Dog Day Afternoon

The day started off with a dog and ended with a dog and went all afternoon. No banks were robbed in the making of this quick ride. After the NER Meet and Greet was over and all had either gone home or headed out on the quick group ride I headed for my first destination of the afternoon. I am participating in 3 different grand tours, which requires one to seek out the theme, ride to it, take a picture with you bike and flag, then repeat.

First Dog



Clinton, MA covers the 42nd president for the Teamstrange Presidential Tour. Requirements are either a Post Office or the Town Limit signs.



Second Dog, for GLMC Double Down Grand Tour. Covers the TT’s

Picked this up because the letters are bigger. I headed out in the wrong direction from the Littleton Vets and turned around here. Figured I would snap off a pic while I was here.



Village of Nagog Woods. It has its own Post Office, so it must be good.



Third Dog is the Pepperell Vet Hospital. I had someplace else targeted, but this was en route and I have learned grab what is available in case what I had planned is a bomb.



That covered the planned places for the afternoon. I headed for Rota Springs Ice Cream where the NER rides were going to end up, passing thru Groton. I came across the gates of The Groton School, having time to kill, I turned in.



The Groton School is an Episcopal based prep school founded in 1884. It is recognized as one of the most selective and elite boarding schools in New England and one of the world’s top high schools for preparing for entrance to elite American universities. It does offer free education to qualified students for families with incomes below 75K. If you stay here tuition is 53K a year. This gets parents used to paying high fees when their child graduates and gets into Princeton or Yale or Harvard or Brown.





I saw a bunch of kids going into the Chapel so I just had to go in.








Met up with the NERs again at the ice cream joint. Ordered a small Chocolate Chip cone and when I saw the girl placing one big scoop in the cone, I said to myself pretty big. Then she reached into the cooler and put another scoop on top of that. I blurted out “That’s a small cone”, to which she said, I can put a scoop back and make it a kiddie cone, do you want that. I nodded. Some more chit chat and headed out following Giff home. Sky looked gloomy, gray and the air felt like rain. Couple of drops and pulled over to put my camera in the trunk for protection.

Fourth Dog. Only about 2 miles from my house, picked up the Sutton Animal Hospital to complete Dog Say Afternoon.



When I got home and ungeared all of my joints, pain spots, tight shoulders, wrists and hands kicked in high gear with pain. There was a point during the afternoon ride where I questioned myself why I was riding to these towns, maybe I should get a smaller more nimble bike or just give up riding all together. This old body is not a spry as it was last year. With that I said to MeAsWe that I might not go riding on Sunday. Stay tuned for the next day.