We had the most glorious weather this weekend! Cooler and dry. It was a perfect weekend for biking 😀
We decided to head on down to Saratoga for our long ride on Saturday. This was all road riding. John wanted to have lunch down there, so we left around mid morning. We took the newly paved bike lane on 197. We had been kind of avoiding that because of the poor condition and now it is nicely done. However, I kept hearing a squeaking noise coming from John’s bike.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
It was rhythmic with his pedaling. I decided that was going to drive me nuts hearing that for 50 miles, so we pulled over after about 4 miles for him to mess with the pedal.
The newly paved part is back there where the truck is. This little meadow was full of butterflies. You can’t see them in this shot, but they were floating all over.
John lubed up his pedal arm and we were good to go. No more noise! Next stop was around mile 12. It looks like we are in the middle of nowhere, but we are actually right next to the main route 9 going south, just on a side road. Also newly paved.
We thought we saw a dog in the driveway of the house across the street, but turns out it was a goat!
He was just hanging around in the driveway.
We had snacks here.
It was bright and sunny today. Not too hot, though, which was really nice. Next stop was near the Wilton Mall. This was 20 miles in. I actually really hate biking near here because the traffic is icky. We locked the bikes to a fence.
John wanted Hattie’s Chicken Shack.
Now, if you have been reading, you know I have been poultried out this week. So, I decided if I was going to eat at Hattie’s, I was going for what Hattie’s is known for. What Hattie’s won a Bobby Flay Throwdown with. The fried chicken.
I haven’t had fried chicken in years. Many years. Let me tell you – this is probably the best I have ever had. I ended up not eating the bun and just eating the chicken out of it (it had coleslaw on it, southern style). It was juicy, not greasy and so good! Yummy! We walked around a bit to let lunch settle. We stopped at a couple stores –
And then here:
I pointed out various things that I wanted and John remarked that he could just do 1 store and be done shopping for me for Christmas. Smart man I married, I tell you.
We decided to head to downtown Saratoga and John noted his front tire was flat. Sigh… While he was changing the tube, I filled up the old one with air to see where the leak was and it held air. I am thinking what might have happened is that my bike was leaning on the pressure valve and let the air out of his tire. We need to test the tube later and see. It would be nice to save $5 if it was still good. Anyway, we got back on the road to our next stop on the tour of Living in the 10%, which was at The Bread Basket. This was at mile 24. I love how the front door looks like a hobbit house.
They had some cute cupcakes there:
However, we went with a more adult taste. John’s carrot cake cupcake and my German chocolate.
They look smaller in the picture than they seemed in real life. My cupcake with chocolate so dark light cannot escape its surface.
I forget the the cupcakes at Bread Basket are gut bombs. Very, very rich. There is a 4th dimension and it is cupcake vision.
John says “do I have to eat the whole thing?”
I was uber full at this point. We walked across to Congress Park to let the cupcakes settle.
This is the Triton pool with “Spit” and “Spat”
Carved from Carrara marble. Kind of wanted to take a dip in that pool, too.
Time to head home. We took what has become my favorite way home via West River Road. This adds some miles onto the way back, but it’s all good, right? I like this way because it goes through a lot of different scenery like shade, farms, open road, along the river. There is a good mix of hills, too. Luckily the first part leaving Saratoga is fairly flat. I kept telling my cupcake to stay down!
Here we had just come out of a wooded area that was nice and shady. John was adjusting his brakes. This was around mile 32 or so? Here is a cool barn:
We are around 40 miles here. We took a breather, but didn’t need any snacks. I was totally fueled on cupcakes 😀 You can see forever from here.
This is almost at the top of the biggest hill climbs for the way home, so it’s nice to get here and know that you are close to being done with the climbing.
Along the river, we spotted several birds. One was a heron and the other was this egret. This was around mile 46.
I was feeling pretty good and had a good second wind by this point. We clipped along pretty well on this ride. I was glad to be finished, though.
Ride stats:
Total miles: 52.2
Average speed 13.6 mph
Top speed: 32.5
Calories burned: 1607
This was probably the fastest average speed we have had for a long ride. That’s 52 miles at that speed, so we were quite pleased about that. Helps that there wasn’t really a strong wind today.
