It's been two years, almost to the minute, since my big accident.

I'm getting ready for the long ride, I hope to leave at about 2:30 (21 minutes).

Here's my route plan. If I go missing for a couple of days, you'll know where to send the hounds.

1. Start at 76 Dogwood Lane
2. Dogwood Lane to Curtis Street to Haley Road
3. Haley Road to Gold Star Memorial Highway
4. NLT/GSMH to Cow Hill Road
5. Cow Hill Road to Mystic Street
6. Mystic Street (becomes Allyn Street) to Route 1 (aka Boston Post Road, aka Old Post Road, aka New London Ave)
7. Route 1 to The Intersection and then to Main Street in downtown Westerly, RI.
8. Main Street to Beach Street
9. Beach Street to Watch Hill Road
10. Watch Hill Road to Shore Road
11. Shore Road to Ocean View Highway
12. Ocean View Highway to Bayberry Drive
13. Bayberry Drive to Clark Avenue to Atlantic Avenue
14. Atlantic Avenue to Weekapaug Road
15. Weekapaug Road to Shore Road
16. Shore Road back to Watch Hill Road
17. Home the way I started

Mark Morgan said it best:

it's nice to put some closure on the past

Yeah it is!

Nothing interesting happened on this ride! I went through the intersection for the fourth or fifth time this year with absolutely no incident.

One thing I've learned about bad intersections is to double-check my assumptions. When I was hit two years ago, I'm told that it all happened just as I went around a van that had stopped just before the intersection (to let the oncoming vehicle make a left in front of him, and that's who hit me). I know how I ride, and this tells me that I was probably going to "shadow" the van through the intersection, so that he'd take the hit if somebody came through the intersection that shouldn't have. I probably didn't realize he was stopping to let someone through, and that someone then hit me (it was a 16 year old girl who had only been driving for a couple months).

Now when I go through intersections like that, I still "shadow" other vehicles if I can, but I'm much more careful about watching what's going on. Lesson learned!.

I reached the farthest point of this trip, the junction of Weekapaug Road and Shore Road, with an average speed of 19.1 miles per hour (that was about 23 miles into the ride). I admit that I had some help from the wind, but truthfullly I just felt like I could ride forever.

Since the wind was in my face on the way home, again, and I also didn't feel like going through downtown Mystic a second time due to traffic, I decided to change the second half of the route. Upon leaving the downtown Westerly/Pawcatuck area, I stayed on the Broad Street hill, and took a right onto North Anguilla Road. That's part of my regular route, which I stuck with all the way home.

This won't be my last ride of the season (hopefully), but it will be one of the most memorable simply because of the "closure".

Oh, one more thing... I'm exhausted. Good night!