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Tag: bike
Whale in the Whaling City
A whale going for a swim in the harbor of the former whaling capital of the world? Kind of chancy if you ask me. The juvenile leviathan is a welcome sight in New Bedford, MA’s inner harbor, getting lots of attention from the locals.
I Love My FedEx Driver
There was a beautiful box on my front porch when I got home from delivering my peeps. (The bell ringers). My original plan was to go to the show and see one of the newly released movies. When I saw the box, I didn’t even bother to see what was playing.
It didn’t take long to reassemble the bike as Sol at Austin Bikes took good 
care packing and marking everything for me. The tires have schrader valves, so I had to order some new tubes and will pick up or order a rear rack tomorrow. All my pumps have dual valve attachments so for now the bike is ready to roll.
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.
June Hates Me
It was getting late for a bike ride. After 1 PM and I wanted to do the 30 mile loop. But I really didn’t feel like it. Standing in my garage, dressed for a ride, staring at three bikes. I felt like one of those couples on the HGTV show House Hunters. I eliminated the touring bike by hanging it up for the winter. That left the road bike and the commuter. I finally grabbed the Felt road bike, put on the roadie shoes and off I went.
I met a regular young walker on the MUP stopped to say hello for a few seconds and began to ride away. He began to walk faster then jog to keep pace.
“Are you trying to keep up with me” I asked.
“As long as I can” was his response.
“Good luck with that” I quipped as I quickly accelerated to 19 MPH on this flat stretch of blacktop.
During the first part of the ride I couldn’t shake the desire to take one of the many bail out option on this route. Eventually I slipped into the riding zone and before I knew it passed the point of no return. Meaning there were no more side roads to shorten the route.
Because of the late start, I rode past one of the local high schools at dismissal time. I was also riding west into the low sun. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were lines of high school drivers texting while also being blinded by the low sun behind me. I found a place to get off the narrow country road to let the traffic settle down.
The car traffic ended and the yellow buses began to make their way toward me from the school. I began riding thinking the school bus drivers would be a safe bet as they passed giving me plenty of room. Think again big guy. The buses were traveling faster than the kids in cars and the 50 something male drivers had fire in their eyes as they passed. A couple very close I might add. I again pulled off to the side to let the remaining buses go by.
From then on it was clear sailing to the country store. It’s a stop I always make if for no other reason, because it’s there. A woman inside asked if I was running when she saw my get up. “Riding a bike” I said. “Oh, that’s even colder”. It was chilly, which is different from cold. 45 degrees chilly. I mentioned I only had 8 or 9 miles to go and then she asked how many I had done. When I said around 20 her eyes bugged out. I used to think 30 miles was a massive amount to ride a bike in one day. Now, it’s a decent ride.
Near the end of the ride, I noticed a rider approaching. As the rider got close I realized it was one of our group riders, whom I hadn’t seen in a while. As we crossed paths I stopped and yelled “JUNE, howahyah”. I got a soft hi John back as she rode toward the setting sun. I think June hates me.
Just a couple of things to end this post. The road that had collapsed because of the water passing under through the pipe way that was built of brick and stone sometime in the 40’s, is almost complete. It looks like all that’s left is the blacktop.
Lastly. If your ankle strap that keeps your pants from getting caught in you chain come off on a country road some day and you turn back to retrieve it. Keep one thing in mind. When you unclip you right shoe, make sure you lean to the right when the bike stops rolling. Don’t lean left. OK. Now turn up the volume and put on your dancing shoes.
2015 Coffeeneuring Challenge Celebration Ride
The 2015 Coffeeneuring Challenge is in the books. Thanks to Mary at Chaising Mailboxes for organizing the challenge for the fifth year. Thank you also to all the new friends we have made because of our love of coffee and bike riding. See yas around.
ONE LAST COFFEE RIDE from John Sullivan on Vimeo.
Night Ride
Yesterday was such a great riding day but I had things to do that prevented me from doing a long ride. There was a gathering at the Buzzards Bay Coalition headquarters for the volunteers beginning a 5 PM. I was not in a rush to get there on time thinking it was one of those casual party type events. Little did I know that it was also a meeting with guest speakers and scientists.
I didn’t get to the function till around 5:30 and lo and behold, there was only a pittance of food left on the buffet table. I had to scrape the tidbits from two salad bowls to have something. There was plenty of cake though, thanks to Marie Antoinette. On the bright side, Sam Adams came through with plenty of larger which allowed me to ride the 6 miles home imitating a pinball machines silver orb. Good thing I didn’t drive to the function.
Today is a 30 mile fitness ride on one of my regular routes. I think I have photos in stock of just about every building, tree, animal and whatever, so I will only have my little point an shoot emergency camera in case something unusual gets my attention. I’m also putting this on Strava so I don’t want to have one of those meager 18 MPH averages speed rides broadcast to the world.
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Coffeeneuring #7. The Last and Best Coffee Ride.
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CLICK HERE for all the photos on Flickr.
- Location: Providence R.I.
- L’Artisen Cafe and Bakery
- 14 mile round trip ride encompasing East Providence, Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. RI
- Trees and poles to lock up you bike. But with outside seating in an upscale college area, it’s really not necessary.
I took the Randonee bike for this last coffeeneuring adventure. I have a Novara Randonnee bike but have never done a randonee. But I have been to Spain. Today’s ride was the route connecting the East Bay Bike Path in East Providence to the Blackstone River Bikeway in Cumberland, R.I. This is the ride I saved for the last coffeeneurs challenge and after a couple of false starts, everything fell into place today.
