Town Ride

Worm - Ride

Is this normal - I'll tell you in another year. Had a meeting downtown - rode the bike down Chandler:

1. Big Dude in a doorway wearing a "Stop Snitching" T -shirt. Maybe I'm wrong - but isn't that basically an admission that the dude is a bad dude. I later see that this doorway has a hand painted signed in front saying that it's "Dental Laboratory No. 2." What kind of dental office needs a bouncer?

2. A block away - serious full blown faith healing righ, in Spanish, right out there on the sidewalk.

I rode back on Pleasant:

3. Storefront with a dude sitting outside talking on the phone. I look inside as I ride by and all that's in there is one shelf with a dozen bottles of pink colored soda. What kind of store stays open to sell that?

4. A block later, I hear what could be an R.L. Burnside / Jon Spencer rehearsal, except it's in some other language and it's a run down storefront church. I stop and listen for a few minutes like I used to do in front of the 40 watt on the way home, but move on before someone runs out and tries to pray for me like happened that one time with Will in Athens.

5. A block later - another church service, except this time its outside in a parking lot with congas and shit.

6. Home.

No point to all this except to say that every day there's something that drives home that worm-town ain't strip-mall leap-frog sprawl suburbia.

A Swell Ride

Just got back from a great ride up to Mt. Wachusett. The road to the summit is closed so I didn't make it all the way, but this was a great ride to do out the front door. Most of the roads between here and Princeton were very quiet and almost car-free. I cruised by a couple of lakes that I never knew about. After about a mile on busy (ish) hwy 31 and some great ridgetop views, most of the riding for the next few miles was through the forest on dirt roads and a mountain bike would have done a lot better than my skinny 700/23's, but that didn't stop me. The best rides are on done on the wrong bike I still say. I've wanted to do this ride ever since we moved here. I've been to the top of Wachusett on skis, hiking, and on the MTB with Grace, but have never ridden all the way there from home. It only took me a year to do it, but I'm ready to go again and would love to show the route to some other folks.

Since this was also my first long ride in at least a year, it also counts as my sole training for the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee next month and I have hope that I may be able to finish that ride since managed to pull it off without falling over in a heap on the road or at home afterwards. Like a handful of routes down in GA (e.g., the commerce loop and that stupid ride I did with JP to Clayton), I can't believe how great the riding right outside of town can be. I'm looking forward to one of y'all coming up so I can show you around.....

Things to do on a bike in War-Chester

1. Ride around up north of town and find the site of the school to which mary's little lamb followed her one day. For real.

2. Go on a single speed off-road bicycle ride with Richie Rich and his cute 1-braked bike:

3. Go on a dirt road ride with Grace's mom, Grace, and Grace's cute helmet:

4. Ride down to the "fairgrounds" (a parking lot 5 minutes from home) and check out Anders Osborn at Worcester's answer to Jazzfest. Drink cheap Harpoons, then ride home.

5. Ride the reservoir loop.

6. Ride the reservoir loop again, but this time on the group ride and get schooled by the bike shop dude on a three speed with a big-ass basket. The real roadies didn't know what to do when he passed them. Dude's in a band, The Terribles, too.

And that's purty much it. I'm getting stoked for a few days of riding up in Vermont next month at the Kingdom Trails - check out this write up in Dirt Rag.