Day 5, 27 miles, Monday, October 15, 2012

Southeastern CT Foliage Tour 2012
Groton, Mystic, Stonington, North Stonington

Up 6:30, 56F, great temperature to start today’s 27 mile ride. The forecast was for an overcast morning with showers and thunderstorms in late afternoon and evening. Therefore, my plan was to try to complete the ride by 1:00 p.m. At about 8:00 a.m., I got a phone call from Joe Berardy, a friend I met recently at the fund-raising event for the Preston to Bluff Point hiking/biking trail. He joined me at the ride start at the Groton School Board building on Flanders Road. On the road at 9:00 a.m. Our route was down River Road, downtown Mystic, Route 1, Stonington Borough to Stonington Point, north to Route 2 and North Stonington, and back to the School Board building.

We made many stops at various points of interest along the way. Joe showed me things I didn’t know about that were really neat: a public walking path behind the luxury condos in the Borough and the elevated foot bridge over the high-speed railroad tracks. We lingered at these and others. Joe added a lot of interest and awareness to a route that I usually speed through. He was concerned about a prior tennis playing commitment at 4:00 p.m., so cut his ride short. I continued up to North Stonington and twice felt some raindrops. I also raced back to my car. As it turned out, we didn’t get any rain until late evening.

All said, this fifth and last day of my 2012 cycling adventure was a fun time, 27 miles. I got home about 1:30 p.m. kind of worn out.

(Click on the images below for a larger view of each photo.)

Taugwonk Road	Atlantic Giant in Middle	Taugwonk Road
Downtown Mystic	Nice place to visit	Mystic River
This animal likes me	Dummies fish here!	Joe Berardy rode with me today
Hope Springs filmed here	Hope Springs filmed here	Main Street, Stonington Borough
Borough Marina	Skipper’s Dock Restaurant (Hope Springs filmed here, too)	Rough day for dragging
Breakwater calms the ocean	Three persistent fishermen	Cannon Square in Stonington Borough
Elevated foot bridge	High speed rail	Elevated foot bridge
Defenders Monument