The weather forecast for today was way off. The rain moved faster or stayed farther to the north, or something, and today was perfect weather for cycling. When I set off on my long ride, around 9:30, it was 61 degrees with almost no wind. It was wonderful. I headed north towards Sunderland with my goal of circumnavigating the Connecticut River. When I reached the bridge, I got off my bike and walked for a bit, enjoying the scenery -- especially Mount Sugarloaf, which rises up from the far shore of the river. Then I was struck with a bit of inspiration: I could take pictures of myself on both bridges to document my epic journey! So that's just what I set out to do.
After I crossed the bridge, I turned left and rode through the quiet, backroads of Hatfield. There is a sign as you enter Hatfield that says Hatfield was "thrice attacked by Indians during King Philip's War". As one listens to the news about Afghanistan and Iraq, it's almost incomprehensible to think about those kinds of events happening here.
On the bike map I have, the good bicycling roads are marked in green and roads to avoid are marked red. To get from Hatfield to the bike trail, I had to ride on Route 5, which is marked in red. I have driven that road many times, but I didn't know whether it would be particularly bad for bicycling or not: I tend not to notice the relief and the shoulders when driving in a car. But it turned out to be just fine. The only tough part was turning left from a busy street onto another busy street. The intersection doesn't have any pedestrian amenities: no crosswalks or signals and it was too busy to get into the left hand turn lane without getting run over. So, eventually, I just dashed across and then walked until I found a big enough gap to start riding again.
After crossing back over, I rode the bike trail to a store and bought a replacement battery for my cyclometer. The display had been getting dim, so it seemed like a good idea to replace it. While I was there, I browsed the DVDs and found Firefly, so I bought that too. I'll make everyone start watching it tonight.
When I got home, I found I had ridden about 27 miles at about 9mph. I found in the last two long rides I took that I didn't pace myself well and was exhausted before I got back. This time, I told myself I could go as slow as I wanted and take as many breaks as I felt like. That's certainly enough riding for me for today, but I'm not nearly as exhausted as I have been after previous long rides. That's very encouraging.