Whippany Road Bridge Work – an unwanted encounter!

David, Claudia, bikes, OakridgeLast weekend, actually the previous weekend, we decided to check out the Whippany Road Bridge works, which is just around the corner from us. To do so we finally went on our first little bicycle ride since we moved to New Jersey. I don’t think I have told you in length or in any depth for that matter about my driving experience here and I think I will leave that for another post. Suffice to say that bicycle riders are a huge minority and thus treated with big suspicion i.e. do not pass one unless you are on a four lane road and no car is coming towards you for at least a mile. Which is always good for building up a tiny little queue behind the poor soul riding the bicycle. But in any case, so we got our bikes ready on Saturday, cleaned and oiled them etc. I looked up a route that we could start from home on a website called MapMyRun for Joggers and Bicyclists. They have lots of routes online all over the place. However, we started one right here at home and went for a short and fast ride of only 45 minutes around Whippany/Hanover Twp. Being a Sunday traffic was not so bad, David, Claudia, bikeplus most of the way we could actually ride on a sidewalk. One that had seen better days and that is not good for skinny tires, plus it has a few curbside drops at intersections = good for mountain bike jumps, but it is a sidewalk! So we had a very short ride, but we really only wanted to see how David’s foot holds up and our bikes, which had been asleep for about one and a half years, too. And I am happy to report that everything is fine. We had a good time. David’s foot is … David’s foot and the bikes are o.k. Well, David’s mountain bike, which he did not ride in Germany and thus had been out of action for a little longer, needs its derailleur checked, which our local bicycle shop, Whippany cycle, is currently doing.

Whippany River road work, bridge, construction siteOh, I nearly forgot – the Whippany Road Bridge Work. Over the past few months we had quite a bit of noise from roadwork and are suffering from detours, because the bridge over the Whippany River has to be renewed. And they are not simply restoring it, they completely tore it down. Since you cannot get there by car, we thought that being on our bicycles we would take a peek and rode down to the roadwork site. Wow – the bridge is completely gone. See for yourself. Whippany River road work, bridge, construction siteBut the one thing I really did not need to see was a snake. Yep, when we walked closer towards the river over some earth and rubble I suddenly saw a snake slithering away from us quickly into the water. David Whippany Riverdid not see it, but being curious as he is, went right after it, when he heard me say ‘snake’. But by then it had vanished. He said it was probably a garter snake. All I know is it was brown, pretty quick and an unwanted encounter for me here at the Whippany Road Bridge construction site. Whippany RiverWhippany RiverWhippany River

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