Great Day Out On "The Beast"

Late this morning, my lovely bride suggested the two of us heading out for ride on the bike. She knew I had been texting other riding buddies and it looked like no one was going to be able to get out. My wife suggesting a bike excursion is unheard of and I was thrilled. Her only stipulation was we had to get dinner. I suggested heading to the shore for seafood. She wanted to go to the Dogwatch Cafe in Stonington, but reservations are required, especially for the outdoor seating, and we wouldn't get seated until 3:30 PM. We decided to head to New London to Captain Scotty's Lobster Dock instead. We took mostly two lane state roads with the exception of a short stretch of I-395 to bypass all the traffic lights going through Norwich. We rolled into New London and down the little hidden side street between some old run down warehouses, across the railroad siding, and into the parking lot of Cap'n Scotty's.

Parking is normally a nightmare, but today it was crowded but with plenty of empty spaces. I got a good spot by the building where they cook and serve the food as well as the restrooms. We hit those first before ordering. Wifey got a lobster roll, I got a scallop roll, and we split a small order of onion rings. We both had Diet Coke to drink because no alky-hol when on two wheels.

After dinner, we mounted up and headed for Mystic. This required another short trip on the highway, this time I-95 and The Gold Star Bridge to get over the mouth of the Thames River and connect to RT. 1 on the east side. My wife didn't think we'd be able to park and walk around, but it turned out traffic wasn't bad and I scored another excellent parking space near the waterfront. The first order of business was to get ice cream at the Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream shop. It is located right at the drawbridge hinge on the west side of the Mystic River. We were parked on the east side of the river and its a good thing we got to the shop when we did. Shortly after getting in line, the drawbridge had to be opened to let a gigantic catamaran sailboat go up river. It is really slow to open and close. My wife got a caramel swirl they call "Sticky Fractured Finger" in a cone, and I got a waffle cone of Maine Wild Blueberry. We ate it on the back deck over looking the Mystic River. When we finished, I asked my wife if she wanted to stroll up and down the main drag to do some window shopping. She was like, "Sure!" knowing I usually don't care to do such things, but it was a beautiful afternoon for a walk. We hit the restrooms and started getting ready to leave. A guy pulls up behind us and asked if we are leaving so he could have my spot. I told him we would be a few minutes and apparently he didn't mind waiting while we continued getting ready. I backed out and then pulled forward so my wife could get on in the street. Patience paid off for the guy because he slid right into where I was parked. We took some scenic back roads up to Ledyard where we took RT. 2A across the Thames River to pickup I-395 and go home the same way we came. We arrived safely back home just before 6 PM.