To Middletown!

The sun sets behind the Arrigoni Bridge as we pedal toward Middletown.

On Friday, it was that same old story: Car in Middletown, self in Hartford, so I put the word out to the extended BBB family that I would be making the pilgrimage by bike at quitting time and sought riding companions (promising to drive people and their bikes back in my capacious Corolla). Considering the splendid early autumn weather (and my not insignificant interpersonal skills), you would think a great internet clamor would have arisen over who would claim the limited spaces in my car. But in fact, only Bianca stepped up.

Just as well, really - I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to fit two full-sized bikes and two people (and me and my Xootr) in the whip. In any event, it was an absolutely marvelous, leisurely ride. We took the East Hartford-Glastonbury-Portland route, and we took pictures. You can see them after the jump.



So long, Hartford!


Hello, East Hartford, you mighty industrial powerhouse on the banks of the Connecticut River!


Because I take bicycling seriously, but not too seriously, I dressed in business casual attire (it was Friday, after all).


Bianca, in contrast, showed a complete lack of respect for the austere and sober art of velocipede piloting.


In Glastonbury, we got on Route 17. I had forgotten that this road has an elevated, fast-highway-type section. It was a little alarming to be there on bikes, but kinda nice.


Luckily, Route 17 soon narrowed to a smaller (and actually more dangerous) two-lane road.


Had we not been racing (and raging) against the dying of the light, we might have stopped at one of the many enticing farm stands lining Route 17.


Instead, we stopped at a pumpkin patch, which featured a real-life farmer driving a real-life tractor, hearkening back to our state's agrarian roots.


This sign in Portland encapsulates what we all know so well: Old Maids = Bulky Waste.




Sunsets make for pretty scenery.


In Portland, the corn was as high as an elephant's eye.


Finally, with darkness falling, we reached the good old Arrigoni Bridge, which took us from Portland to Middletown.


Irrefutable photographic evidence that we crossed the river at 6:57 p.m.


Nous sommes arrivee!