Saturday had the looks to be a perfect outdoor day. After a Friday of soaking rains all day, it was nice to see the sun. The roads were pretty soggy, though, so we scrapped plans to bike to breakfast to let the roads dry out.
John owed my my football meal and I waited all week to get my breakfast at the Chocolate Mill!
Brioche french toast with blueberry compote.
The coat the bread with crushed cereal, which gives it a yummy crispy crunch! And served with *real* maple syrup, thank you very much.
Temps were warming up and the roads were getting drier and we could’t wait to get on the bikes! We decided to bike down to Saratoga for lunch. We had to go earlier because of it getting dark earlier and also because we were having my folks over for dinner.
Ready for some fall pictures?
Kind of past peak, but nice none the less. We stopped around mile 5 to save this guy:
Big snapping turtle. He was crossing the road to a field, but that wasn’t such a good place for him, so we herded him towards the river and waved cars to slow down. He started to safely head back down to the river bank.
And they aren’t kidding. Turtles are sloowwww…
After a bit, John asked if I wanted to stop for a picture. Sure!
Then he said, “I meant the view.” Oh.
I decided to shed my jacket here since we were stopped and approaching the hill section for the day. The skies were so blue and clear, right?
I laughed when I saw this picture. John is not ducking out of the way, he was just looking at his front tire and I got some of him in the shot.
We stopped for a break around mile 15.
We went birdwatching here once with my sister a couple years ago and there were clouds of mosquitoes – so we didn’t stay long. I would like to hike here again some time.
We arrived in Saratoga at mile 24 and went to the Beekman street art district for lunch. This place is called The Local and they serve lots of craft beer and locally sourced food.
We had BOGO coupon to eat here – score for bargains!! I saw one of my favorite dishes on the menu – eggs benedict. With local eggs? Thank you!
We kept proclaiming how beautiful the day was for riding. Should have known that Mother Nature had a surprise in store for us. After lunch, we bike back into town for a bit of dessert. We each got a pumpkin cupcake at Bettie’s.
One was a cinnamon coffee cake cupcake with pumpkin buttercream and the other was a pumpkin cupcake with pumpkin buttercream. We split both of these. While we were eating, the skies clouded up and it started to sprinkle. Uh oh. We went over to the library to go online and check weather.com. The whole state was dry, but for one big green blob coming right our way with thunder! Eeek! We waited for a bit.
Nothing like being stuck 20+ miles from home, right? We thought if we left, we could skirt around the rain as we headed north, so we left after a bit. We bike for 4 or 5 miles and got totally soaked and decided to pull over at a Dunkin Donuts to wait it out. Too miserable. I was sopping wet.
I had nothing waterproof with me at all, so I did my best with my hood under my helmet. We could see blue sky just to the side, so we were hoping it would come soon. Still pretty, though.
The rain finally tapered off and I wrung out my jacket. Not waterproof. There was absolutely no rain in the forecast for the day, so I don’t know what was up with that. Now we were on the back end of the rain the rest of the way home, so the roads were wet, but at least it wasn’t raining on us any more. It was cold riding soaking wet, I will say.
This is what passed over us moving on off to the north.
We had a fairly uneventful ride home until….
Right about mile 42:
Flat tire. We were both afraid to say something out loud about getting a flat during this ride and then it happened 5 miles from home!
I took some foliage shots while John was changing his tire.
Finally made it home with an hour to spare before my parents were to come over for dinner. Mad scramble to cook and shower! I think my bike shoes won’t dry out for days.
Ride stats:
Total miles 46.9 miles (eh… 47)
Average speed: 12.7 mph
Calories burned: 1403
That ride had a little bit of everything in it!
Today’s pink picture:
I hate it when the weather report isn’t accurate which is fairly often. You are amazing with your bike!!! The scenery is so beautiful.
French toast is my absolute favorite breakfast meal 🙂 I’d have it more often if it didn’t feel so decadent.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
I love french toast, but you really need thick slices of bread for it to be good, which we never have at home.
