One of the reasons I love Rhode Island

Monday Doug and I took the bikes out for a short run the road cruise. He met me at my house and since we only had a few hours to play we kept the ride short. We headed out on Packer Road in Old Mystic onto 184 and headed west to Center Groton where we picked up 117 towards Ledyard. Having been left out of the "Every twisting road" ride through New York, PA, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana and return trip", I decided to find a few twists around here. Ha...Nothing. But we took Lambtown road across Colonel Ledyard Highway and Pumpkin Hill to Wendell Comrie road, then Gallup Hill rd to Shewville rd, to Wolfneck road and onto Lantern Hill. We took 2 east to Wintechog Hill road. Then 627 across 2 through North Stonington and onto Wyassup Lake road. A quick turn right brought us onto Chester Main rd, up the hill through the Vineyard (I didn't know there was a large
vineyard in the area (Doug)). Over the crest down to Hangman Hill road and onto Grindstone Hill road. A blast across 49 onto Puttker hill rd and down Dennison Hill road to Clarks Falls. 

Time for the pavement test: We hooked a left onto East Clarks falls road into the Great State of Rhode Island. We arrived in Hopkinton and blasted across route 3 onto Woodville road. The pavement in Rhode Island in this area was akin to cobblestones. The pavement isn't so much cracked as shattered. The road is made up of millions of individual roughly 8 inch blocks of tar, 

This is not a section of the road but the complete length from Hopkinton to Woodville is like this, of course there are the occasional potholes to give you a break from the vibration with the oft surprising crash of metal smashing metal as the suspension 
stretches and compresses.

This took us to Switch road with Doug now leading, and he decided what we needed was a little dirt on the bikes so he turned into the Carolina Management area and a run up the hills and around the corners throwing sand, gravel, and dust to visit an old trout pond of his. 

With the time running out we decided it was time to head home so Doug took us up Switch road to route 3 into Hope Valley where we picked up 138 over to 112. The road improved some but while there were no cracks in the pavement there were snakes. I can say that the snake quantity is higher on the shoulder side of the lane rather than the centerline side. Doug ran down and turned left onto Old Shannock road where this fact was still true but only marginally. This entire road has been recently snaked. So much so that on a warm day there is more running on slippery snakes than on actual pavement.

Someone should tell the Rhode Island DEP that at some point you have to add blacktop so there is something attached to something. As we passed under the railroad bridge onto the right uphill sweeper Doug found himself sliding across the entire road before he found grip.

We reached Route 2, hooked a right, then another right onto Sand Plains road back to Old Shannock, this allowed up to make a full loop and gave us another run on the snakes. We turned right onto 112 then a left onto 91 into Bradford where we grabbed 216 south down to route 1 and then west to Westerly where we pulled in at Dougs.

My return trip from there was pretty straight forward, route 1 into Connecticut, 234 to Old Mystic and 27 to the Diner for a large Iced Tea.

One of the reasons I love Rhode Island? The smallest State in the Union and yet there are miles and miles of roads that lead through forests. The entire middle to northern section of the State is still pretty desolate. Off course if the State could dig up some money and fix the roads, that would be a plus. but please, leave the dirt roads dirt, I love those roads which run all over the center of the state that allow you to throw stones, put up rooster tails and leave a dust trail behind you. (Right Danny?)

Check out a short Youtube clip taken with Dougs Cell phone.
https://youtu.be/zKqO2vE0E1Y