Four Corners Ride report

The Plan:
The night before I wrote out the route in handy short lines, a Tom taught GPS, a length of paper in your pocket that lists all the turns and where,
sample: 156w to 95s to 1w
1w to 154n Old say
154 to Bokum to 80
Since the route was west through New Haven to Norwalk, then north up the west side of the state, then east across the top to Quinebaug and south again using no highways unless necessary (95 across the Connecticut River) it was a tad long list, three pages of it.

Execution of the ride:
I awoke at 7:30am, over sleeping two hours is not the way you want to start the day with a 8:30am A.O.B.that you are leading. Letting the cat in and seeing your bike glistening in ice is the second warning of a miserable day. As I closed the door I received a text from Vinny Pons, he reported "32 degrees and no Gerbing in New Haven. do we want to postpone?" I put him on standby and called Dan and Reuben, (could not get a hold of Mister Young Junior). Reuben said he was heading out the door it was up to us. Danny agreed to postpone, Sandwich came back with a two mile down the road ice cream headache report. Four Corners Ride postponed till another day.

New ride discussed, first destination was Bidwells but this was quickly squashed. I sent a text to Vinny to see what was out his way, He suggested the new Tilted Kilt in Milford. I turned down the franchise store and requested Italian or German. Vinny suggested either Modern Pizza or Reins Deli. We made the new A.O.B. 10am at Montville with a meet in Haddam.

The New Ride:
Reuben arrived at my house around 8:15 or so, I took a towel soaked it in hot water and laid it over the seat and windshield of Charlene to remove the ice. We threw in a VCR tape (yes, some people still have them), of the 2001 Luxembourg Formula One Grand Prix, made some coffee and waited. At 9:20 we headed out on 184, I made a stop in Center Groton for cash, Sandwich made a stop in Montville for fuel. We met Danny at Dunkin, checked out his new ride then headed out.

We took Raymond Hill to 163, then 82 to 354. We hooked onto Rattlesnake Ledge, then crossed 85 to Witch Meadow,
A left on Haywardville, Millington road took us over Mount Parnassus and down to route 82 in East Haddam. The normal whipping through the corners down into town worked great until we hit the last corner. The swing bridge over the Connecticut was open and traffic was backed up, a healthy application of the binders brought us all to a safe stop. As we sat there waiting, a woman got out of the vehicle behind and gave us tootsie pops, she was impressed that we were riding in the cold and figured we deserved a prize. Once traffic started flowing we crossed the river and stopped at Dunkin and had coffees while we waited for Vinny to arrive.

Vinny and a prospect rolled in on their Street Glides and parked. The new destination flipped back and forth between Rein's and Bart's Smokehouse now, Neither Danny Vinny or the prospect had been there before so we added it to the list. After much debate I told Vinny to lead, while I can find Rein's and Bart's coming in from the east or down from the north, I didn't know a route there without using the highway. Vinny lead the ride to Rein's because he had taken us there once before from Haddam. We pulled out and headed back across the river where we picked up route 149 to 151 along the river north to Cobalt. We crossed 66 onto Depot Hill road, then Gadpouch rd. We turned onto Great Pond road crossing under Great Hill Pond and arrived at Penfield Hill road. At this point Vinny stopped and consulted his GPS. Vinny's prospect suggested that Vinny was not the best to follow...anywhere, if you don't want to get lost. Vinny did OK in my book, a left on Penfield, a right on Middle Haddam which took us to 66 then 17 north, the Glastonbury Turnpike, which amazingly enough took us to route 2 in Glastonbury. Vinny picked up 84 east to 384 and got us off the highway at Mckees street in Manchester. By this time I knew where I was and could take them to either Rein's or Bart's, Vinny let me lead and we continued straight to Main street (route 83). If we had continued straight up 83 to 30 we would have been at Rein's, We all would have rather had BBQ, but I told Vinny Rein's was closer and would rather stop there, Vinny suggested stopping at a Dunkin instead. We pulled into Dunkin on Oakland street in Manchester for a quick non purchasing stop, I believe Danny not wanting to wait used the Womans room.

Leaving Dunkin we were all again willing to stay on the bikes so straight up 83 to route 30, Rein's was about two miles away on the right, we hooked a left and took 30 across to 194, past Hot Leathers, to route 5, 5 north took us to route 510, Main Street. On the straightaway on route 5, I determined that the Ultra Limited was no match for the Stratoliner off the line, Danny was gone, it wasn't until he hit the sound barrier that he came off the throttle. Left onto 140, left onto 159 and about six miles later we were pulling into Bart's Smokehouse. The food was a hit with everyone and we spent about an hour or so there. They have added a new sauce, Habanero/Ghost Pepper, it has a bite.

After eating Vinny and the prospect picked up 91 south towards home, Sandwich, Danny and myself took 140 east, a quick fuel stop for the metrics in Warehouse Point then we decided to get off the bikes and take the Interurban to Willimantic. We parked the bikes, I picked up the tickets and we boarded our ride.

About a mile and a half down the line we asked what time the car would arrive in Willimantic, the Conductor looked at his watch and said 5:30pm. This is a weird transit service, not only does the line not go to Willimantic, but the Conductor did a pole dance. Granted it wasn't much of a show, he was 71 years old.

Back on the bikes we ran 140 to Stafford, which was closed due to a Halloween parade. Looping around that we took 32 south to Willimantic for a final stop at Dunkin. From there it was 32 to 66 to 14, In Scotland we grabbed 97 down through Baltic and Taftville into Norwich.In Norwich we took the 8th street bridge across the Shetucket, Smith street to 165, Quarto to long Society to Brickyard road.

At the end of brickyard Sandwich broke off on route 2 and home, Danny and I crossed 2, and ran down Schoolhouse to 2A. He hooked a right, I hooked left to 117, I cranked open the throttle following a car which was moving right along. As we approached Spicer hill road he jacked up the brakes, I applied mine, A deer broke across in front of him, as I watched it clear the car, three more galloped by between me and the car. The rest of the ride home was uneventful.
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I am happy to report that Mister John Mason, excuse me, Colonel John Mason is standing proud in the green at Windsor. Mr. Mason was the gentleman who ran the raid against the Pequot Indians (they were Indians back then, they were Indians for the next 200 years, I see no reason to change it now), (even spell check corrects the word to be capitalized, so it must be right). He,with his men and the Narragansett Indians circled the Pequot fort, which was a wooded walled in circle with one entrance, they set the fort ablaze and shot the tribe as it ran out the door. It wasn't very sportsman like but it got the job done, and he became a hero. The town built a statue to him and it was placed on, heh heh, Pequot Avenue, (named after the area of the fort). The statue was there for years, and years, and years. Then...the Mashantuckets built a casino, they had money, they bought the state. At first they complained about the statue, then they changed their song, they built an Indian Museum, and "wanted the statue for the museum". Most people in the area figured the statue would either disappear off the face of the earth, or the story would be changed with a twist on how the peaceful tribe was brutally massacred. The town of Windsor requested the statue because Colonel Mason Founded Windsor. So there he stands, proud and true. As for myself at the time, I thought they should have kept it in Mystic, just modify it a bit You see, the Pequot tribe was not indigenous to the area, they moved in and took over, attacking the local tribes and the settlers. That is why the Narragansett fought them with us. My plan was fix the statue to have Colonel Mason standing with his arm around a Narragansett Indian and have them both doing a sort of Captain Morgan using a dead Pequot as a foot rest.