That is not a dog, where did those hills come from and meeting some new friends!

 

Day 5:

What a day - started out well as I received my first positive response from a Warm Showers host, so I had a free place to stay for the night, but is took 72 miles through the hills of west Connecticut to get to the host.  A bear of a day.  And speaking of bears, as I was riding down East Street N. toward Goshen, CT, I saw this big black dog on the left side of the road and thought, "Wow, what kind of dog is that?"  As soon as it moved and lumbered into the underbrush, I realized it was not a dog, it was a bear 🐻🐻🐻!!!! 

The Garmin continues to terrorize me and I've given up on it for the time being.  I will give Garmin a call and get more help on how to use it, but it is NOT easy.  So using Google Maps for navigation (which is not the best in the world for bike navigation), coming up out of Torrington, CT, my phone died.  I stopped at a gas station and asked if they could plug my phone in for a while and they agreed.  Back on the road toward West Hartford and my host for the night. Keeping a better eye on my phone battery, I made another gas station / phone charging stop.  I have tried charging both my phone and a battery off my dynahub - no luck with either.  Finally arrived at Jack and Beth Rose Dougherty's house about 9:00 - 9:30 - third day of riding after dark, which I was not going to do on this trip.  Jack and Beth were outstanding.  Refrigerator was mine for whatever I wanted, wonderful bedroom and bed, and a warm shower.  Jack and Beth are both pretty heavy into cycling and Jack was able to give me detailed directions through Hartford on the East Coast Greenway.  A very nice evening and morning, including a nice hot breakfast.  No pictures to share, I spent all my time pushing the pedals.  There are very nice hills and hills and hills and hills in western Connecticut.  Jack told me they are known as the Litchfield Hills and they're notorious among cyclists.  I have started thinking some nice flat prairies would look pretty good!

 

Day 6:

After that hot breakfast, I left the Dougherty's in a light sprinkle which developed into a real rain for a short while - enough that I put my rain jacket on for a while.  After yesterday's 72 miles, my legs were complaining to me.  I got a decline from the Warm Showers host that I had requested a stay with - they were away from home.  It became apparent that I was not going to get as far as I planned.  It was dreary for a while and then cleared up some, but the legs weren't having it.  It started clouding up again and I started looking for a place to stay.  A nice lady in Willimantic, CT told about a nearby hotel and I go there just ahead of the rain.  It is absurd trying to find hotels online - Google "hotels near me" and you don't get hotels, you get Expedia or some other "helpful" website that provides not very useful information.  Anyway, I found my hotel and stayed dry.  Only covered 39 miles.