June 8, 2017
Day 42: Sturbridge, MA to Marlborough, MA
Our ride today was warm and sunny - it felt great! We waited to leave Sturbridge until 10:30 so we wouldn't need to start out in our jackets. Our route was over some busier roads than we've been having, but none of them were bad.
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The first town we came to after Sturbridge was Southbridge. We saw a bike shop, so, of course, Kerry had to stop. The owner, Jon, was very friendly and interested in hearing about our trip. He and Kerry talked brakes for a while and he had some suggestions Kerry's going to check out.
A few miles past the bike shop, we came to a dreaded detour sign. We stopped a guy mowing his yard and asked about the road. He said it was underwater and impassable. He didn't seem very interested in giving us any more information, so we headed back to the detour. At the intersection where we needed to turn, a guy pulled up beside us who was much more helpful. He was a cyclist who had done a cross country trip in the past, so he understood what we needed. He described the detour to us and just where we would rejoin our route. It turned out to be a short detour that didn't add any mileage to our ride.
The prettiest part of today's ride was our short detour out to the Buffumville Lake Dam near Oxford. We had been getting some views of the lake from the road, then came upon a paved trail that went out on top of the dam. It was beautiful.
We did have one unhappy experience today. After seeing the dam and lake, we rode into Oxford and stopped at McDonald's for lunch. THEY HAD NO DIET COKE! There was a problem with their soda machine, so we had to have our burgers and nuggets with iced tea. Not the worst thing that's happened on this trip, but still... no Diet Coke is a BAD THING!
We got our fix about twelve miles later at a convenience store, so happiness was restored. We planned to make one last stop in Westborough before getting to our motel. As we came into town, we saw a corner full of tents with lots of people walking around. It turned out to be the town's weekly farmer's market. We had fun walking around there, talking with people and eating a delicious walnut brownie. (We had to go to a 7-11 a few blocks away for our DC fix.)
We're in our room now waiting for the laundry to finish before we go the Olive Garden for supper. Tomorrow we will go through Ayer, MA where Kerry was stationed at Ft. Devens in 1976. We're looking forward to a nostalgic ride through the area.
Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 1,792 miles (2,884 km)
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