Weekend Away

We went away this weekend to spend time with two other couples, and log some good biking in Western Mass. We rented a house in Amherst that was near the Mass Central Rail Trail. Late on Saturday morning, we hopped on our bikes and rode 14 miles to the Williamsburg Snack Bar where we had a lovely lunch, after which we turned around and headed back.

About halfway back, a large tree root that made a good sized bump in the trail caught me off guard, and I lost control of the bike, and fell. Thankfully, I fell in the dirt and weeds along the side and not on the pavement. The image above is of my shin, which is the most photogenic of my scars. Beyond that, my hip has a lovely bruise that is just starting to blossom a day later, and my shoulder, was pretty well wrenched from the incident. Nothing broken, but my ego probably suffered the most. (Shoulder is pretty painful, though). All my companions were very concerned and supportive, and helped pick up all the bits and pieces that came off the bike.

Since nothing on the bike or me was actually broken, after a few minutes of calming down, I got back on the bike and rode the rest of the way home, knowing that at some point in the near future, everything would stiffen up and feel a lot worse. The rest of the ride was, happily, uneventful.

At the encouragement of everyone, I let Susan take me to the clinic. We got in the car, and the directions told us it was 0.1 miles away. In the end, it probably would have been faster to walk, it was so close! They took some X-rays of the shoulder and saw nothing to be concerned about, and recommended ibuprofen, arnica gel, and icing.

For dinner, we walked a little ways past the clinic and had beers and appetizers at the Hangar Pub and Grill, which is home to the Amherst Brewing Company, so we were able to get our passports stamped there. Then we had a lovely dinner at the Amherst Public House. When we were done with dinner, it was raining pretty hard, so the walk back was, um, refreshing?

And then there were board games.

The next day, the rest of the crew did another ~30 mile ride. Even without the accident, it’s doubtful that Susan or I would have felt up to another big ride. Instead, we went to visit the Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College,

which had a very manageable collection of minerals, fossils, etc. We enjoyed about 2 hours there, and then headed to Tree House Brewing Company in Deerfield.

So this is not their flagship location in Charlton, but a newer facility. I’d always heard great things about their beer, but not so great stories about the Charlton facility, which could be overcrowded, with long lines, long waits, etc. Having never been to their Charlton facility, I can’t compare them; I can only say that our experience was great. The facility is huge, and it took some time to walk from the ample parking lot to the sunny, air-conditioned atrium taproom. We arrived shortly after they opened (noon), and were able to walk right up to the bar and order a beer without waiting, and then order a pizza, which was ready in about 15 minutes. The beer was terrific, and the pizza was very good. And we were able to get our passports stamped as well!

A truly enjoyable weekend, with but one blemish. If I had been more alert, or less tired, it probably wouldn’t have happened at all. I’m grateful that my body took this more or less in stride, and seems to be recovering. It won’t be as fast as it would have been in my twenties, but that’s life.