Local ride to Willimantic CT
Sat Nov 12, 2022
(~150 miles)

Following the clutch rebuild and reassembly of the bike, it was time to get out for a decent day’s ride after almost two months out of the saddle. However, I’d noticed that I had no horn during my after-work test ride, so on Friday I got to practice my ST cowl disassembly skills once again, on the right side of the bike. It was just a loose wire and quickly fixed, so I had the bike buttoned back up and ready to go by bedtime.

We had the remnants of tropical storm Nicole coming through overnight and early morning. The rain abated by around 10:00 and the sun showed up, quickly warming the day up to a nice 70 degrees for mid-November! Connecticut seemed like a good direction to head away from the weather, so I texted my buddy Gerry to see if he was up for an impromptu RTE. I threw together a quick route in Basecamp down through RI on secondary roads and we agreed to meet at the Willimantic Brewing Co. around 13:30.

Something in the back on my mind was nagging that I’d overfilled the bike just a bit with oil. As i was deathly afraid of having to remove that clutch cover again, I didn’t want to tempt fate by over-pressuring the engine (is that even a thing?). So I took a few minutes to drain a bit off into a pan before departing, making me a bit late getting out the door. I was intent on staying off the interstate today and stuck to my route, following a familiar series of local roads down through central Rhode Island. The motorcycle seemed to functioning and shifting just fine, and it felt great to be out again!

I bypassed my intended circuit of the Scituate Reservoir to save time and cut west towards Moosup CT via Snake Meadow Hill Rd. From there I just stuck on CT 14 all the way into Willimantic.

I’d been through or by this town on a few occasions, having never stopped for anything more than a photo or two of the famous “Frog Bridge” (maybe once during a Minuteman rally…?). The history of the Battle of the Frogs is an amusing vignette and worth skimming through. It also helps explain why the town seems to have adopted the frog as an unofficial mascot.

I’d heard the brewery served up good food, and was happy to finally scope out the place. Gerry was waiting for me in the lot, as I was running 15 minutes late, and we chatted before heading in. The restaurant is in a cool historic post office building on Main Street, and they have a nice outdoor seating area on a front patio.

The interior was a colorful and eclectic jumble of brightly painted wall/ceiling art (including lily pads), local artworks, and portions of the historic post office decor still showing through here and there. And frog motifs, of course, displayed everywhere, along with miscellaneous little statuettes and leftover Halloween decorations.

The place was hopping, but not full, so we were quickly shown to an available outside table as we wanted to enjoy the nice weather as much as possible.

I decided to sample their hamburgers while I think Gerry went for a grilled cheese. We enjoyed the sun and feeling of being out and about on a gorgeous fall day, catching up on work and life. The food arrived quickly and was quite tasty, my burger cooked nice and rare as requested.

The older architecture and antique-looking signage along Main Street set a nice mood to gaze around as we ate, and I snapped a few shots after we finished up.

We said our farewells back at the bikes and set off on our respective homeward paths by 15:00. I followed US 6 northeast a couple of miles to CT 198 north. Just after crossing the Natchaug River, I pulled a uey to investigate a small park area called Diana’s Pool.

 

 

There were several cars in the small gravel lot, but no people in sight, so I figured they’d all hiked back in the woods along the river to fish or something. I moseyed down to the river to check out the rushing cascades of the Natchaug, which runs prettily over and through the hard granite ledge outcroppings of this mini-gorge. It was a nice little stop to allow lunch to settle while I strolled aboutg and took in the scenic beauty of the riverlands.

I continued north on 198, enjoying the light traffic and smooth curves up through Eastford, then looped north of the Putnam area, through South Woodstock and Thompson. The West Thompson dam affords a nice afternoon view over that reservoir, and then I crossed into Rhode Island via Buck Hill Road, scarpering quickly over my preferred series of local roads back across to Massachusetts.

I arrived home by 17:00, very satisfied with the easy pace, food, company, and scenery of today’s ride. The new clutch appeared to be functioning just fine, and there was still no evidence of any leakage from the gasket on the garage floor. I finally started allowing myself to believe that the cover was sealed well, so I would not have to tear everything apart again any time soon! Time to crack open one of Willimantic Brewing’s Lost Artifact IPAs from the four-pack I’d taken to go.