No. 5 - Chafee Nature Preserve to Aunt Carrie's Restaurant and/or Iggy's Chower House - 31 Miles

OK, admittedly a long title and, at 30+ miles, not all that short a ride either. But at the end of this particular ride a choice can be made: Aunt Carrie's or Iggy's? For my money they are both awesome, especially after four hours on the bike, and perhaps you'll need both places.
But I digress.
Today it's more about the following quote from The Quotable Cyclist: Great Moments of Bicycling Wisdom, Inspiration and Humor, by Bill Strickland (www.breakawaybooks.com, $13):

"I ride a bicycle -- not because I hate General Motors but haven't the courage to bomb the plant. I don't do it as a gesture of great stoicism and personal sacrifice....You ride a bicycle because it feels good. The air feels good on your body; even the rain feels good. The blood starts moving around your body, and pretty soon it gets to your head, and, glory be, your head feels good. You start noticing things. You look until you really see. You hear things, and smell things you never knew were there. You start whistling nice little original tunes to suit the moment. Words start getting caught in the web of poetry in your mind. And there's a nice feeling, too, in knowing you're doing a fundamental life thing for yourself: transportation."
-- Nicholas Johnson, Journalist, at page 315

And today it's also about the numerous scenic stops and right-of-ways you'll discover as you make your way down the Narragansett Bay coastline, from Chafee Nature Preserve in North Kingstown to the "twin" sea food destinations in Narragansett. So why not tick them off:
#61 - South Ferry Road
#58 - Route 1A Overlook
#54 - Old Sprague Bridge Overlook
#53 - Narrow River Inlet
#52 - Canonchet Farm
#51 - Narragansett Town Beach
#50 - Casino Park
#49 - Ocean Road
#48 - State Pier #5 (Tucker's Dock)
#47 - Hazard Avenue
#46 - Newton Avenue
#45 - Bass Rock Road
#44 - Black Point
#43 - Scarborough State Beach

Public Access to the Rhode Island Coast www.crc.uri.edu/download/GB_AccessGuide.pdf has excellent descriptions of everything you can expect to find as you roll up on these Narragansett Bay landmarks. This is what the route looks like:



This route is certainly not all that complicated. But as cool as these MapMyRide map are, to print out a barpack-able copy of the specific map "cues" you may need to grab a minimal membership to MapMyRide for about $30/year. Their capacity to allow people to crank out these things more than justifies that kind of expense, so I've just signed on for a year to see what comes of it. Now that I am on-their-bus, I'm also considering printing out copies of the various Narragansett Bay bike riding routes that will ultimately find there way into this "blogging" exercise. The concept of sharing said printouts with people in the biking community who are interested in such a thing ought not be alien to me...
Just get the through this freakin' winter and out the other side into some warm weather. At this point all I know for sure it that I'm really looking forward to hitting these routes in 2010!