Wednesday was the perfect evening for a great bike ride to Manchester from Hartford along the streets and bike paths. Josh, Breandan, Krash, Rick and Joel and I met at 5PM on the Founders Bridge and took off without the pre-party brews i accidently left at work in the lunchroom fridge! ARRGG!!! The notes posted on the CCBA website were long but worked well and soon we were navigating the streets of East Hartford and made it onto the bike path just in time for a flat.
The flat tire provided a great opportunity to enjoy a fine bottle of wine and find out who carries spares and tools and who doesn't! I also noticed the few bits of trash that were around were mostly glass bottles and plastic bottles, no cans! no cans at all! there was a lot of broken glass on the trail though. earliera woman riding the other way warned Rick about it and didn't make eye contact with anyone else...and Rick got the flat! was it a hex? a coincidence? we will never know!
Many rights and lefts later, we turned right onto Adams Street and soon took over the lane to make a left into the Adams Mill Resturant (i told you lots of rights and lefts!). We locked up our bikes to some farm machinery and walked inside to the dinner, well, to the bar for drinks i should say. To our dissappointed surprise, we seemed to be the only people who rode? huh? but that was fine, we drank, bid on silent auction items, mingled and enjoyed dinner and a few speakers.
The ride home was more fun. We made a quick stop at a gas station for sundries and then took off with blinking red lights and white headlights shinning the road ahead...until mine fell off. That was pretty much the end of my light shining, which was good, especially when we got to the dark bike path. Who wants to see all that ugly broken glass when you can just speed through it, hurtling through the darkness!?!? no worries though, no flats from glass; it was as if we were lifted! and flying high above the sharp, tube eating menaces! now, that one, dark, curve where we all sped off the path, noooo problem.
speedbumps. now that was a problem. this time Joel was hissing. we stopped just inside a parking complex and quickly had lights pointed towards a removed wheel. Such skill and teamwork was displayed that some dude in a nearby second floor apartment watched us intently and maybe even video taped us. wow. maybe its all on youtube!
Back in Hartford, i snagged the forgotten beers from the fridge and we chugged them while pondering about the recently burned-down Virgin Mary Shrine. Why ohh why?
A few sprinkles of rain encouraged us to get going and Krash lead us on a fun route through the southend and eventually down Washinhton Street. Josh took off down Park Street to go home. The rest of us ride till two of us split down Russ and two continued down Capital Ave; all with the intention of a quick afterhours at my house.
All in all a great night. thanks for ridin' all.
Many rights and lefts later, we turned right onto Adams Street and soon took over the lane to make a left into the Adams Mill Resturant (i told you lots of rights and lefts!). We locked up our bikes to some farm machinery and walked inside to the dinner, well, to the bar for drinks i should say. To our dissappointed surprise, we seemed to be the only people who rode? huh? but that was fine, we drank, bid on silent auction items, mingled and enjoyed dinner and a few speakers.
The ride home was more fun. We made a quick stop at a gas station for sundries and then took off with blinking red lights and white headlights shinning the road ahead...until mine fell off. That was pretty much the end of my light shining, which was good, especially when we got to the dark bike path. Who wants to see all that ugly broken glass when you can just speed through it, hurtling through the darkness!?!? no worries though, no flats from glass; it was as if we were lifted! and flying high above the sharp, tube eating menaces! now, that one, dark, curve where we all sped off the path, noooo problem.
speedbumps. now that was a problem. this time Joel was hissing. we stopped just inside a parking complex and quickly had lights pointed towards a removed wheel. Such skill and teamwork was displayed that some dude in a nearby second floor apartment watched us intently and maybe even video taped us. wow. maybe its all on youtube!
Back in Hartford, i snagged the forgotten beers from the fridge and we chugged them while pondering about the recently burned-down Virgin Mary Shrine. Why ohh why?
A few sprinkles of rain encouraged us to get going and Krash lead us on a fun route through the southend and eventually down Washinhton Street. Josh took off down Park Street to go home. The rest of us ride till two of us split down Russ and two continued down Capital Ave; all with the intention of a quick afterhours at my house.
All in all a great night. thanks for ridin' all.
2 comments:
But can I just say - what's up, CCBA Dinner-goers?! If we're going to be about the Bike Everywhere business, let's do it up, you know? You guys were a cool bunch and that was a cool event, but you can't tell me that some of you couldn't have come by bike. Is it that you were worried about being underdressed? Fair enough, but let's make a deal: Any time CCBA throws an event that seems a little fancy, let's ride bikes there and show up underdressed and not worry about it, because it's the Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance, you know? Not the Central Connecticut Looking Stylish Alliance.
OK? Are we good on this, people? OK. See you next time.
sorry about the massive photos inwhich one may click on and see the boogers. i was in a hurry to get shit up but will resize in the future!
and yeah!.....arrive at dinner with the closest parking spot, rolled up pant legs, a big smile and the enchanting fragrance of eau de chillwill!
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