First, the rest of Long Island…

On Tuesday, May 17, we rode 66 miles from Garden City to Wading River, on the eastern end of Long Island.

I remember driving somewhere with my mother when I was growing up on Long Island. Mom said, “Long Island is flat.” And at that point we drove over a little hill. So I said, “No, it’s not. We just went over a hill.”

Of course, most people will agree with my mother. Long Island is flat. But not eastern Long Island. Toward the end of the day on Tuesday, we came to a couple hills that my legs weren’t ready for after over 1500 miles of flat riding. I got off and walked. So did Rob.

The riding was pleasant enough. We used a combination of google maps, signs for a couple state bike routes, and a paper map to find our way and only took a wrong turn once that cost us a few extra miles. The scenery was not anything special although we had a nice lunch break on some benches in front of a fire station with a flower garden in bloom. Aftert 58 miles we found our way to my Aunt Olga’s house in a gated community in Ridge, arriving after 4:00 for a short visit.

Then 4 miles got us to dinner and another 4 to Wildwood State Park Campground where, fortunately, we had a reservation.

New York State is not working to encourage bicycle tourism. State campgrounds require a two-night minimum stay, always. You must make a reservation no later than 3 p.m. on the day of, and if you don’t you will be turned away. There are no walk-ins. I asked the young person who checked us in, “You mean if we came in now (it was almost 8 pm) on our bikes and we didn’t have a reservation, you would turn us away?” He said, “I’d have to.” Actually, he wouldn’t because no one would know the difference. But some people can’t think outside the box. So we’d be left with options. There’s no other place to stay within miles. It’s total nuts.

Once I got over the unfairness of the NY State campground policy, I enjoyed our evening and morning camping out. Rob is not so keen to camp these days, but I’ve been a bit disappointed that these last two bike trips haven’t had much opportunity for it, especially since we’re carrying all that gear.

On to Connecticut and New England...

On Wednesday, May 18, we took the ferry to New London, Connecticut, and finished a 50 mile day riding to the quaint town of Stonington, just past historic Mystic.

In the morning we passed through the agricultural part of Long Island, farm stands selling asparagus, fresh eggs, tomato and strawberry plants, one vineyard after another. After getting off the ferry we had 15 miles to Stonington, on roads with pleasantly rolling hills. I suddenly realized how much I missed having hills these last five weeks.

It felt really good to be back home in New England.

We treated ourselves to a night at the Inn at Stonington. It was a lovely place; I’d stay there again if we are ever back in the neighborhood. They had complimentary wine and cheese in the early evening.

Next state, Rhode Island…

We woke up to rain, which we hadn’t expected. It was supposed to stop at noon and the innkeeper said it was fine if we checked out then. We adjusted our plans for a 30-mile day to Narragansett, Rhode Island.

The day couldn’t have started any better. The inn served a continental breakfast with offerings that included croissants, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, cold cereal, home-made muffins and scones and assorted breads, a savory pastry with leeks and feta cheese (my favorite!) and fruit. We ate and relaxed in a bright common room that overlooked the water and the rainy day.

The rain didn’t stop at noon. The owner of the inn offered to drive us wherever we were going, but we were fine. It wasn’t windy and the rain was supposed to stop shortly. At 1:00 the forecast said it would stop at 2:00. It didn’t.

After about ten miles when I saw a little diner that was open I asked Rob if he wanted to stop, thinking we could wait out the rain for a while. He said he wasn’t hungry so we kept going. After several miles he said he regretted that decision. He was hungry and cold. I kept my eyes peeled for another diner.

Around Charlestown we got off Route 1 onto 1A and arrived at the public library. Thinking that may be as good a place to stop as any if there were no coffee shops or restaurants nearby, we parked our bikes outside. I went in first to inquire about a place to get something to eat and the young man behind the desk told me about a place called The Cove a mile down the road. We were glad he did. Otherwise we might have stopped at the first place we came to, a third-rate pizza joint. But I was hoping for clam chowder to warm me up.

I didn’t get clam chowder. We found The Cove and the first thing I saw on the menu was lobster roll, fries, and cole slaw. I couldn’t get past that. How else to celebrate our New England arrival but with a lobster roll? I don’t think any lobster roll I ever have again will match this one. It was full of enormous chunks of lobster, graced with a thin coating of mayonnaise. The fries and cole slaw were equally delicious. We both ordered hot tea to warm up, and took our time leaving, letting the food settle just in case we had hills to climb the last ten miles.

After lunch the rain still hadn’t quit but it had slowed to a drizzle and 11 miles slipped by easily enough. We arrived at The Atlantic House Hotel where we had a room overlooking the ocean.

Friday, May 20…

We started out along the water, passing the Narragansett beach, then continued on Rte 1A, staying away from high traffic roads. We were creating our own route, using googlemaps and a paper map. After about 10 miles we came to the little town of Wickford on the water and stopped for tea and a shared second breakfast, sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine.

Then we were back on Rte. 1 with four lanes of traffic, marginally acceptable shoulders, and lots of business on either side of the highway. Finally we got off on a road that was indicated on googlemaps as a bike route that took us along the water into Providence.

Rob and I lived in Providence from 1987-1995 so we’re pretty familiar with Rhode Island. Yet, we were seeing parts of the state completely new to us. We’d never been to Charlestown or Narragansett and today we saw parts of Warwick and Cranston – neighborhoods overlooking Narragansett Bay – that are very lovely.

From Cranston we rode directly into Providence, following a designated bike route that took us along the water, skirting the downtown. On the approach we rode through an industrial area, past enormous piles of scrap metal and over dozens of deserted railroad tracks.

We passed through the industrial area where I once worked as a software engineer and stopped for lunch in a park before crossing a bridge to East Providence.

From there we only had seven miles to our friends’ house in Barrington, seven miles on the Great Bay bike path. The bike path took us over a bridge that wasn’t there when we lived in the city, a new bike and pedestrian bridge that paralleled the highway. Part of the bike path was also new.

We arrived at our friends, Heather and Libardo’s house in Barrington, around 3:30, with plenty of time to visit as they juggled their busy lives working and parenting two adolescents.

On to Cape Cod…

Since taking the ferry to Cape May in New Jersey we haven’t had an established bicycle route to follow so we’ve been mostly using googlemaps, or the lady in the phone – we call her Agnes – to give us directions. She gave us a choice of three different routes to get from Barrington, Rhode Island, to Cape Cod. With Heather and Libardo’s help we chose what we thought would be the most rural one; it worked out really well.

We were on the road by 7:45 with fog and a soft drizzle. Before long it was warm enough to take off our jackets. We rode through farm country and semi-rural residential areas, passing nurseries and farm stands and young children playing baseball. The riding was pleasant, mostly on quiet country roads. We didn’t pass through any towns until we approached the Cape.

We had pleasant riding along the Cape Cod Canal for about four miles before crossing the Sagamore Bridge. The bridge was not fun. Although there was a sidewalk, there was no barrier and we were going against the traffic. We decided to walk. Once across the bridge we had about 15 miles on sometimes narrow roads to our friends’ house in Cotuit. We made good time for the day, arriving by 4:30.

We had about 60 miles to go before arriving in Provincetown, our final destination, on our anniversary.