Up Front View and Dead Animals

CT Bears in Mt. Arlington, NJ, from left: Grumpy, CT Blogger, Mac, Sharon, Captain, down front Pogy, not shown, Anonymous Ed.

Polar Bear Motorcycle Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, ride to Pub 199, Mt. Arlington, NJ., February 17, 2019.

By: Chris Loynd
Photos by: Grumpy

I offered to lead the ride this Sunday.  Captain said Pogy wanted to lead. I said that was fine with me. When he joins us in Darien, he can just ride up and take over. Instead, Pog dropped in the back and served as sweep.

We had six bikes in line. That's a reasonable number to manage, especially with experienced riders. Still, taking the lead changes the character of your experience. Everyone should try it. I think most all of our regular riders have been up front. If you haven't, you're welcome to the lead.

Mostly I thought the ride pretty smooth. It did take us a very long time to get all the way over to the right lane in Greenwich to prepare for the I-287 exit. I thought maybe my sweep was asleep. At lunch he explained that despite his blinker three cars slipped in before he could get over. As it turns out, I got the I-287 exit wrong in any case. Anonymous Ed explained the week before we should stay in the middle lane of I-95 so we can control the left lane of the two lane exit. Ideally, we should cover both to keep cars from cutting in and out of our line.

Anonymous Ed had a passenger again this week. This week it was his wife Sharon. We were happy to have her along. It has been I think two years, maybe three, since I met her at our end-of-season CT Bears dinner. Sorry, Sharon, I forgot.

Our destination was pretty close by Connecticut standards. But unlike last week's destination, for me it ticked just over 100 miles each way. So I earned that extra Polar Bear mileage point this Sunday.

Pub 199 is a huge place. Service was a little slow, but understandable. The Polar Bears were quickly filling the place. I'd called during the week to ask about their hours. The person answering the phone at the Pub told me they'd open at 11:30 and the kitchen at noon. So we skipped our EDP (early departure protocol) and arrived at 11:35. We weren't the first, but one of the first tables. By the time we left, both of Pub 199's two huge rooms were two-thirds filled with bears.

The food was very good and generous in size. Mac ordered a side of fries so big he barley dented it. Piles of steamed clams were found at a lot of the tables, including out Polar Bear Flight Leaders. I love steamed clams, but was embarrassed to order them in front of Pogy who digs and transports and sells clams and oysters by the bushel.

We were seated in the seafood room of Pub 199. The walls were covered in fish mounts of all sizes and species. The land animal room was on the other side of the restaurant. Its walls were covered with North American and African animal heads of all sorts, including an elephant and rhino.

Our ride home was pretty smooth in my prejudiced opinion. Traffic was unusually light, even to the Tappan Zee Bridge. We never hit any stop-and-go.

We split in two at on I-287. CT Blogger, Grumpy and Mac took to the Merritt Parkway. Captain, Anonymous Ed and Pogy took I-95 home.

Chandeliers in the fish room were styled as sailboats.