Do you know the old, old saying, "Go west, young man."? I'm no longer quite so young, and even before that, I was a bit contrarian, so I mostly headed south, to the land of my, hey, youth! While the days surrounding Thanksgiving are the busiest for travel, on the actual Eve of Black Friday, the roads are notably mellow as I suppose most opt for the busy travel day options, and *almost* none of the stores that coax the motoring consumer are open. Thanksgiving was a nice day to ride.
And that *almost* bit does have a few exceptions, like the Cabela's store in East Hartford which happens to match the $25 gift card I found on the side of the road a couple years ago. I did mention that things find me, right? I surely didn't want to go to a mega store on Friday, so I was happy to shop in quiet for the pair of binoculars I used to successfully deplete the gift card by just over half. Also, I was pleased that the sales clerk confirmed my guess: working Thanksgiving pays time and a half!
On today's romp up Long Mountain, I was able to confirm, this bump on the horizon is Mount Adams, complete with memorial tower, although I also confirmed that photographing through binoculars is not quite as crisp as viewing.
(11/27 edit: On recounting this to a friend, he was perplexed by "Adams" until I remembered the correct name is Mount Greylock, which is *in* Adams. More fun with TBI!)
While Connecticut is the land of my youth, I've primarily spent the last few years since 2017 in Massachusetts, and time, plus a substantial bump in the head, makes navigating a good test of how the connections in my head for making connections on the street are working. They are! And I even passed East Hartford's extra credit problem by walking around the barrier and across an I-beam of a replacement-bridge-to-be.
I made it! And in this case, it was a friends and family feast with Paul and Sheila and the wonderful gaggle of friends and family they've amassed over the years. This is truly a special gathering that never leaves me hungry for food, nor excellent conversations. Plus, with sampling one piece of pie of each type, I was well fueled for the return ride on Friday.
I was also well accompanied for at least half my distance to the Massachusetts border, by Sir (I knight him) Peter Waite and my Pa. And while there were certainly noticeably more cars on the road than the day prior, it seems they also noticed me well enough and I finished the ride home intact and before darkness. I was a good round trip, with my now slightly rounder belly!
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