Worcester
By Gary Gilbert
Monday, August 22, 2005
August 21, 2005
Today is the big day - the first day of the ride. Breakfast was scheduled for 6:30AM and the truck was to be loaded at 7:00AM. The restaurant couldn't get their act together despite the fact that it had been planned and confirmed the previous evening.
We got on the road by 7:30 and started out in to fog, mist, and drizzle. It rained slightly up until 11:30AM and then turned into a partially cloudy and hot day. We had hills and humidity and heat - eventually hitting 90 degrees. Tomorrow is supposedly going to be cooler. I rode the day with Frank Chavez. Frank is a strong rider and gratiously went my pace. He says we're both type A personalities and also like to stop and sight see along the way so we're compatible.
We left Portsmouth and quickly got onto some county roads. Rides from less populated areas thought it was congested, but I though it was great and not very crowded. Our crossing from New Hampshire to Massachussets was uneventfull. There was no sign marking the border so I declared the event at the point where that happened when the pavement changed color.
Curious about a sign announcing the American Stonehenge, I stopped in to check it out. Entrance to this private spot went right though the gift shop and admission was $8. There were several other cyclists who read the brochures and we all declined to investigate further. A bit of research on the internet discovers that there are many such sites in the US.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/OVERhenges.html
This particular one was originally called Mystery Hill and has been in business since 1957. Of course this one has its own website http://www.stonehengeusa.com/
I read a bit more here
http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/2004/legends34_08012004.shtml
We passed by a small country cemetery , the Hall's Bridge Cemetery, with some old headstones dating from the early 1800s. Interesting place, the deceased most likely were born English and died Americans. Here I am, looking at the headstone of someone who died in their late 80s in 1809. About 2 and a half such lifetimes later, riding a bike past the spot where he lived and survived in a time of great change. My historical reflections lasted about 4 miles, until I rode past a huge Target store. Somehow, that diminshed the experience.
After reviewing the headstones, Frank and I took a break, sitting on the stone fences common to the area. Recollecting the movie Shawshank Redemption, Frank was considering looking for a lost map and currency among the stones.
We made our way through a variety of Massachusetts towns. Marsh Corner, Salem, Lowell, Acton, Stow, Hudson, Berlin, Boylston, Shrewsbury, and finally to Worcester. Lowell looks like a town worth re-visiting. The center of cotton mills, we stopped at the Boott Cotton Mills in Lowell, now a US Park Service historical site. At the time the mills were working mills, there were young girls, called Mill Girls, who came from the farm communities to work long gruelling hours for low pay. They left the difficult farm life to toil in the city. The first womens textile unions protested the terrible working conditions.
Many of the old mills are now being converted to condos.
Many of the roads were wooded. We stopped near this woods to take a break from the heat.
It was a long day, 92 miles. I averaged a respectable 12.6 mph, considering the heat, hills, and the number of turns. The cue sheet was 2 full pages with 2 columns on each page. I arrived just in time 5PM to hear about tomorrows ride at the daily RAP. I stayed well hydrated avoiding the leg cramps experienced by some of the other cyclists.
