If your were sitting across from me you would have heard, caah-fee on da vinyid in my best New England Yankee dialect.

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I got a late start and was so upset that I was probably going to miss the 9:30 boat, I considered saying “eff it” and returning home.  I did come to my senses and accepted that I missed the ferry and would simply enjoy a nice breakfast in Wood’s Hole.  I rode up to the dock and saw the freight ferry still loading.  I asked the attendant how much time I had to buy my ticket before the boat left. “About two minutes” he said.  I rushed into the ticket office and there was no one in line and three clerks available. I got my ticket lickety split and boarded the boat with a minute to spare.

I met a couple who was spending the night on the island and when they asked where I was riding, I didn’t have an answer.  They talked me into Minemsha and that sounded good.  That plan took me to the main street of Vineyard Haven where I saw sponsors of my favorite radio station WMVY. It’s a non profit adult rock station on the Vineyard that has given me quite an eclectic music library.  Musicians like, Amos Lee, Chris Rea and Ray LaMontaigne. You can sample the station online HERE.  I have a strong feeling you will fall in love with this station and it’s DJ’s.   And no good coffee ride is complete without a cappuccino prepared by a very good Barista I stumbled upon called Mocha Motts.

As I was riding toward Minempsha, I began to think about the 40 mile bike ride with some steep climbs and narrow roads and reset my bike gps app to West Tisbury.  I did get a booklet with a map before beginning the ride and when I finally looked at it I saw that Chappaquiddick was only an hour away by bike. In the other direction of course.  Reset gps to Chappaquiddick.

Trust your gps is my motto.  That was severely tested when it had me turn onto Great Plains Rd.  This is a really nice bike riding road. A quiet, no traffic back road that was a pleasure to ride.

Great Plains turned into this. Soft treacherous sandy, rocky quagmire.

Trust your gps. I was considering turning back when Cortina, (my gps girlfriend) said, “Turn left on Dr. Fisher Rd in 600 feet.”  My mental abacus began flipping beads and I figured that’s the length of two football pitches.  I can walk that.  Sure enough, Dr. Fisher Road reared it’s beautiful face.  Even better, it is a bike only road. Some times abandon rail roads become bike paths.  Sometimes abandoned roads become bike paths.

I eventually made it to a fork in the road and a fork on this ride.  Go right to Chappaquiddick or go left to Oak Bluffs and the ferry back to Wood’s Hole.  Here is where I also met an older couple on bikes looking at a map.  “Are you lost”  I inquired and only got a smile from both of them.  They tried in their best German accented really bad English to talk back. “sprechen Sie Deutsch”, I said.  Then the words flowed from them like a freed log jam.  Problem is, I don’t spechen Sie Deutch.  Using our own made up hand gestures , pointing at the map and at the road language, we worked our their directions.  As we parted I returned to my limited German saying ‘cheus” (sp? meaning, see you later, slangly) and that’s when they said they were from Holland. “Gezzellig.”

I am returning to the island mid week with friends from Austin which convinced me to head back to one of the ferry terminal and back to the mainland. “Cortina… Give me directions to Oak Bluffs.”

I wanted to stop for lunch on the island, but I also had 30 minutes to hightail it to Oak Bluffs and catch the 1:15 ferry back to Wood’s Hole.  On Donna, on Blitzen,  That’s thunder and lightning in German by the way. I don’t know how to say it in Dutch though.   I pulled into the terminal just as the loudspeaker was announcing final boarding.  Another one of the just made it timing things I fall into a lot.

There are a few more photo on my flickr page HERE. 

Living on the South Coast of Massachusetts is a bike riders nirvana.  Bike friendly drivers and lots of quiet country roads for daily rides.  Places like Newport, RI and Martha’s Vineyard are close enough that one can decide over morning coffee to go there and ride.  And It’s cheap.  Today for example.

• $25 for you and your bike for a round trip ferry ride.
• $6 for breakfast at a really good coffee shop with a really good Barista.
• Ducking seagull shit on the return ferry ride.  Free.