We did 71.0 miles on the tandem yesterday. We left the house at 8:30. Couldn't ask for better weather, temperature in the mid 70's all day, blue sky, low humidity. First stop, unplanned of course, was at about 20 miles. We passed Hutchins Organic Farm and my sweetie asked if we could stop. Of course she bought about 20lbs of veggies that we had to carry for the rest of the day.

Some years ago I posted a pic of this interesting sign in Carlisle. (My avatar is an excerpt from that pic.)



The barn underwent renovations for over a year and the sign disappeared, but eventually came back.



Yesterday we had the good fortune to ride past that barn as the property owners were showing the barn to some friends. We stopped and I thanked them for putting the sign back up and we chatted for a while. They showed us the barn's interior and told us a bit about it. IIRC it was built in 1769. I said when we saw the contractor's sign out front I'd hoped that the guy had a sense of history. They said oh yeah. All the American contractors they'd contacted were afraid to touch it because it was over 200 years old. The contractor who did the work was from Germany, and for him the age was no problem, that he'd worked on buildings that were 1000 years old!

They had always intended to put the sign back up anyway. In fact, it was a traditional assignment for the 3rd graders in the Carlisle grade school to research that sign. A different side of the barn also carries this great sign of days gone by.



Yes, there were chickens in the barn, but only in the newer addition.

Then we meandered over to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail and north to Chelmsford.





Just opposite that Bartlett sign on the way back we spotted what we think was a young great blue heron.





The ride back was pleasant and uneventful. The view from Fern's wraparound porch.



A rest stop in Lexington.



To paraphrase a Klingon saying, it was a good day to ride.