Better Part of Valor

East Hampton "riders" CT Bears came by car. From left: Captain, CT Blogger, Grumpy, Jim and Connor.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour ride to East Hampton, NJ, February 12, 2017

By: Chris Loynd, a.k.a. CT Blogger

Our Sunday freeze line hovered somewhere over New York City. To the south our New Jersey brother bears would experience only rain. North, at departure time in Connecticut, snow was falling and accumulating. Since it would rain only in Jersey we were sure the ride would not be cancelled. Our perfect attendance was at risk.

Riding looked pretty dicey, so Captain and I decided to drive, a fairly long drive, 150 miles and 2 1/2 hours one way. Grumpy came along even though he was not going for perfect attendance. Plus we picked up Jim and his son Connor driving in their own car, a Jeep, at the Darien rest stop on I-95. We convoyed across the parkways and over the GW Bridge. Captain led and Jim did a great job as sweep, clearing lanes and keeping pace.

It's a little nuts, we all admit, to drive to New Jersey for lunch in the snow, sleet and rain. All to sign a paper proving our consistent feasance.

Truth is, the Polar Bear Grand Tour is a great excuse to get together, tell stories, rip on each other, debate politics and get out of the house. It's better on a motorcycle. But we had a great time Sunday without the bikes all the same. Driving in a car together actually gave us much more time to talk. On our motorcycles we are isolated in our full-face helmets.

Our destination, O'Connor's American Bar and Grill, had a distinctly Irish theme, despite the "American" adjective in its name. This is a great destination, new to the Polar Bear Grand Tour schedule. Hopefully they will stick with us. Turnout this year was pretty light. It rained fairly steady most of the day. Good food, plenty of space, plenty of parking, easy to get to, O'Connor's has it all.

Connor and I enjoyed the shepherd's pie. It was excellent and almost, almost, more than I could eat. Captain had the chili and pronounced it spicy.

Because we came in a car, we received only a single point at sign in. So Captain and I still need one ride more for our 60-point pins. What a difference a week makes. The coming Sunday is forecast to be sunny and near 50 degrees.

Can't really see it in the rainy, blurry photo taken through the car window, but we were fascinated by this Polar Bear's ponytail. Either the ponytail is fake and stuck on or she drilled an appropriate hole in her helmet. We'll have to see if we can find her at another Polar Bear ride to find out.

CT Bears catch up with Quartermaster Gary Rosen outside the restaurant. Photo by: Bernie Walsh.