4.20 on country roads

4.20 was a great day for an unexpected ride touring around the Collinsville/Nepaug area. Nice indeed! And well celebrated! Corey and I, with the turkey and moose cards guiding us, left town and headed north along River Road (rt. 79) and soon swung left and crossed the great, metal trestle bridge over the Farmington River. I was super stoked as I had only driven across it many times. Sweet bridge. We peeped down at the river. It was packed full of fisherman and the small beach down below lay empty. This would be a great place to include a photo of the bridge if I had taken any pictures.

The road rounded right after the bridge and we took the even steeper left fork in the already steep road and continued on to the Nepaug Reservoir. The steady breeze picked up moisture from the reservoir’s surface and sprinkled us in the warm sun when out on the dam. Again, another great opportunity for a photo! aarrggg!

There was much more noise once we left the trail in Nepaug and headed west on rt. 202 with cars whizzing by us. I think we took the next right and explored a bunch of small, twisty back roads that crossed meadows, farmland, several streams and a banged up guardrail overlooking a steep hillside and stream far below. Very, very beautiful. Dang! no photos! The roads were quite narrow at times with occasional potholes and sometimes enough sand to make a beach; but the ride was great and the few cars encountered were very friendly. We backtracked along 202 and over the dam again, but this time returned to Collinsville down Torrington Ave. Mental note, I need new brake pads.

With no particular place to go, we found ourselves a few miles down rt. 179 and then rt. 4 at the ice cream/putt putt joint on a bench having a sundae and a milkshake with corn chips; think about the tasty combination of a Wendy’s frosty and French fries. yummy! T’was a very European break. We crossed the Farmington River and quickly hairpinned to our left onto New Road and humped back to town. Up and down and up and down with some curves thrown in for fun.

I saw lots of smiles from people on bikes and happy people gardening in their front yards or taking strolls. just over 20 miles, enough to feel like you did something, but not too much that you're beat. Life is good.

“The call of the male Moose is an awesome thing to hear on a musky spring
night.”

And I’m a turkey!