So, a lot has happened for the members of Team Rocbike in recent weeks. Jason has been laying down new tire tracks in another part of the state, I am soon to be doing the same, in another state altogether. I just received a job offer in the end of December to do animation work at a certain sports cable network based out of Bristol, CT. Although it was hard to say goodbye to Rochester and all my friends here, not to mention the smooth flat roads around my neighborhood (perfect for cruising), I couldn’t turn down the offer, as it is a huge kickstart for my real career. Part of the job offer included a relocation package, to ease the move to a new area. As part of the package, last week I was flown into nearby Hartford and given a rental car, and put up in a hotel right outside of Bristol for 4 nights. A relocation specialist named Joanne helped me pick out apartments to look at based on my needs, which above all had to be in a good location to bike commute to work. Joanne drove me around Bristol for a day to see the area and look at apartments. Some areas were nice but only accessible along busy narrow streets, others only accessible up long steep hills which I swear must have been almost a 45% grade. I ended up choosing a nice apartment 2 miles from where I will work along a quiet, relatively flat, wide back road. We took the commute road in the rental car and it seemed alright, but I needed the experience by bicycle. Since I had flown down and all my stuff was still in Rochester, I obviously didn’t have my own bike to ride. I went around and checked local bike shops right in Bristol to see if they had rentals and to generally get an idea about what the bicycling life was like around there. There are a couple nice shops right in Bristol, but I ended up down the road in nearby Milldale, at a place called Bobby Sprocket.
I had brought along my new little point-and-click automatic digital camera, but didn’t realize till later that the date-stamp was on, d’oh! Anyway, the folks at Bobby Sprocket were really friendly and wanted to help out a bike commuter new to the area, and they had a bike I could borrow:
Luckily I had packed my helmet and tail-light on the flight down. Without any further delay, I got the bike to my new apartment complex and hopped on.
They had insisted I borrow a headlight too, I didn’t argue. This is where I am going to live:
From there I rode to where I will work, this is what a lot of that road looks like:
And here is the bike across from where I will work:
This is on the opposite side of the campus from where I will actually ride my bike. Good thing too, the road that I am on the other side of is a scary four lane 40+mph road with a lot of traffic. I almost got hit getting over there to take the picture. From there I rode on (on back roads) to nearby Lake Compounce Amusement Park:
Apparently it’s the oldest theme park in the US. But it was closed for the season.
I still had the bike for another day so the next day I started off at the same location and took off in the other direction, loosely towards the main shopping centers of town, but by way of back roads.
I ended up at this pond in Page Park.
I returned the bike and then flew back to Rochester, and have spent the last week getting ready to go out there for good. The movers came and took all my stuff earlier and it’s on its way to my new home. I fly out tomorrow morning and I am there. I will still be posting here from CT as begin commuting and exploring on my bike. To all my friends here in ROC, farewell, and keep on riding!
