Saturday I did a nice but awfully hilly-feeling 64-mile ride from Marlboro down to Oxford, through North Oxford and Leicester (I think) up to Paxton -- Route 56 is really beautiful for a ways there -- through Holden (some friends let me use their bathroom) and accidentally into Worcester (oops, I guess I was on Ararat Street and not West Mountain Street; good thing West Boylston Street connects them, even if it's a horrible mile of Worcester's worse side), and then home via Shrewsbury (up the steep hill by St. John's Church, but it didn't seem as bad as last time I rode up it with my old double. Ah, the beauty of a triple) and Westboro. Gorgeous day; they predicted rain, but then it ended up warming up and getting sunny, so I just did a jersey and shorts, carrying my vest and arm warmers much of the way. I didn't really see many other people on bikes, but I did see a ton of people out mowing their lawns. Has the old-fashioned, man-powered push mower died? What's with riding mowers for lawns less than half an acre in size?

I also saw a car that had sat in a driveway so long that it had sunk down into the asphalt. I rode by, thought the tires were flat, did a double-take, and then realized the bottom third of the wheels had sunk deep into the driveway asphalt. I wondered how they're gonna get it out?

All in all took me about 4.5 hours, I think. It was a very nice day and a pleasant ride, although I'd kind of like to find people to ride with on these longer routes. Hmmm.