Bike trip to Sierra Leone?

and the real postings begin...

So I've acquired a new bike that's fast and actually fits me. The plan is to commute as many days as possible to work via bike. On top of that, I want to rack up miles on new bike on weekend trips.

Well, today was the first of hopefully many weekend trips. My goals were to bike to DeCordova Sculpture Museum, then bike through or around Hanscom air force base. DeCordova grants free entry to all bikers, and I've been there before to hear some pretty unique art. I have a feeling they will be a waypoint for many more of my bike trips.

Didn't really stop for more than Gelato though. After that, I discovered where our drinking water comes from. I was very tempted to fill up my bottle and give it a try.

Now, one thing that I played with was trying to log my route using my phone GPS. Thankfully, a sensor logging app that Clinic paid for is on my phone. Boot it up, and it was able to give me a .csv, .m, and .kml file of my route. Might be cool for mapping out places in the future. However, the 'Boot it up' phase can be interesting. 

 Either I recorded the first few data point of rogue GPS data, or I went on a really long bike ride. Man, 5328 miles with hills that go from -18000 feet below sea level to the ocean can be tough. Skimming the ocean for a few thousand miles was fun though. Also, I didn't think I would ever visit Sierra Leone. No wonder I'm tired.

The actual good logged data though shows me biking into the air field. I noticed that there was a bike path labeled on google maps, and wanted to get to it from the west.

Google really needs more distinction between good bike trail, bike friendly road, and no data. At first glance, the map suggests I just have to bike up Hanscom drive, take a right, and then connect to the green segment of Hartwell Ave. No problem, I was biking on Highway 2 earlier, and that was a white no data road. Well, it turns out right about where the really nice bike trails that go nowhere start, there is an air force security gate. Complete with tank traps to stop traffic, and no entry warnings. Not wanting to get my new bike shot, I reluctantly turned around and biked out. 


In other news, I dreadfully* miss the Cheese Cave in Claremont. However, at a quick stop to pick up a bottle of water at a farm stand, I saw this. This is pretty much across from where I work, and that entire top shelf is cheese!

 

 * The injection of the word dreadfully may be partly due to the fact that I ran out of listen material on my roadtrip, except for one Jane Austin audiobook. Nothing like driving through Ohio rockin the Jane Austin.