Category: Fort Rodman

Day 29. Exercise Tiger

Southend Ride 004

Day 29 of 30 Days of Biking was a 17.5 mile loop on a sunny, cool, windy day.

I got the Novara Randonee bike all tuned up for NYC tomorrow and took it out for a shakedown ride.  Everything is working fine and after eight years, I finally decided to adjust my saddle to eliminate the problems the pressure caused.  It took that long because this is primarily my touring bike. During and after every tour I promised myself to adjust the seat. I always forgot about it till the next tour.  After taking it our for a test run last week, I was determined to fix the thing.   You can’t imaging how painful things became trying to relieve myself.  It always turning into a scream.  All is good now.

The ride took me into the city (New Bedford, Ma), around the peninsular and into the old Army Base name Fort Rodman.  I stopped by the military museum and the old Fort within a fort, Fort Taber.

Southend Ride 005
Fort Taber inside the Fort Rodman grounds.

A stiff ocean breeze kept the temps in the low 50’s but the wind was at my back for the return leg of the ride. The beaches were deserted except for a lone man hunting for treasures.

Rain is in the forecast for Sunday’s ride but for now it looks to be off and on showers. We can live with that. My last day of 30 days of biking is very likely to be a lap around the parking lot in Staten Island tomorrow.  Fortunately there is no minimum distance in the rules. Thirty days of riding is a done deal and Sunday begins “The National Bike Challenge“. My hometown of Fairhaven, MA will be out to regain our spot as the winner in the local challenge that we lost last year to our Neighbors in Mattapoisett, MA.  I’m pretty sure we got this.

 

Fort Rodman/Fort Taber in New Bedford, MA

We took the dogs into the city to the Fort Rodman National Park. It’s an old army base that was closed in the mid 60’s.  Fort Taber was built as a defensive installation during the war of 1812.  In the video I say 1912 but Robert E Lee, the design engineer, would have been dead for quite a long time.

This was a chance to try out my new camera and take the dogs for a ride in the car to someplace other than the vet or boarding.

 

FORT RODMAN from John Sullivan on Vimeo.

That Was Then

Navy Reserve Building demo
This is now

We owned a Luncheonette just outside the gate  of an army base and it was also the end of the line for the public buses.  In the 40’s and 50’s at around 11:30 PM, my parents would begin cooking and wrapping hamburgers in wax paper.  Soon the buses filled with soldiers would arrive and after drinking too much, they would stop into our place and order hamburgers.  Four, five, six at a time.  They were drunk and in a hurry to get back on base before the midnight curfew.  You could say, we were one of the first fast food burger joints.  Being the industrious sort, my father also had a couple of spare bedrooms upstairs and hired really good looking waitresses, if you get my drift.  In the 40’s and 50’s my family was pretty well off. Continue reading “That Was Then” →