I love our long rides!
I just want to cry, reading about your weather. But I am happy for you with such a sweet ride…looks like it was a wonderful day.
On the fried chicken – you don’t eat like that hardly ever, and I’m wondering if it bothered your stomach later? I’m not sure I could ever eat fried chicken again, and I used to love the stuff!
Those cupcakes, on the other hand? Yeah, I could handle them. 😉
When I am shoveling lots of snow, then I will be the one crying.
As for the chicken – it might have bothered me if I had it for dinner close to bed time or if I didn’t do all that exercise. All it did was make me full for lunch 😀 It’s not something I would want to eat a lot of as it tasted really rich.
I love your long rides too. Thanks for taking me along. Does this count for the ride I didn’t do today??? We had nice cool weather today too, but along with it came rain.
Lovely ride! I was certainly wishing I had my bike (without its flat tire) this past weekend. Lots of sharing the road going on down here. 🙂
When I was in the chicken-loving town last week, I shouted “knock-knock” every time I saw one of their chicken statues. LOL (did you know she has a book out? I’m wait-listed for it at the library. If it’s half as brilliant as that article, it will be a good read.)
I saw she had a book. I might download it with Prime next month 😀
Once I figured out what you were talking about, I laughed and laughed at your “tour of loving in the ten percent. I had a day like that today too. And now I am done.
Love your bike rides! And hey! I think I saw that episode od Bobby Flay.
I am glad someone figured that out. I thought the reference was obscure, but I found it funny 😀
We had a beautiful day here today as well! I went on a bike ride but unfortunately there was no cupcake at the end.
Love the goat! My daughter saw a man walking what she thought was two dogs but it turned out to be two goats. A local high school looks after them as part of one of their courses 🙂
What a great day you had Lori, loved looking at the pics as I always love to do after your long bike rides.
We had the hottest day of the century yesterday, hasn’t been this hot since 1994 and I hated every minute of it. Am glad today is much cooler 🙂
dang youre impressive woman!!
I hid inside and did maybe 52 miles of coloring with the six year old.
sign me:
READY FOR FALL.
After reading Shelley’s comment and your response, I just have to brag……It was delightfully cool here in East Tennessee this weekend with more coolness/low humidity on the way and very rarely, do we EVER have to shovel snow. Must be perfect!!
Took me a few minutes to figure out the “living in the 10%” also. In fact, I still hadn’t figured it out and was going to ask, but decided I wasn’t going to be outdone by Debby. LOL! So are you back in the 90% today?
BTW, I read a a really cool article about Ithaca yesterday. Made we want to go there. Meetup???
Ithaca is really beautiful. College town, too, so lots of fun stuff.
What fun & such a beautiful day! Honestly Lori, I could not stop looking at the sky in the pics where it was visible – amazing & blue & the clouds! We don’t get that here too often not do I see butterflies that often. 🙁
Got to love all your cute stores (not he big one we have here too) 😉 The cupcakes – wow!!! 🙂
There’s so much I love about this. The long bike ride with your hubby. That amazing chicken sandwich. And incredible cupcakes. The beautiful scenery. The cool weather!!!!
Looks like a perfect day.
I wish there were places like that around here that I could ride my bike to. But high traffic highwaays are just not somewhere I want to venture on a bike. Not with these drivers. 🙂
I am loving this cooler weather – boy does it make a difference for energy levels!
I wish I had a nice biking trail like that around me. It’s really flat with lots of farm fields and not pretty trees and goats all around – or fields of butterflies!
OMG, that fried chicken looks amazing!! And these cooler temps are awesome – love that we can have our windows open at night too – our lows are around 60!
Looks like a great day! Beautiful weather and the park is nice. I like it when Michael and I can use our bikes to do things (like go out to lunch).
Oh Lori, such BEAUTIFUL photos. Thank you for taking us along on your ride. A goat in the driveway?? Fun. I can only imagine how HUGE Pixie’s eyes would become if a goat walked on your driveway!!! Have a wonderful Monday.
Too much fun and great looking food! That makes me hungry for my moms fried chicken! Haven’t had it in years. I love your long bike rides and all the adventures you enjoy. Life is good.