Long Trip to CT

Wow, who would have thought that a route that's supposed to take only 4 and a half hours would actually wind up being closer to 6?  Actually, you tell anyone that you are taking an untested route and that's pretty much an expected outcome.  I, at the very least, figured that it would be a lot more straightforward, what with a crazy assumption that road signage would be sufficiently posted along the route.  A minor inconvenience, in the grand scheme of the trip, but enough to cause my ire to rise up more than once; that and I, basically, forgot to get lunch.

Here's the equation: Low Blood Sugar + Inadequate Signage + Doubling back twice = Irate Capt. Croton

Or somesuch.

Anyway, irritations aside (and out of the way.  Best to purge the bad so as to focus on the good) the trip was beautiful.  There were many points in the ride that led to muffled "wows" in my helmet.  Along route 20, in Massachusetts, there were some breathtaking scenes once I got past Marlborough.  The road heads up into the hills and the scenes usually presented themselves once cresting the hills.  There was, however, one part of the trip that just left me dumbfounded.

A few miles outside of Sturbridge I road through the path of the tornado that touched down a few months ago.  The damage it left behind was almost unbelievable.  I thought, at first, that some company had decided to clear the trees, but then I later realized what it really was and I was shocked.  What really hit me was how massive an area it ripped up.  You don't think of tornadoes as being necessarily that wide, but from the start of the destruction to the end of it (along the road) was a good one half/three quarter mile.

I then made it to Sturbridge.  It's a very pretty town, and the main portion of it, once you get past the malls and similar just outside of it, has some very nice houses in it.  Shortly thereafter, I turned down route 19, heading into CT.  Now, by the time I reached 19, I had been riding for, oh, 45 minutes or so.  There were a fair number of stop lights along 20 and there were some very advantageous gas stations to stop at, should I had an urge to stop and rest for a minute before continuing.  19, on the other hand, would exemplify much of the rest of the trip.  Long stretches of road with nowhere to stop, and no stop lights to stand up quickly to stretch your legs.  That said, at this point in the trip, I hadn't been on the bike very long, so I didn't make too much of it.

19 passed through some very beautiful country.  A lot of tree shade on the road and some rather scenic ponds made it particularly nice to ride through.  19 turned onto 319, then from 319 I turned onto 190.  Most of this piece was through towns and a large shopping mall area that really weren't all that interesting.  After turning onto 159, however, things became interesting (if you can call yelling at the state of Connecticut, to yourself, inside your helmet, about the abhorrent lack of road signage "interesting").  While searching along 159 for 168, it suddenly dawned on me that my trip would not go quite as smoothly as I had originally hoped.

I stopped in a town called Windsor Locks, looking for someone who could point me the right direction, but no such individual was to be found.  It was quite disappointing.  Riding on down the road a little further, I almost hopped on I-91 south to get to I-84, but, my sense of... pride?  Stubbornness?  Masochism? pushed me forward to trying to find the correct route, dammit!

Well, I never did find 168, or and of the true back roads I wanted to take (particularly 219, which is a shame because it cuts right through a state forest and down past a large reservoir), but I did find US 202.  Once I got on that, I knew I was going to be okay.  That, having found 202, and the fact that it would take me almost directly to Danbury, made me feel a little better.  I finally was able to stop and get gas (just over 60mpg.  Eat it, Prius!) and grab a sandwich (that whole malarkey about low blood sugar) and I realized that it would only get better.

Enter Torrington, CT.

US 202, being a US Highway that existed prior to the current Interstate Highway system, was, in my mind, a rather major route that runs through most of New England.  The only New England state that it doesn't run through is Rhode Island, other than that, it winds its way from New York, through Connecticut, up through Massachusetts and into Vermont before turning again and running through New Hampshire and ending in Maine.  This, to me, seems like a road that would have something resembling appropriate markings to let you know when you are on it.  And, in many places, this is the case.  Not so much in Torrington.  Nope, Torrington decided that the best thing to do was to make it as least clearly marked as possible, particularly at the ambiguous intersections that somehow litter the town.  All I have to say on this matter is that my blood pressure was not having the best of days.

Again, despite these issues, the ride was gorgeous.  Both Massachusetts and Connecticut have beautiful stretches of roads once you get away from the major population areas.  The western halves of both states have hills and valleys covered in trees which offer some truly impressive scenery.  It's definitely a trip I would like to make again.  The only change I would make, is to put sunscreen on.  I've got a pretty impressive "biker's tan" going on.  Except, I'm a pale Irish dude, so it's more a "biker's burn."

I wish I had pictures, but, alas, I stowed my cellphone in my luggage pack and didn't feel like rummaging around for it constantly.  The next time I take the trip I'll keep it (or an actual camera) closer at hand.