Day 2…Enfield, CT to Amenia, NY

Today was a long and trying day. I woke up and Kathryn made me a delicious egg sandwhich. I then left Enfield the house by 8:30.

I was cruising along in Windsor Locks, CT right near Bradley airport, and all of the sudden something snapped and I lost control of the back wheel of my bike. Luckily I have quick reflexes and regained control. I was going around 20 mph at the time. Turns out my pannier (saddle bag) buckle snapped off. Attached is a photo of the damage.

I lost about 20 minutes, but continued on. I decided to follow my gps directions as opposed to my map directions, as there were about 5 less miles. Bad idea, and I learned it the hard way.

I stopped in Canton, CT for lunch at mcdonalds. There were a ton of hills to get there, and I had only biked 23 of my 70 miles. All of the sudden, there was a thunderstorm. I waited it out there with another cyclist for about 30 mins.

I continued on 202 west in CT. Wayyy too many hills, my legs ached and burned. Another thunderstorm came along, so I tried to hitchike to get out of it, but that didn’t work. I ended up hiding in the woods with my bike. The trip took forever. I ended up with a huge climb with 13 miles left. I had to walk the bike up the 11′ grade hill. This was after I went through that lovely covered bridge in West Cornwall.

The end of the day was pretty awesome. I went through Goshen and Sharon, CT…both really beautiful places. I saw sunset over the pond in preserved Audoban land. In those same woods I saw beavers, rabbits, and tons of birds.

When I entered NY, a small deer ran up next to me. I have a picture on my regular camera.

I arrived in Amenia, NY at 8:30 pm…12 hours after I left. My hosts are fantastic, very accomodating and giving. Thank you so much Ken and Laurie! I’m so glad the lions club set this stop up!

My few thoughts of the day are:
This trip is like the video game Oregon trail. When it was raining, all I could think about was “rain…lose 5 days.”

If someone builds a time machine, I can become a millionaire. I would pick up all the fur from dead animals on the side of the road and sell them to the french pre-America.

Glasses are really neccessary for the highway. So much rock and debris gets kicked up. Not to mention how many bugs I’ve flown into.

It is a tie today for random items I almost hit. There was a fully sippy cup of god knows what. There was also a circuit breaker box (you know, the huge metal box) in the road a ways up. Maybe baby electrical engineers are to blame?

Mileage today: 70
Mileage so far: 160