This route begins in East Providence at the Fort Hill parking area of the East Bay Bike Path. The normal ride is South toward Bristol R.I. which is close to Newport. Today though, the ride takes us North to Providence. One of the highlights is crossing the Washington Bridge over the Seakonk River.
It continues through some really nice areas along the Seakonk River and into some very upscale neighborhoods including Blackstone Boulevard where years ago I rode the Tuesday night boulevard double paceline ride. It was a 30 mile open to everyone hammerfest with the Providence College and Brown University bike teams. There were times when the paceline was 15-18 bikes long with 30+ riders. In essence, one would pull the pack for a couple of minutes twice a night. Being the oldest in the pack, whenever I got to the front, the ride would slow considerably. On many rides kids would tuck me into the middle of the paceline and let me be pulled along at 25-28 mph with very little effort on my part. Riding the tide, we called it. Or as they say, keep him away from the front.
The ride today also went through a couple of urban areas that get pretty busy with traffic. Because I was fully depending on my Garmin Touring GPS for directions, (I uploaded the route), I got caught a few times on the right when I needed to go left. Every time I looked over my shoulder to see the traffic behind me, I got a go ahead and take the lane from the driver. Providence is a very progressive city of college students and professors on bikes, making it very bike friendly. I’m still learning this new Garmin of mine, and a couple of fopahs cut the distance of this ride from 26 to 14 miles. I want to do this ride again, but as they say, there are lots of other territories to conquer.
I saved the coffeeneuring challenge for the return leg. I didn’t know of any coffee shops in Providence, and this being the Brown University area, it was obvious to even the most casual observer, that there would be some really good ones. L’Artisen Cafe is the reason my title says the best coffee ride. This place was, as the kids say, “off the hook”. The coffee was wonderful and the turkey cranberry panini was sooo good. The sun was shining, the temperature was nearing 65 F and there was outside seating.
Hunter’s Full Moon Bike Ride
I got a call that my niece’s football team was playing their final home match of the season. Also the team was celebrating senior night. A 5 PM start under a full moon made this a great night for a bike ride. There are a few Full Moon Fiascos going on around the country. If your not familiar with them it’s worth checking out. There are chapters in Chicago, Illinois, Sandpoint, Iowa, Spokane, Washington, St. Louis, Missouri and of course, Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Check the website for next months ride.
The stadium was around eight miles away from my home and there was a busy city between her town and mine. Fortunately I grew up in the city and knew every which way to avoid most of the traffic and still have a very direct route to the stadium. It was so direct that I got there an hour before the scheduled start. It was getting chilly and I was starting to Jones for some coffee. The nearest spot was a -11 around a mile away. Having done many long distance tours, it’s not a big deal to back track a few miles for trivial reasons. Coffee was not trivial which made back tracking a mile kind of a no brainer. It was a coffee stop but doesn’t qualify for my coffeeneuring challenge.
The Dartmouth girls team was far superior to their opponent from Fall River which gave the coach a chance to play the seniors who normally don’t get a lot of playing time. With the score 2-0 and Dartmouth in full control, the officials awarded them a penalty kick. All the regular players gathered around one of those seniors and told her to take the spot kick. It was incredible. No keeper in the world at any level could have made the save on this one. It reminds me of a quote by golfer Lee Trevino when he said, “Every golfer has professional shots in him. The only difference is that the pros do it regularly”. This day #24 for Dartmouth had a world class moment, and everyone loved it.
Riding to Coffee in Rhode Island.
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All the photos of today’s rider are HERE
The day began cool enough to dress like a bike riding chef from upstate NY. Well not that cold but you get the point.
It was 47 F when the ride began in East Providence R.I. this morning. The sun was shining and the wind was just a whisper. On the subject of the shining sun. It was 9 AM and I was riding east. All I could see was the sun and not the four people I almost rode into.
The East Bay Bike Path is a rail to trail conversion. It’s 16 miles from East Providence to Barrington, R.I.. When riding most rail to trail conversions, there is very little to see. Most were freight rails and towns are often quite a way off the trail. Much of the riding is on lonely dirt paths with miles and miles of nothing much. The East Bay rail road was a passenger rail that carried people to and from Providence for school, work, or connecting trains to New York or Boston and had stations in all five towns along the route. Main St. in all these places are no more than a block away.
Willie Wier , author and Adventure Cyclist has traveled all over the world on his bicycle. He set out to ride the KATY trail in Missouri a few years back. Hours and hours of riding on this trail and seeing no one really bothered him. One of the best things about bike touring is seeing things and meeting people. With that in mind, he got off the trail and did the rest of his week long bike ride on the streets and roads. Today I got off the trail on Warren R.I. in search of a decent coffee shop. While riding down Main St. I spotted a coffee shop with lots of activity. Even on this chilly day, the sidewalk tables were occupied. One thing I learned traveling is that good restaurants have full parking lots, and in this case, few available tables. I was pleasantly amazed when I entered the joint. It was very eclectic and looked very much like one of those men’s clubs you see on old movies. The Coffee Depot offered comfortable chairs, a library, and a counter from end to end filled with coffee shop goodies.
The Coffee Depot goodies section
The temperature rose to the high fifties and I was treated to the full colors of fall in New England during my 20 mile ride.
And the wildlife.
A Midnight Rider 