Presidents Day ride

Yeah, Presidents Day was a long time ago, but back then there was no Beat Bike Blog on which to post photos of my Hartford biking exploits. Also, next Monday is Patriots Day, which is another holiday that ends in "Day" and starts with "P," so good enough.

On Presidents Day, 2008, it was unseasonably warm so I went on a nice little jaunt around the Hartford waterfront (also Newington, Wethersfield, and West Hartford, but those locales didn't yield any nice pictures). I took these pictures (upon which you should click to see them in their full-sized glory):



That's Hartford from upriver, at a moment when God considered smiting it for sinfulness. He later reconsidered, noting that Springfield is even more sinful. I took the picture from an old railroad bridge over the Connecticut river. I would have gained access to that bridge via the network of bike trails at the north end of Riverfront Park, except the bike trails were swamped with mud and melting snow. Luckily, you can go around the ballfields there, along the high, manmade hills, and get to the bridge while avoiding the muck. The bridge looks like this:



Here is a panorama of Hartford from downriver, under the Charter Oak Bridge:



Here's the underside of the Charter Oak Bridge:



And, while I'm on the topic of bridges, here's the Bulkeley Bridge:



Lastly, here's a sign I passed in Hartford while riding around that day: