Got up early today as we planned to do a 40+ mile day. Left the campground by 7:00. Made a quick stop to Dippin’ Donuts for breakfast sandwiches that was inside a local convenience store. Sorry, Dunkins, I know you are a New England staple, but their food was better than yours, hands down. Headed out through Harvard, Mass, making a stop at the Harvard General Store, which was a popular stop and hang-out for bikers. They were set up with bike racks, water, bike tools and a pump for 2-wheeled travelers. Because it was Saturday, we encountered lots of groups of bicyclists today, all along our route. Always friendly and quick to ask if you need any help when you stop to rest.
Harvard, Bolton and Berlin provided some challenging hills. I was glad they were during the first part of the day. We walked up the last big crazy hill in Berlin (Sawyer Hill Road), but it have us a chance to admire the scenery and snap a few shots of the horses at the Orchard Hill Equestrian Center. Lots of beautiful homes and estates, all bordered with old rock walls. Stopped outside of Northborough to snap a picture of a beautiful rock bridge. This area is so typically New England.
Crossed Route 9 in Westborough and, as luck would have it, there was a Stop and Shop to refill our supplies. We don’t carry much food with us because of the weight (power bars, breakfast bars, nuts, beef jerky).
From there, we headed into Upton. Ate lunch at “Rose Garden Restaurant and Pub”. It was a quiet afternoon in the restaurant except for the waitress that entertained us with a constant stream of expletives with every story she told to the folks at the bar. When she heard our story, she told everyone in the bar about our trip, and we had a great time answering questions for a good half hour. The staff was more than helpful, trying to offer us bottles of water and bags of peanuts from the bar. We declined their kind offers as we had just restocked and didn’t want to carry any more weight. The owner followed us out to the parking lot because he wanted to see our bike and setup. He called us “crazy”, said I was a “Saint”, and wished us good travels. On the way out of town, we passed by the local VFW carnival that was just opening for the day.
Several miles, and a several hills later, we arrived at our campground, Sutton Falls Camping Area, where we checked in the for the night (I will be missing my cozy cabin as it’s a bit chilly here).
Mark did a rough tally and thinks we have biked around 185 miles total so far. We think we have 400 miles to go.
