SUNDAY RIDE REPORT

The weather was good; about 70 degrees when I left my house at about 8:30 AM and partly cloudy. I got down to Dunkin Donuts on Rt. 32 in Montville just before 9:00 AM.

Randall Perry road in at about 9:30 AM on his orange Harley, Dale and Melinda Adams showed up at about 9:45 AM on their blue Honda VTX(?) and Jim Scarritt arrived on his Triumph Adventure just after 10:00 AM. We waited a while longer, but that was it.

I suggested the Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret as a destination and everyone agreed. I had put together a “Back Roads” route (tertiary and secondary roads) years ago and had taken it many times. Our small group was ideal for this type of ride.

We headed up to Raymond Hill Road, which I passed because I was fixated on the Hostess sign. So we turned into their parking lot instead and came out on Raymond Hill Road. 

The next road I was looking for was Fitch Hill Road. According to my map it would be the fourth road on the right. I either missed two of the roads or it was actually the second road on the right. We passed this and had to turn around. Fortunately that was the last road that I missed. But it was not the last time we’d turn around.

When we got onto Leffingwell Road, Jim pulled ahead of me and motioned to pull over. Turned out I was going a tad too fast on these back roads; so we turned it down a notch and enjoyed a more leisurely pace.

As we turned onto Fitchville Road in Bozrah, I noticed that Randy pulled out a little later than the rest of us. I didn’t think much of it, but he wasn’t with us at the next stop sign, so we turned back. We road back to the last place we saw him; but didn’t come across him. After a bit of “Phone Tag” we learned that Randy didn’t care for taking the back roads and going at a slower pace, so he decided not to stay on the ride.

West bound on Tobacco Street in Lebanon there is a stop sign at Chesboro Bridge Road that is hidden by a small hill and high grass. I have gone through it in the past and almost did again today, it was a good thing we had slowed the pace!

By the time we got to Ashford I think everyone had had enough of the tertiary roads, so we stuck to secondary roads to make better time. We reached our destination at about 12:30 PM.

The Vanilla Bean was packed with bikes, but we easily found a table. The food and service were pretty good; although I don’t understand how my food came out first when Dale and Melinda ordered and sat down before I placed my order. Even Jim’s salad came out before their food and he ordered after me. Still, we didn’t wait long.

Jim needed to head into Manchester. Dale and Melinda had things to take care of at home. So we headed down CT 169 to branch off in various directions. Everyone said they enjoyed the ride.