Tuesday, June 11, 2019
What do we eat on our bike trips? We pretty much eat whatever comes our way.
Today was probably no different than any other day.We were fortunate last night in staying with some WarmShowers hosts in Athol, MA. Ann served us a breakfast of oatmeal and fresh berry muffins with hot tea, getting us off to a healthy and delicious start.
Around mile five we were cruising past a Hannaford when I remembered, we had to get something for lunch and dinner. Grocery stores have been pretty rare these few days so we couldn't afford not to. Our food supplies were running low.
As I was leaning my bike against one of the brick pillars outside the store, Rob said, "I trust you," meaning I should go in and shop while he'd watch the bikes. Which suits me fine because he often buys too much and spends too much money.
"What would you like me to get for lunch?" I asked.
"How about some deli? And clam sauce and spaghetti for dinner."
"Okay. I'll have to get some bread, too."
Before looking at the selection of food in the deli section, I checked out the refrigerated items across from it. It hasn't been hot and the morning was overcast. Anything we bought now would probably keep in our panniers for the day. They had a good assortment of ravioli, but I wasn't so daring as to select something with meat. I chose spinach and cheese ravioli for supper. A few years ago we started bringing along a small container of olive oil which goes well sprinkled on top of ravioli.
At the deli I was intrigued with the assortment of salads. I decided we could save the traditional deli fare for later on and asked the woman behind the counter to scoop up small containers of a seafood salad and a cauliflower salad. Before checking out I stopped by the produce section and picked out two ripe bananas.
After I paid and came back outside, we took turns going to the bathroom. Then Rob said, "Did you see that they have free danish for seniors on Tuesdays? Today is Tuesday."
I am never one to pass up free food. "I'll go check," I said.
"It's by the bathrooms. Get one for me."
And, sure enough, there it was, a sign saying, "Free Danish and coffee for seniors every Tuesday." And on a table covered with a plastic table cloth was another sign saying, "One per customer," next to a plate with five of those cheap little danish things that have a dollop of jam or cheese in the middle. You know the kind; it's what the economy motels serve at their continental breakfasts, the ones that are made with white flour and sugar and taste like sawdust. I picked up the last cheese one, because that's the kind I prefer, even though I was planning on giving it to Rob, pretty sure I wouldn't eat it.
When I got back outside, I handed Rob the danish that I had wrapped in a tissue paper, "They only let you have one. You can have it."
The cycling was awful. We'd been following Route 2A heading west which, as the name implies, was an alternative to the main Route 2. But that ended and now we were on Route 2. I figured we'd have a good shoulder because usually those big main routes do, but I was wrong. We had rumble strips and narrow shoulders and winding roads and I thought that any minute some big tractor trailer was going to wipe one of us out. Thankfully we survived long enough to stop to catch our breath, eat our bananas and share our free danish.
We had stopped outside the town offices of Erving, MA, and sat on the stone wall as the traffic roared by. I was halfway through my banana while Rob was still carefully taking off his second glove.
"I'm going to be done and ready to go again before you even have your gloves off."
Trouble in paradise. I'm the "let's get going" half of this relationship and Rob is the "let's take our time" guy.
Rob countered with, "No, you won't," and got his glove off and banana peeled before I got down to my last bite.
"Where's that danish?" I asked.
Rob handed it over. I took a bite. Then one more, just to get some of the cheese. "You can have the rest." I handed it back.
"You sure you don't want some more?"
"No. It's awful."
When I'd gone to pick up the danish I noticed a couple old people sitting at a table nearby drinking coffee. I said, "I hope that when I get old the highlight of my week isn't going to Hannafords on a Tuesday morning for my free danish and coffee. You know what Hannaford is doing. They put out this cheap shit. Then they advertise that they offer free danish and coffee to seniors on Tuesdays so it makes them look good."
Then I asked Rob, "Did you enjoy that?" He chuckled and said, "The price was right."
Back on our bikes we managed to make it to the end of our stint on Route 2 without getting killed and stopped in the little town of Millers Falls for lunch. We didn't see a waterfall, just a tattoo parlor, laundromat, bridal/tuxedo store, a pub that served food from open to close, a cafe, and an art studio. We sat in a couple chairs outside the tattoo parlor on the corner at the intersection where we would be turning to go down what looked on the map to be another main route. For a few minutes I counted the number of vehicles that were turning to go our way. Only about two or three every minute or so. Things were looking up.
On my long bike adventure back in 1980 I discovered that Hershey's chocolate bars go well with graham crackers. Add peanut butter and you've got your own sort of Reese's cup. It's delicious and full of all the nutrients you need to pedal up those hills. We had all the fixings today.
We shared the salads I'd picked up earlier except Rob didn't like the cauliflower salad so I got to eat it all. Then we ate dried mangoes and our homemade Reese's Cups. It was a very enjoyable lunch, followed by ten miles of bicycling that made up for the horrible morning. Smooth, quiet roads with an appropriate mix of up and down and flat. We followed that with some time in the library when we arrived in Sunderland and then stopped for beer and sweet potato fries at a restaurant we had visited back when our daughter was going to college in this part of the world.
Then our plan for the evening fell apart. There was a campground we'd stayed at several times when we'd visited our daughter. A private campground, nice enough, set in a valley about ten miles north of Northampton. I'd checked the website and it was open for business. But it wasn't. The swimming pool had water in it but the grass around it hadn't been mowed. There were a few RVs scattered here and there but the office was locked. So were the bathrooms. A bit of investigating and we found the owner who said that she hadn't yet been able to make the improvements they wanted her to make and couldn't open.
It could have been worse. It was early, we weren't too tired, and we knew there was a Red Roof Inn nearby. When we finally settled in there, I decided to meet the challenge head on of trying to cook our ravioli in our room. We had a microwave, how about that? Our pots were metal so no go with that idea. We had a coffee maker that would produce two cups at a time of very hot water. I heated up some water and poured it over the ravioli in one of our pots, put the lid on. The ravioli wasn't completely covered with water, though, so I made more hot water and added it to the pot, put the lid back on. We waited. I ate a few handfuls of peanuts. After a while, we decided it was good enough and poured out the water, added some olive oil. If you like your pasta al dente, which I do, then the dinner was delicious.
We finished off some grape tomatoes I'd picked up the day before. Rob had some graham crackers and I had some graham crackers with a few pieces of Trader Joe's 72% chocolate.
And that's what we eat when we're on the road.
Day 5, Tuesday, 6/11/19: 37 miles to Deerfield, MA
Red Roof Inn
The riding on Route 2 was pretty treacherous, then Route 63 was good and 47 was terrific.
Happy eating and riding!
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