I did not get a chance to go for long bike rides in most of June, so my next significant ride was in July. This time I headed east, and I had not gone out to the town of Ware in a while. I crossed the river into South Hadley, and passed through the southern part of that town (and a bit of northern Chicopee), riding parallel to the main highway, 202. Eventually, in the town of Granby, I rode north and crossed over route 202, then went east again, ending up in Belchertown center.

From there, I got on route 9 and continued to the Quabbin reservoir area, went through a bit of the Quabbin reservation, and then back to 9 to go over the hills into Ware. I passed through downtown Ware, and stopped for lunch at Janine’s Frostee (which has good sweet potato fries).

From Ware, I headed south, then bore west, passing into some of the town of Palmer. At one intersection where I was turning, I spotted this place (click picture to see a larger version):

I had not had any ice cream at Janine’s, but it was a warm day, and a milkshake sounded good as I passed by. Besides, who could resist the blue and white cow who greeted visitors?

I got a shake made with cherry vanilla ice cream, and it was pretty good. I also noticed (one cannot really fail to) that they only serve hard ice cream at Rondeau’s:

That’s certainly fine with me – I’m no big fan of soft serve.

From there I headed west, and angled a bit north, heading back into Belchertown. At one point, I saw what appeared to be a turkey vulture fly across the road a ways ahead of me, and disappear behind some trees. As I got closer, it flew back across the road the other way, only about 10 to 15 feet in front of me. It was impressive, but happened much too quick to take a picture, even if I had had my phone out.

I climbed over a significant hill in Belchertown, then descended into Granby and picked up the route I had come out on, following the same roads back home. Total mileage on this trip was 55.

Next: semi-secret trail