while you were standing around, but on the bike it was down right cool so just about everyone had full leathers with chaps, .We pulled out of the lot and because the weather was dry we were heading to Point Judith RI.. We rode down route 32 to New London, then onto I-95 north into Groton, I was riding third position behind Tom, as we approaced exit 88, (North Road) Tom turned on his turn signal for the right hand exit, at the same time, Jim, (ahead of me to the right) stuck his arm out and pointed left, My brain being unengaged, thought Left? where is he going? About the time this thought formed in my small mellon Tom jinked to the right, about 10 feet in front of me was a white four foot slab lying across the lane, instict took over, evasion practice came into play, I ran straight over it. Oops. At the last second it looked like a white back seat cushion from a boat. this is what registered as I plowed over it,this is what I hoped it was, a slight cracking noise ensued, like cracking vinyl, it was soft as both wheels passed over it, I was still alive and gratefull it wasn't something else. Directly behind me was Smurph, as my back wheel cleared the object it threw it up in the air, Smurph, cruising along all relaxed found a four foot white slab airborne in front of him, the item flew up to windshield height, Smurph stayed cool, the object smacked into his windshield, Smurph stayed collected, the object bounced off the windshield and out into the high speed lanes, Smurph was un-fazed, Smurph, according to Joe F, Smurph never flinched. Talking to him later, he said as the thing hit and flew left, the only thought he had was, "Whatever it was, the lanes clear for everyone behind now. Smurph is either a really cool dude, or he was thinking about something and didn't realize he was being clobbered until it happened. I'll go with the former, I'm sure Smurph would want it that way.
We turned left onto North road and rode up to rte 184, we caught the light and stopped, Tom turned to me, "Sorry about that Beebe." Jim looked at me and said, "I pointed". Talking with Smurph after the ride he said when Jim point he thought it would be a dead suirrel or other such object to avoid. Smurph said we should have a different signal for something "big" in the road, like pointing at excitedly.

We took 184 east through Groton, truned onto rte 27 to detour for the out of service bridge in Old Mystic, then rejoined 184 on the opposite side of the bridge. We rode up into North Stonington, through the rotory and on. Passed rte 49, passed Boom Bridge road, arrived at the end of the road and turned right onto High street (rte 216). Passing under I-95 Tom and Jim switched positions, Jim led now, into Rhode Island, through Bethel to Ashaway. Road Guards out at route 3, the club crossed and continued down 216 through South Hopkinton to route 91 in Bradford. Guards out we turned onto route 91 and ran east through Burdickville and Alton, then through Wood River Junction to route 112 at Carolina. A right onto 112, over the Amtrak mainline then left onto Old Shannock rd.,we looped down under the railroad, up through Shannock, past the horseshoe falls, back over the railroad to route 2. Left on 2 through Kenyon, and into Kingston. in Kingston we grabbed rte 138 ran over the tracks again, through town and made a right onto route 110. 110 is a twisty little road overshadowed by trees, we continued along its route then made a left on Curtis Corner road, passing through...Curtis Corner (go figure) then through Gould, down to North road, a right turn and into Peacedale. Passing the stone mill buildings (home of "Twisted Throttle") we regained rte 108 "Point Judith rd", passing under route 1, we turned left onto Narragansett Avenue and ran into Narragansett. A few Police detours later we made a right onto Ocean road, we passed under the pier arch, and followed Ocean south along Block Island Sound. Down through Scarborough we rode and into Point Judith for lunch. There are a plethura of resteraunts in the area with names like Crazy Burger, Iggys, Pick Pocket, Mews, Aunt Carries and Turtle Soup, Others called Drunkin Clam, FatJacks, Pirate Girl and Wheel house. We went to the Hammerhead, which resides above Bon Vue.

Arriving we parked the bikes and went in, 6 waitresses sat around the bar, we seated ourselves as one waitress took the drinks order. Chatting awhile she returned with the drinks and took the meal orders, the other 5, it was noticed stayed sitting at the bar. When the food was ready the waitress brought out the appitizers, everyone got theirs, except Joe. Did I mention we left joe behind at the rest area in Darien during the Ground Zero ride the other night? No? O-K we left Joe behind at the rest area in Darien the other night. Seems when we all started our bikes, Joe's didn't start, When we pulled out Joe shouted to us and blew his horn...we rode out...Luckily one person saw this and stayed with him. His security system wouldn't deactivate. he took apart the Harley Security Fob, cleaned the contacts and battery put it back together and got going. Anyway...Joe went off in search for the waitress and his appitizer. When the food was ready our waitress began serving and now the rest of the waitresses sprung into action helping serve and making sure drinks stayed full. The food was great, our table was served last, the Seafood chowder was so good I ordered two of them, we were served our meals...except Joe, he asked the waitress about his meal and asked if he was being singled out, she told him "It appears that way doesn't it". The Calamari with Thai Chil sauce was so good we thought about ordering another. The Blackened tuna snadwich ,served rare as it should be was really tastey. Joe finally got his food.

There was a comment brought up that the waitress should fix her attire, the three of us looked at the person who mentioned it and asked whats wrong with her attire? "Well her shirt is pulled up and the shorts hang low, Joe and I mentioned we found nothing wrong with the attire, Jim Skerritt said he hadn't noticed. Big smile on his face, funny, but not quite believable.
Lunch over the Club headed out in search for fuel, we have a couple low capacity bikes in the club. Jim lead us back onto 108 then left onto Sand Hill Cove rd, Right on Galilee Connector rd, left on Grand Island road, left on Galilee Connector road (Look kids, Big Ben, Parliment), then right on Galilee Escape road (I guess there are times you just have to get out of there), out to 108 and left, running north to South Pier rd in Narragansett for a fuel stop.
Jim then led us over route 1 on South Pier then left on Salt Pond and onto route 1 west homeward. We rode past Perryville, Charlestown,and Haversham to Westerly. We grabbed 78 into Connecticut, one bike pulled out and took off, we headed up route 2 to I-95, a couple others left. 95 south, I dropped off in Mystic, the club continued west, heading for Montville and Ice Cream at Ed's.
Another fun ride over.

Arriving at hammerhead: