Category: Local Road Rides

Upcoming Rides

Thursday, June 7      Bike the Night in Providence

RI Bike Coalition is partnering with PVDFest to host the most festive Bike the Night yet! We’ll be meeting at Burnside Park at 8 PM before departing on a 8 to 10 mile ride through Providence and ending for a party at the The Black Sheep Providence. Providence Art Culture Tourism will be providing some bike decorations, but support the fun by getting you and your bike PVDFest-ready!

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Saturday, June 9  Ride the East Bay

This ride is perfect for beginners.  Mett up at 8:30 A.M. The ride stars at 9:00 A.M. Meet up location………Route 103 to Warren.  At Dell’s Lemonade, take the first left into the parking lot.   For beginners it’s an 8 mile ride to Bristol and back.  After returning to Warren the more experienced riders can ride to Providence and back making it a 32 mile round trip ride.

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Sunday, June 10.  Elliot’s Ride.  9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. in Newport R.I. at Fort Adams.

It’s a free ride during an all day bicycle event for every age, every skill, everyone.  come out and ride along Newort’s scenic ocean coastline.  Whether it’s your first time, or your favorite ride, this is the day to celebrate the joy of bike riding together.  There is also a walking event if that’s your preference. You do need to register  HERE

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Monday, June 11. Monday Morning Highland Ride.  Weekly ride that meets at 7:45 A.M. Wheels down at 8 A.M at Bristol Community college on Elsbree Street.  Park by the tennis courts.  The is an 11-15 mile ride through the beautiful Highland section of Fall River.  About an hour to complete.  Some riders are apt to continue riding to get a few more miles under their belts.

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Wednesday, June 13.  Wednesday Night Road Ride.

*****NOTE****This is an upgrade for the more advanced riders. We will no longer have two meeting places and the rides will be on quiet country roads.

Meet at Staples in Fairhaven at 5:45 P.M. for a 6 P.M. wheels down start.  This week will be around 26 miles through the towns of Fairhaven, Mattapoisett and Rochester.  It’s mostly flat but there are a couple of inclines that may slow you down.  We will have a lead rider for those who want to hammer as well as a sag rider for those who want to smell the roses.

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Sunday June 17, 2018.  Westport Ride to Horseneck Beach.  Meet at 8:45 A.M. for a 9 A.M. start at the Westport Middle School- 380 County Rd. Westport, MA.

21 miles from the middle school to Horseneck Beach and of course, back. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen, cameras and anything else you may want or need.  Helmets are a good choice for this all road ride.  This is best suited for intermediate or better, riders.

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Thursday, June 21.  Longest Day of the Year Ride.  Sponsored by Ten Speed Spokes Bike Shop.

Click Here for directions.

Ten Speed Spoke’s Longest Day Ride is our yearly event held to celebrate the start of summer and all things cycling.  It features 4 different length arrowed courses.  Everything is free!  Shirts and helmets are required.

All skill levels and ages of cyclists are invited.  To join, please register here.

See the video of one of the past year’s ride  HERE

 

Road Riding

Snipatuit Pond
Causeway separating Snipatuit Pond in Rochester, Ma.

I got the Felt road bike all spiffed up for the first road ride of the year.  Twenty five miles on the back roads of Southeastern Massachusetts. CLICK HERE to see the map.  The winter riding is pretty much easy spins around town.  The rest of the year sees those rides but also medium and high mile road rides.  These are put the camera away serious rides to build up strength and stamina for the events and bike tours that are on the schedule throughout the summer.
There were a few others out on this very popular bike area.  Some roadies, a couple of mothers with their child and what looked like the tail end of a club ride.  Twenty five miles at a moderate pace was a nice start to the season.

 

Going Secular

As I began my ride I passed by three ex churches, and decided to make the theme today. the closed churches locally. In the surrounding towns most of the churches, of all denominations, are rapidly closing their doors.  Some are in prime locations and are scheduled to be converted to secular uses.  Some are in impoverished areas and are wasting away.

There are very few church affiliated schools and other indoctrinating techniques left in many parts of the country.  The decline in church membership and religious affiliation has followed.   Around here, the churches that are left have very small memberships, who are for the most part, in their 70’s and 80’s.  The choice of nearly 5000 gods, makes everyone an atheist who doesn’t believe in the one true god that someone else believes. The younger generation has figured out that religion is not necessary to lead a good life and they realized that churches have become political and fundraising institutions, that more and more of the under 50 crowd want nothing to do with.

Years ago Sunday morning was an easy overtime day for the local police force who got extra duty directing traffic around the many churches in the area.  Now,  most of the churches have been relegated to gypsy status in small storefronts and run by some guy with a mail order minister title.

The best transition I have seen is outside of Washington DC in Brunswick, MD. called, Beans in the Belfry.

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Sitting alone and rotting away

 

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Abandoned but it may be converted into a restaurant

 

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Just sitting empty for 5 years

 

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Soon to be demolished and replaced by a convenience store.
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Abandoned church for sale.
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Church school scheduled for demoliton

 

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Once a church, now a private home

 

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Church being reconditioned into a homeless shelter

 

Fort to Fort Ride

The ride will take us around the point of New Bedford into Fort Rodman/Fort Taber.
The ride will take us around the point of New Bedford into Fort Rodman/Fort Taber.

Meet at 99 Restaurant for a 9 AM start.

Directions to ride start

The city of New Bedford was  free city during the time of the slavery.  They were welcome and protected from the slave hunters by local residents and it’s mayor Rodney French.

French was a Free-Soiler – a pre-Civil War political party that opposed slavery and the admission of slave states into the Union. His actual political affiliation is dubious. I have come across documents that state he was a Democrat and others that state he was a Republican. We do know that he was a delegate to Republican National

Convention from Massachusetts in 1856 and that he was considered a “Black” Republican because of his anti-slavery or abolitionist platform.

His anti-slavery stance did not make him very popular among his peers and the aristocrats of society. In fact, this put his career and life in harm’s way often. He lost many a business relationship and opportunity, surely including revenue, and especially in pro-slavery North Carolina.

We will be riding around the point of New Bedford on Rodney French Boulevard. Clarks Cove will be on our right at the beginning of the Blvd.  At the end of the point we will enter Fort Rodman, whereon September 5th and 6th, 1778, the British

East Rodney French Blvd. Butler Flats Light house can be seen in the Acushnet River.
East Rodney French Blvd. Butler Flats Light house can be seen in the Acushnet River.

landed 4000 troops  marching through and destroying much of New Bedford.  The troops marched inland along the west shore of the Acushnet River to Acushnet, then came south through Fairhaven to Sconticut Neck.

 At this time the British drove a group of 34 local militiamen under the command of Timothy Ingraham from Fort Phoenix, burned the barracks, broke up the gun platforms and smashed all but one of the cannons.

When the fort was rebuilt following the 1778 attack, it was named Fort Phoenix after the mythical bird which rose from its own ashes.

The original fort was built by Capt. Benjamin Dillingham and Eleazer Hathaway between 1775 and 1777. It was outfitted with eleven cannon, several of which had been captured in the Bahamas by John Paul Jones.

FORT PHOENIX

FORT RODMAN/FORT TABER

Shining Sea Bike Path on Cape Cod

Cover Photo:  Pie in the Sky Bakery in Woods Hole, MA.

The Shining Sea Bike Path is a 11 mile Rail to Trail conversion from Falmouth to Woods Hole, MA.  This midweek, cool April day began with bright sunshine and very little wind, making it an easy ride from end to end.

The activity at the Steamship Authority is picking up as summer approaches.  There was quite a line of cars waiting to board the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard.  All the seasonal restaurants are open and the tourists are returning.  Only on the weekend for now but by Memorial Day things will change for sure and Woods Hole will be a beehive of activity.

Click the Vimeo link at the bottom right of the video for better quality