First 4 miles of the Bloomin Metric

Tandeming the 2012 Bloomin' Metric

Today was our 3rd riding of the Bloomin' Metric on the Burley Rock'n'Roll Tandem and it was a blast.  This year Sound City Cyclists moved the venue to Sherwood Island which was much better if you ask me.  After spending the night at my Dad's house we figured it would be easy (and closer) to get to the starting point coming from New Canaan rather than Newtown and yet upon arriving at 8:00 AM the parking was already pretty crowded!

At registration we learned that Katie won a $200 gift certificate for Trifitness but come to find out is basically $200 off one of their Triathlon Training programs.  Rats!  Here I was thinking new pedals, a headset, some bar end shifters but turns out to be something useless.  Oh well.  This years' shirts are cool, basically riding shirts with a bunch of logos.  Better than the cotton shirts we got in the past.

While driving into Sherwood Island we saw Katie's Grandfather who usually helps out with radio communications and the SAG wagons but by the time we got back to the communications tent he had already taken off.  So, the Commo guys let Katie talk to him over their portable shortwave radios.

My father and his girlfriend had already taken off so Katie and I started riding by ourselves.  We nearly collided with this guy right out of the gate who decided to cut in front of us to check something on his bike.  Dang, that is one color coordinated bike!

We caught up to my father around the three mile mark along the mansions of Southport.  We shot some videos of one another and took a few pictures.  Katie and I left them at the beach since we are a lot faster.

Since the new course had these loops in them I figured that we would probably take a second lap to let my father catch up but as we were coming to the end of the first loop my father and his girl friend crossed in front of us so ended up doing another go around on the first loop again so we could ride together a bit.

Katie and I rode to the top of Merwins Lane and took a break waiting for my father and his girl friend.  But they weren't deterred.  We realized that the new route was a lot more hilly and it was slowing them down quite a bit.

I let Katie try one of my Peanut Butter Guu shots, non caffeinated of course and I noticed that she had a lot more energy leading up to the Food Stop.

We got to the Food Stop about 10 minutes ahead of my father and proceeded to chow down on Bananas, orange slices, cookies, drinks, and trail mix!  It was a smorgasbord of energy foods.

But he turned around and went back after Peggy.  She decided to wait at the turn off to the second loop thinking that the Food Stop was after it but it turned out that it was in the middle of the second loop.  So my father had to go back after her.

The Food Stop was at the old Westport Nike Base which I have always seen from the Merritt Parkway but never had the opportunity to stop in and check it out.  The missile silos are long filled and the buildings are used for an amateur astronomy group.  From there, it was 10 miles back to Sherwood Island.

Katie and got back to Sherwood and were able to get the tandem on the car and get our lunch before my father showed up.  The weather was spectacular and it couldn't have been a nicer weekend to spend some real quality time with my daughter.

Tandeming The New Milford River Trail

There is a new Greenway in the neighborhood and it's called the New Milford River Trail.  Well, sort of.  The first part of the New Milford River Trail runs through Sega Meadows Park and it's a little rough around the edges than your more typical rail trail type of Greenway.  It dumps out onto Rivewview Road which runs from Boardman's Bridge to Gaylordsville (a hamlet of New Milford).  

Upon entering the Sega Meadows Greenway portion at Boardman Bridge, be careful as there is a lot of poison ivy at the entrance.  I was a little nervous rolling through Sega Meadows on the Tandem with Katie because the slicks I have on the Burley Rock & Roll are old and probably should be replaced.  I was almost wishing for mountain bike tires but we made it through OK.

Riding along the Housatonic River was really nice and Katie and I want to do this again so we can linger along the river a bit more and explore some other areas.  I don't know if I would bring my younger kids on their bikes on this route because there are cars using this road.  Older kids would be no problem.  Hopefully, to the south the future route will be more conducive to families with kids on smaller bikes.

We stopped at the Gaylordsville Country Store for a cool drink and a snack.  Kind of an unassuming storefront but inside the place was a rich history of a Country Store that had been in business for decades.

Now this is the Burgerrittovile that I have been dreaming of!  The one in Newtown doesn't sell beer but this one does and it has a patio in the back.  Definitely need to come back here in the summer!

A little further down the road is this weird looking structure that kind of looks like layer cake.  According to local lore, it's a Spite structure.  It's called Jan Pol's Tower and it was built by local resident because he angry with state authorities for taking his foster daughter away from him after it was discovered that she was pregnant and the authorities assumed it was Jan.  In 2009, The Danbury Newstimes, did a story called:  Sad story behind cake-box structure in Gaylordsville.  But that recent news account pales in comparison to Lorraine Balint's recollection of the story of Jan Pol and the "Monument of Injustice."

We gawked at the 5 Layer Cake building and snapped a few pictures and then took off back to Boardman's Bridge.  It seemed the route back was a little more downhill than it was coming up.  I think the next time we ride this, we are going to start from the ball fields in the center of New Milford or maybe even Lovers Leap.  According to Tom O'Brien, the person who contacted me about this Greenway is working on connecting it from Gaylordsville to the 1/4 mile section of the Still River Greenway that starts on Silvermine Road in Brookfield.

Tandeming Around the Neighborhood

It's time to get ready for this year's Bloomin Metric so I dusted off the tandem and got it ready to roll. A few adjustments were needed like raising Katie's seat a good 4 inches from last year, putting on new grips (cannibalized from when I took the Qball into the geared world) and the front brake needed some adjustment.

Then we were off.  Holy crap, what happened to the weather?  It was 50 degrees and windy and seem to get colder and colder as we rode.

 

Down at the boat ramp the wind was coming right down the river valley making it feel twice as  cold.

 

But not cold enough to ham it up for the camera!

 

Sprummer has given way back to Sprinter!

Looking north up towards Bridgewater

 

Time to get back on the bike and head home to where it is warm!

 

 It was a great ride!  Great to be riding with Katie, again, too!

Tandeming to Heaven

After selling two bikes this morning and then running around in the midday heat doing errands by 4:30 it had just cooled off enough that was perfect for riding. I think I am part lizard because I like riding in the heat.  Anyway, I asked Katie, my daughter, if she wanted to check out the new Ice Cream Shop down in Sandy Hook called Heaven.  Of course she said yes and off we went.

Been awhile since we have ridden the tandem together.

She got the Mint Chocolate Chip

On the way home, it was all climbing

Random Tandem

After using Katie's camera for Saturday morning's ride I found a bunch of pictures she took of when we rode together on the Tandem back in April.  I think they are pretty good.  She has a good eye.

Fabian

Tweeting the Ride