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Well, work screwed up my chances of making an appearance at UncleCharlies for the CT Tech Day, but I got out early and when I got home the weather was too nice to pass up a ride. SOOOOO, I tweaked the carbs and did a few other things, then headed up Rt 7 north out of New Milford, which runs right along the banks of the Housatonic River all the way up into NW Connecticut and the Berkshires in Massachussetts. There are some really pretty towns along the way, like Kent with a covered bridge, a huge mountain looming over the town and a steam train/mining museum, as well as Kent Falls, where the kids can play in the pool at the bottom of the water fall. Then you wind up through Sharon, and on up past Lime Rock Motor Speedway (all kinds of races up there from old-timers, to make specific like Ferraris and Porsches, to LeMans type events). Neat place to go and sit and watch a race (ESPN and Speedweek broadcast a lot of races from Lime Rock). Once you get up past Sharon and toward Cornwall, the rivers are all fairly fast-moving and rocky, and you see a lot of people kayaking, camping, fly-fishing etc... In West Cornwall, they also have an old red wood covered bridge, and boy do those Bubs sound nice going through one of those!! Then Rt 7 winds up into Great Barrington in Mass (up in the Berkshires), where they LEGALLY print and distribute their own currency. Then I was going to head back down into Copake, NY and down Rt 22 to my sister in laws and then home. A nice big loop full of mountains, windy roads that run along the banks of rocky river rapids, etc... A nice relaxing ride with a few fast sweepers here and there.

WEEELLLL, I stop in West Cornwall to sit and relax for a while next to the covered bridge, and park my bike in a little area right off the end of the bridge, and I'm sitting enjoying the sunshine, listening to the water running over the rocks, and watching some really cool cars go over the bridge, like an old German Mercury, and Porsche 356 Cabriolet. Oh, and on the way there, I passed an Aston Martin Vantage and a Ferrari, S-W-E-E-E-T! I also stopped to get gas in Sharon, and chatted up a gent from England driving an Aston Martin Vantage, and he was nice enough to floor it leaving the parking lot, and OOOOOHHHHH what a beautiful and sexual sound that AM V12 makes!!! Aye carumba!!! WEllll, ANYWHOOOO, back to the story. All of the sudden, this loud-mouthed, foul-smelling, cretin walks up and starts bad-mouthing my bike! NO, NOT REALLY!! Actually, this guy walks up and asks what year, and I say "'03". He says "I have an '05" I say "Bonnie, or America?" He has an America! So I instantly ask him about BA.com. "Yep, on there all the time... Well, WAY up in the northwest corner of Connecticut, who do I run into but CTMIKE!!!! We sat and chatted for a bit, enjoyed the river running by, the view of the mountains and then we parted ways. I finished my ride as planned, but never got any of the funny money from Great Barrington for my kids, so guess I'll have to plan another trip! Darn!!!

Hit some COMPLETELY UN-FORECASTED rain on the way down Rt 22 in New York, but just a light soaking, which by the way, also did a great job of cleaning the bugs off of my visor and lights!! So not a bad thing after all, other than the temp had dropped and I was a bit cold (in CT, July doesn't necessarily mean it's too warm for a sweatshirt!!!)

All in all, a nice Saturday!

Way cool, Mr. Greg.

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Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried, in my way,
To be free (Leonard Cohen)

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Hank

Schmike is everywhere...

NW Corner trivia: 35 years ago, before the tourists and weekenders arrived en masse, the section of town on the village side of the bridge was, for lack of a better term, not unlike a rural version of Haight Ashbury. Good times. It's fairly respectable there now, with a coat of paint on everything and the streets sweeped up pretty good. Lotta colorful characters back then - like Ed & Chip - Ed's car was broken down one day, so with Chip standing on the drawbar, Ed rode his Farmall tractor 13 miles up the RR tracks to Falls Village to get to the liquor store by 8 PM closing time. I expect that was an interesting ride to & fro. I played in a bar band at a little dive there years ago. One night Ed danced his way up to the guitarist and started squawking about "Play that song about..." Without lifting his gaze from the fretboard, the guitarist reared a leg and booted Ed in the arse, sending him spinning back into the dance throng. Ed never missed a step, and neither did the guitarist.

The stretch of river south of the covered bridge is "a tremendous trout fishery, and is considered by many as one of the best in the eastern half of the United States."
http://www.flyfishingconnection.com/housatonicriver.html

Just don't eat the fish - they're full of PCBs from the GE plant in Pittsfield.