I went for a ride. You see, it's like withdrawal without riding and especially on a Sunday.
The Sun was out, it was around 48 degrees so I put on my chaps, my light leather jacket, my gloves, two shirts and my vest. (I was wearing pants socks and boots also, get in trouble if you don't.). Waiting in the sun for Danny to arrive I began to think I was a tad over dressed. We headed up Pumpkin Hill to Gallup Hill to Town Farm rd. We ran down to Shewville then 214 to Route 2. A right onto Wintechog to 201 where we fueled the bikes. The ride from there was a rather quick one, across rte 2, through North Stonington, Up Wyassup rd past the Lake, The earthen Dam is in the process of being worked on. Wyassup to 49 and 49 to 165. Rte 165 into Rhode Island where we took a left on Escoheag Road (just past Beach Pond). I knew which road I was looking for and wasn't quite sure how Danny would take it once he saw it. So I pulled past the road I wanted, pointed to it and pulled in a dirt turn around, to confirm on the map where we should come out. I was aiming for Greene RI. After Danny acknowledged that the road we would be taken was dirt we turned onto Falls River road. Named after the stepping stone falls. To say this is a dirt road is a little bit of an exaggeration. Falls River road is maybe a car and a half wide at its widest parts, mainly it is a car width. The dirt is packed yet semi soft and both Danny and myself were heading for our first experience with a dirt switchback. The only difference was I had been on the road before (in a car) a knew about the hill, Danny had no idea. Sometimes the easiest way to get people to do something is to take them somewhere where once they arrive there is nothing they can do about it but do it. We met one vehicle on the way in which put me off in the soft ground, the bike wobbled a bit but no problem. The road drops down sharp makes a hard left, drops some more then does a right hand switch back before dropping again to a hard left. The problem is the the road is soft, so as you turn for the switch the front wheel has a tendency to over steer, pushing the bike outwards to the edge of the road side, as I approached the edge the rear end washed out, slid left, but a foot in the gravel and an application of throttle kept me moving in the direction I wanted. After crossing the wood bridge over the name sake water way, the dirt road continued a while longer before becoming paved.
As we hit pavement we opened it up a bit, always fun when you have no idea you where you are or what the road will do next. We took a couple back roads which brought us out on Plain Meeting House rd and rte 102. Having had too much fun to hit the main road again we shot across 102 onto Sharp street. This brought us out at Weaver Hill road and route 3 in Coventry just shy of I-95 exit 6. By this time it was 11:30 and we started looking for lunch. The sun which had been keeping us company on the ride over would soon disappear above a blanket of clouds. We stopped for lunch at Newport Creamery and took the map in with us. Newport Creamery seems to have a mainly elderly clientele and our arrival in full leathers brought the attention of the entire customer base. With the sun gone we decided to take rte 33 north to 117 and that west to Greene (Which I had totally missed on the trip out). On 117 were stuck behind a gaggle of cars with a light grey POS in the lead. When 117 turned in Greene I decided to pull into Greene for a very short stop. This left us with the twisty part of 117 between Greene and 14 free of traffic, 117 west of Greene is just about one corner after another and most of them sweepers, we ran this section in 5th and 6th gears before arriving at 14 and finding the same car holding traffic. In Connecticut we turned onto 14A and after passing 49 we ran up behind another slow mover which we didn't unload until Plainfield.
In Plainfield we stopped at Coffees Donuts on rte 12 to get coffee and warm up. From there we headed down rte 12 to Jewitt City, Danny took 12 south while I took 138 to 164 to rte 2 to Lantern Hill for some uninterrupted empty road running. I don't believe I have ever had a run from Jewitt City to Old Mystic without getting a car ahead of me before, it was absolutely great. The Equinox brought me another cup of coffee before I headed home.
For a Sunday without a ride....it was pretty damn good.
klay
No comments:
Post a Comment