It’s the little things that count. Mostly I’m talking about kindness. I have been blogging about our ride the past 8 days but haven’t mentioned how nice the people have been that we have encountered. Everyone we talk to has taken a real interest in what we are doing and all have wished us safe travels. Two days ago another cyclist offered to buy us lunch. Today put an exclamation point on that. Our highlight of the day was when we stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get Ron’s staple food (a donut of course). As we were sitting there we noticed a couple of gentlemen looking at our bikes very curiously and then came in and started asking us about our travels. It was great to talk with them and tell them about our experience. When we were leaving I went and grabbed 3 large bottles of water and 2 Gatorades and one of the men ( I’m sorry I forgot your names) said he was going to buy them for us. When I said that was not necessary he said he insisted and told me to remember that the people from Plainville, CT are good friendly people. I certainly must agree. We will definitely pay it forward and thank you men from Plainville! Stopped for lunch at a small pizza joint in Hamden, CT and the man behind the counter chatted us up while we ate. When we left there I grabbed a soda from the cooler and went to pay for it and he said “you are all paid up, have a safe ride”. If you are reading this do something kind for your fellow human, it will make both of you feel good.

Our ride today was pretty much a 180 from yesterday. We had trails for most of the ride with gentle rolling hills. We made it to our end point in good time. The only hairy part and it was the worst part of our trip so far was Simsbury road out of Hartford. It was a long uphill climb with tons of traffic speeding by at stupid speeds and no bike lane to speak of. We knew it was to dangerous to even attempt to ride it so we walked with our bodies between the bike and guardrail. Even that was scary! I stopped to take a photo of the traffic and when I stepped over the guardrail the earth below my foot gave way and the rest of my body went flying over the guardrail. I landed hard but in grass and was not injured. On a positive note Tina’s riding skills are improving as she did not fall today. We arrived so early today that we were able to take a Lyft to a laundromat and get our stinky clothes washed, and when I say stinky I mean stinky! We are using all kinds of cool technology as we ordered dinner from DoorDash and they delivered Chipotle to our AIRBNB. Tomorrow we head along the coast to Stamford, CT. Looking forward to it…