Fredericksburg VA – FishKill NY
Sun Oct 7, 2018
(~ 442 miles)

We’d decided to enjoy a more scenic route and ride some NER BONE (Best of NorthEast) roads on the way home through PA and NJ, extending our journey by an extra day. So we awoke early – but not TOO early. Some of our friends had already departed to beat the traffic while others were having a nice sleep-in after the rally madness. We ate our breakfast buffet quietly in the hotel restaurant – not many folks around – and then packed up the bike to be on our way.
We rode east out of Fredericksburg on VA-3 to pick up US-301, which we followed across lower Maryland and the Delmarva peninsula for the remainder of the morning. Crossing the Potomac River, water and overcast sky blended in shades of steel grey.

301 is a mostly pleasant divided parkway alternative to the interstate system going through the DC/Baltimore areas. It seems to move fairly quickly on the weekend except a few areas where there are a lot of stoplights (and warnings of traffic cameras in use at each one).

Our first stop for the day was in Annapolis MD, to collect a photo of the Liberty Bell replica there for the Team Strange Melting Pot tour. I’d never been through this city, and was impressed with the historical architecture and brick-laid downtown streets.

The bell is displayed on the grounds of St. Johns College, on a relatively quiet shaded avenue near downtown. This time I didn’t forget to have the bike in the photo!

We rode through the northern area by the Naval Academy and crossed the Severn River on MD-450. Remembering that I also needed a receipt from Annapolis, we used the GPS to find a nearby station, that turned out being situated on the grounds of a naval support facility on the east side of the river. There was no checkpoint to enter, so we rode right up to put a trickle of gas in the tank to generate a receipt.  Too late I saw a sign stating fuel was for “Authorized IDs only”…oh well! Luckily, we were still within city limits and the receipt was valid.

We again picked up US-301 and continued across the peninsula to Sandy Point State Park, where the kindly young gatekeeper allowed us in for free, to get a quick photo of Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse, just offshore.

The northern section of 301 on the Delmarva was a nice ride through farmlands and woods, and we made good time up to US-40 in Glasgow, DE. We jogged west and stopped in at a Wawa to get some deli sandwiches for lunch. This was our first time in a Wawa and were impressed with the cleanliness, food options, and service, though we wished for some booths or tables where we would sit and eat. We ate sitting on a curb in the busy parking lot – we didn’t much care as we were still a bit groggy from lack of sleep over the past couple days and it had turned into a pretty warm/humid day. We were in “road mode”.

We crossed briefly back into Maryland, turned north in Elkton on SR-213, and hit PA-841 (a BONE road) at the border. This was a nice rural route in good condition, though slow traffic and lack of passing zones was still an issue. We picked up PA-82 (another BONE road) in West Marlborough, taking us several more miles north on scenic and curvy roadway.

We picked up our third BONE road, PA-345, in West Nantmeal. This was a really nice 13-mile stretch winding through several of the PA state gameland forests, up to Birdsboro. From here, I’d strung together some back roads in Basecamp, through Amity, Boyertown, Douglass, and Spring Mount.
Boyertown was one of the larger towns we passed through and seems to have adopted bears as the town mascot. As I have seen in several other towns across the country, there were statues of the animal, scattered throughout the downtown area, brightly painted in various hues and patterns to represent different qualities of the town or sponsoring businesses.

The humidity and lack of sleep was getting to us a bit and we needed a break. As we rode through Lower Frederick Township (aka middle of nowhere, PA), I spotted this little park, next to a creek, with an outhouse. Perfect!

We pulled in and strolled over to what turned out to be the picturesque Perkiomen Creek. I splashed water on my head and neck to cool down and we had a snack and a drink while walking around to stretch our legs, avoiding the heavy walnuts falling from the trees around us with disturbingly loud thuds (!).

I downed a 5-Hour for good measure to stave away the mid-afternoon sleepies and, feeling somewhat refreshed, we continued on. This series of back roads eventually led us over to pick up Allentown Road (BONE) in Towamencin Township, which led us on a northerly course paralleling I-476 to Coopersburg.

Another series of back roads, that I chose at random, zigzagged us east to make our crossing of the Delaware River into Frenchtown NJ. The most direct route, using Uhlerstown Hill Road turned out to be a dead end due to a one-way bridge over the Delaware Canal, so we had to detour a bit north to circle the state park and reach PA-32 along the river to our crossing.

We took NJ CR-513 out of Frenchtown in the late afternoon, the deer already out to graze on people’s front lawns, and reminding me that the best roads aren’t always best run after dark. The original plan had been to run this BONE road all the way through NJ, but our stops earlier in the day had put us too far behind schedule to make it to our planned dinner stop at Shannon’s Eyes on the Pie in West Milford NJ, before they closed. 🙁

We enjoyed the last light of the day in rural NJ on 513 for several miles while I did some GPS recalc on the fly. We finally abandoned our original course in Washington Township, and broke north to pick up US-206 to I-80.

As night fell, we finished out our day on the interstate system, up to our waiting hotel room in Fishkill (MUCH better than the stay in Towson, btw). Alas the only pie of which we partook was the pizza delivered from a local restaurant, always satisfying after a long riding day.

 

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FishKill NY – Southeast MA
Mon Oct 8, 2018
(~ 198 miles)

Rather than blast home in three hours, we decided to enjoy a bit more of the back roads journey and hit one more BONE road, CT-109 on the way back. Temperatures had dropped overnight and the weather looked to remain cool and overcast today – a nice change from yesterday’s stuffy conditions in the 80s.

We followed NY-52 east out of Fishkill and picked our way to the state border via Holmes and Patterson. We crossed into Connecticut to CT-37 near Pootatuck State Forest, but were turned back by road closed signs two miles up, without much signage to warn us.

We backtracked into NY and north on 22 to Quaker Hill Road, which proved a very nice little stretch of road with lots of color in the trees already showing. There is a stretch of about 1/2 mile unpaved just before the border, but it was very manageable.

CT-37 brought us over to New Milford, where we picked up the wonderfully smooth and curvy route 109 for the next 15 miles or so, enjoying more of the autumn colors and rural scenery. We were coming back into autumn now, as there had only been a hint of scattered foliage coloring when we departed a few days ago.

We stopped at a Dunkin in Thomaston to warm-up with hot coffee. We were having a blast and happy to be back in New England, agreeing that this morning’s ride had been better than yesterday’s riding – the curves, the colors, the cooler temps. Feeling warmed and rejuvenated, we rode on, taking CT-72 north to Route 4, avoiding what looked like a lot of congestion around the unfamiliar Bristol area.

We picked up I-84 in Farmington, through Hartford and broke off again on familiar back roads, CT-320 and US-44 east through Putnum and across Rhode Island to home. It had been another great trip, having visited a ton of interesting and out-of-the-way spots, laughed with good friends, and topped it off with what had been a very enjoyable final day’s ride across the Nutmeg State in the fall.