During part of the summer Marianne works on Block Island, which is a small island at the mouth of Long Island Sound, so I go visit. Getting there is an exciting event for me, as it involves three buses and the ferry.

And of course a bike. I take my folding bike, a Dahon Speed D7, ride it to the bus stop, and whenever I need to or can use it while transferring. Most often I have to bike through part of Providence while switching from Peter Pan to a RIPTA bus, as Peter pan may not have well timed service for the three miles of distance between their terminal, and Kennedy Plaza, that is used by all the buses providing public service to Rode Island.

This time I ended up having two hours in Springfield, MA, so of course I biked around. The most striking difference I noticed was about how many people noticed my bike. Due to its 20 inch wheels but otherwise full size, it does look different. But never before did four unrelated people yell over friendly comments to me about my bike within two hours. In fact I only remember one comment during the previous several years of using the bike which was something like “Dude, I want your bike!”.

I think the cultural attitude about the idea of bicycling for transportation is shifting in the USA. The high price of petrol, as well as car-ownership in general, lessens people’s appetite for using one for all their transportation needs, so they are, secretly or openly, thinking about alternatives. One of those alternatives is a bicycle. Thus I am not only a ‘dude biking around’ any more, the bicycle itself is more visible. Especially when it looks different.

So all went well with the trip, in fact I dismounted the bus at the Kingston train station because I had learned, that there is a new six-mile bike trail leading from there toward Point Judith, my destination to board the ferry.

Of course the bike trail was beautiful and loaded with people, both directions, biking, skate-boarding, walking, roller-blading, running while pushing a cart with children, and so on. And more over, it lead through quaint little towns where new art and businesses sprang up in connection to the bike trail.

Barely making the boat, but having had a great ride, I still had time to fold up the bike and stick it into a lightweight case, so I don’t have to pay a bike fee on top of the ferry ticket cost. Then on the other side I just unfolded my bike and was at my host in five-or-so minutes.

The island of course has a lot of roads and even trails to bike on, below are some of the pictures from that adventure. Everything is in close biking distance. And luckily drivers are well aware of bicyclists on the roads, as there are a lot of them.

On the way back I got to see what hurdles people who took their cars to the island with the ferry had to go through, in addition to paying for a hefty transportation fee. If you have a reservation, you must line up in rows an hour before departure, and as long as the ferry runs (weather dependent), you will make it to the other side. If you don’t have a reservation, you will have to wait in that line time after time, to see if there would be enough place to get loaded onto the ferry. When my boat left the Island there were two cars, loaded with people and stuff, that didn’t get onto the ferry. What a complicated life…