Yesterday I rode 8.8 miles to the Farmer's Market in the next town. Like Tulip, this is my weekly "errand" commute. For 2 hours I gave out discount coupons to people who arrived by bike and watched their bikes while they shopped. I ended up buying some olive bread and 2 whole wheat scones, which made for a heavy pannier on the way back. Man, that bread is dense. I decided that since I was on the hybrid, I would do something different, so I headed into the Old North Bridge area, so I could actually ride over the bridge, past the Minuteman statue and cut through to the street I needed to be on. When I got inside the park, a ranger told me that the path is being redone, almost to the other end (it's hard packed sand, but it looked like they had paved most of it), but I could walk my bike along the side, in the grass. It was pretty quiet there, so the walk was nice. When I got past the fenced off area, and started riding up a small rise, a family who was visiting the park started clapping for me .
By this time, it was pretty hot and humid out, so I was dreading riding the heavy bike up my hill, but, it wasn't too bad. 17.9 miles total.