Road I Land

Stole that one from Ge. So we get on to 118, which is pretty quiet. Crossed over 44 and kept going. At this point, I still know exactly where I am, and I know that if we stay on 118 we'll come out at Bikeworks, which is on a very congested and crappy (for riding) section of US 6. I also know that in order to reach the ocean, we'll have to cross both 6 and I-195. Once we do that, we're in uncharted territory, but since the ocean is pretty big, I'm confident we'll be able to find it.

Somewhere in Rehoboth, 118 takes a turn left, and we decide to go right. Good choice. Rehoboth has miles and miles of old farm roads with little traffic, but unlike some places, none of these ever seem to dead end (or turn to dirt like in NH). We follow this a few miles and low and behold, it crosses 195, but the overpass has no on or off ramps, so it's serene and safe. This takes us out to Old Fall River Road. Even I can figure out the Route 6 is the new Fall River road, and sure enough before long we come out to it, and again the gods smile at us because it's a pretty quiet section and we easily cross over onto another country road. This doesn't last too long though, and we come to what turns out to be Route 136, and after a mile or two KL does the surprise jump and outsprints me for the entering Rhode Island sign. Not only that, it's Warren, which my memory tells me is the home of The Market at Cutler Mills which I think (can never tell for sure with Ge's ramblings) is part-owned by Ge's brother. And we're almost out of water! The only problem is, I don't know where it is, and I don't know that it's called that either, I just know it's here somewhere. So we ride along, the area is commercial but the shoulder is wide, and we come to a fork that says "Warren Historic District" this way, and we go. Next thing I know, we are crossing Ge's infamous bike path. I know the store must be around here somewhere, but it's a busy little square with lots of shops and pedestrians, and I can only look around so much and still make sure we don't get doored.

We don't find the store, but the road rides out of town and becomes a tree-lined boulevard with a wide shoulder. And we can now smell the sea. A few miles down we come to Colt Park, which I think Murat has written about. We turn in there, and before long it's a beach on the bay, cool breezes blowing. Very nice park. We rode around the whole thing and then out the back way out along some harbor on a road that did dead end at a gated community out on the point. Oh well. We turned around an found our way back out, then cut across and ended up back on 136 heading north. It led back to Warren but by then we were totally parched and out of supplies so I went in to the local Apu-Mart. KL uncharacteristically had $6 and I had $5, but somehow I made some poor choices, and combined with ripoff pricing managed to spend all but six cents. That's all well and good but we're only three hours into a planned six hour ride and it's 95 degrees out and I just drank half the Gatorade I bought. And it wasn't even real Gatorade, it was the X-Factor or Fierce crap which is all the convenience stores seem to carry anymore. Now even regular Gatorade has been sweetened to the taste of the new generation over the years, but this X and Fierce crap is like melted popsicles. Way too sweet. Of course now they've come out with Endurance Formula Gatorade, which I think is just the same thing as the original salty Gatorade from thirty years ago, but no stores stock it.

So yeah, in Warren RI, $10.94 only buys you three quarts of Gatorade, a small bottle of water, a pack of peanut butter crackers, a granola bar, and of course some Hostess powdered donuts. At least we've got a tailwind. We retraced our steps until we got back across 195 and then took a different road through Rehoboth. Found a deserted golf course I'd like to try someday. We go back through the hometown of Curley (Paul, not the coach) and on to Norton, and now it's over four hours into it and it's not 100 degrees yet so I suggest we do our first effort. Up Route 140 we go, 12 minutes in zone four, just 37 kph average but it's pretty good. We're still 25k from home so we scrounge around Wheaton College and the local little league field looking for a fountain, but there is nothing. I empty the seatbag and I've got $1.38 in change. That might buy a gallon of water. We backtrack to the convenient store, and a jug of Monadnock Springs is $1.49. DOhhh!. Check the little penny tray on the counter, nope, only two lonely pennies in there. OK bro, how about letting a brother in need slide for eleven little ones? Sure dude, get the eff out of here. Thank you sir! Filled the bottles, rolled out, did one more nice effort, this one just six minutes, but 41kph and uphill at that. Ended the day at 148k, five hours and change, short of plan, but at least now I know how to go get to the beach in RI to ride with the East Bay mafiosos. Thanks for reading, pictures later in the week.