Oh my goodness all of that food looks wonderful! I woke up this morning and made my own version of eggs benedict, but I admit that yours looks much tastier!
Amazing that you’re past peak and we’ve barely started down here! Other than your weather glitch, it looks like it was a lovely day for a ride.
I’m not happy about the shorter days. I lost track of time today and now I see it’s a) too dark to go for a walk, b) past time for dinner, and c) ball game time! 🙂
The shorter days are going to get shorter, too! Eek!
What a wild ride! Looks like it was so fun until the rain and flat tire. But let’s focus on the positives: eggs Benedict AND pumpkin cupcakes? YUM!
What an incredible ride! You live in a beautiful area, and I’d probably do a lot more cycling in such a place, too. That’ also quite a distance you covered. And the food looks marvelous. Between the French toast and eggs Benedict I’d be in food heaven. The cupcake is just the icing on top 😉
Yeah, we have to bike that far to eat that kind of food all in one day LOL!
It started out very beautiful. You don’t look happy at the rain pic LOL. We sometimes have this weather too; dry forecast and suddenly rain.
But overall a great day with a great ride at beautiful places.
TODAY, already, I FEEL LIKE THAT TURTLE 🙂
I shall persevere and get across my figurative road…
xoxo
Sorry, but as long as neither of you end up with a cold because of the drenching, I have to confess I laughed…..reminded me of our morning walk adventure a few weeks ago when we got totally and completely drenched down to our underwear on a morning where there was ZERO chance of rain! Not so horrid for me as it was still quite warm, but as normal, Bill was already dressed in shirt and tie heading to school afterwards! Suffice it to say, he was not nearly as amused as I was. Guess things like that keep us humble to the fact that weather simply cannot be predicted.
Never trust weather.com – ever! I thought of you when I took that picture of the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and thought how you would probably enjoy exploring in there!
You got clipped by a Clipper! Sorry, because those gorgeous blue skies sure didn’t forwarn did they?
I would venture to say, for a food day like that, I’d try to bike 47 miles 😉
OMG, the cupcakes!!!!! Sure, I had to start with them! That cinnamon – YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, the pics were gorgeous Lori – you live in such a beautiful area!!!! Love the pic of you too – dry & wet! The rain soaked one cracked me up! I have been there when running & got caught – such is life! 😉
A wonderful weekend for you! I love that local sourced restaurant!
Looks like our Saturday weather too! Deceiving! Gorgeous for most of the day but when it rained, it RAINED!
The food looks great…maybe one day I’ll bike like you too! 🙂
Dawn
Yep, I would have been all over that french toast too! Sorry you got soaked, so weird! Happy Monday!
Sorry you got rained on, but I do like the scenic shots – even the one of you. 😛 That made me laugh right out loud.
mm…pumpkin baking…all things in moderation… 🙂
What a day! Not the best when you’re “in” the middle of it but good stories/memories after the fact. I love the little date in the one photo – very cute. 🙂
Wow. Beautiful ride and beautiful pics DESPITE the rain!!! I “awww’d” at the turtle and how you and John saved him/her!!! Thank you for taking us on the ride with you via your photos!!! (love all the hanging mugs too!)
I loved that the turled was decked out for fall with with his own leaf 🙂 What great pictures, I haven’t had eggs benedict in ages. Sorry you guys got rained on and poor John had a flat. You look great in Pink btw.
Ahhhh French toast with thick bread! Looks amazing!!
I have to say I’m not a fan of a sudden rain storm either. Oh well it ended well and it was definitely worth it for those cupcakes 🙂
What a great ride. We didn’t get in very many of those this year… I guess it’s not too late yet!
I love reading your blog–I love that you share your adventures! It is inspiring to read about all your rides, and to see the breathtaking scenery. You definitely know how to suck the marrow out of life! =)
Cupcakes…