Castle Ride

Thursday I did a ride that I look forward to every year.  It is hosted by my friend Joan and goes from her house in Southbridge, MA across the state line into Woodstock, CT.

The first year that I did it, I rode Rob's road bike.  The bike was too big for me.  I had to use platform pedals.  I couldn't figure out how to shift.  And worst of all, I could barely get up those rolling hills.  It was so bad, I had to stop at the top of each hill to catch my breath and get a drink. 

The next two years, I had my own road bike and I was able to huff and puff up each hill without the need to stop for anything.  Cut to this year, when I was able to rock the hills while holding pleasant conversation with Joan and take pictures on the fly.  Both of us were commenting how easy this route seems now compared to when we started riding it together.  Awesome.

So why is it called the Castle Ride?  Because it goes by a castle, of course.  Duh.  Now we all know that there are all sorts of historic buildings and old money to be found all over New England.  But this is not old or historic.  This is some guy with too much money who decided to build a castle.  It's still under construction. It's impressive.  And creepy.  Read about it here.

There are exotic animals roaming the castle grounds.  We looked for but did not see any zebras.  We did see some peacocks, which yelled at us as we rode by.  We also saw some super friendly goats, which tried to come through the fence at us.  We split before they were free!  We did not see any exotic women, in case you are wondering.

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Stats:
12.11 miles
12.1 average MPH
29.7 max speed
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Patons are planning some major pedalling this week...stay tuned!

~Cori