Turns out I was in shape and the trip was just about perfect. Drove up into the Taconic Mountains to camp Monday night so my drive on Tuesday morning was more restful. Cranked the Cannondale R600 north from Red Oak Hill Road in Farmington, CT to the Westfield river in Mass. Found a nice shady spot for lunch and enjoyed the feel of the place.



Then cycled back to the car. 64 miles round trip. Not bad. I was tired but still feeling great. If I'd added just 9 more miles that would have been my "ride my age" trip for the year. But, no time..... The traffic around Providence, RI must have been abysmal so the navigator routed me way up to Worcester, MA and back down I495 to get to the Cape. Ugh what a long day. Arrived at my lodgings around 8:00pm and just about went right to bed. Wednesday was another picture perfect day which made the CCRT just lovely.



One passes several ponds along the way, lots of shaded passages and a few villages. Very enjoyable but CCRTA really needs to spend some maintenance money. The trail pavement needs some repair. Just painted loops around defects gets pretty old and annoying.



Of course I stopped in Orleans, per tradition, to people watch and just groove on the weather. The odd had ticked 50 miles when I returned to the car. Tired again but still the trip went great. One more night in Brewster then departed early the next morning, heading west. Parked in Mattapoisett, MA (a very nice village without the Cape Cod feel) at the head of their new trail through the salt marshes.



A bit slow due to the boards but very nice scenery. Connects to the Phoenix Rail Trail for a 5 mile trip into Fairhaven, MA and an easy connection to the bridge over to New Bedford. Great weather and good separated pedestrian/bike ways.



"Martha, we're not on Cape Cod anymore". Welcome to the highest grossing commercial fishing port in the United States. Them's some serious fishing boats around. Followed various cycling routes over the hurricane barriers, along Rodney French Blvd, around Fort Taber and back into the historic district. Enjoyed the New Bedford Whaling Museum (yup, I'm a history buff). Also enjoyed the hustle of such a large seaport.



Unloading wind turbine parts. Parts come from France, Spain and Canada and are then loaded to local barges to move off shore for construction. One Turbine per barge load. Those white tubes are the verticle towers the turbine sits atop.

Back to the car around 3:30. End of a great cycling trip - great exercise, great exploring, great accomplishment for me. 140 miles of cycling in 3 days for this old man. Drove to Rocky Neck State Park to spend the night and got home mid day Friday. I could not have had better weather. I could have done without the traffic. I'm so glad I did not have to deal with those daily traffic jams during my career. I'd have gone crazy.