Saturday, August 29, 2015
Our first full day in northeastern Connecticut, and we found a bike path about 40 minutes away from us, west of Willimantic, CT.  It was wonderful and groomed very nicely.  We have only been on one better and that was in Illinois with our friends.  We met so many friendly people along the path today, and they were either walking, running, biking and we even saw two horseback riders.  We met one lady that used to live in Madison (Fitchburg), so she knew Waunakee very well.  Small world!  We found 20 caches today and they were all pretty easy, but we had one DNF.  It's humbling when you can't find one!  We just figure they do things differently out here, but it was rated a # 5 for difficulty, the highest degree of toughness to find.  From there we went to Coventry, and toured the Nathan Hale Family Homestead.  It was well preserved, and very interesting.  Nathan Hale was a school teacher, turned soldier and when Pres. Washington called for volunteers to spy on the British, he stepped up to the cause.  He was only 21 years old, when he went off to New York City, and as it was told to us, he wasn't a good spy.  He was found out the first night, and was hung the next day.  We had a well rounded day today, and we look forward to tomorrow.

We biked on the Hop River Bike Trail, which is part of the East Coast Green Way Trail.  It will eventually go from Maine to Florida.  There are a lot of bike trails out here and this was a beauty.

  This is the Nathan Hale Family Homestead.  It's common to see the stone fences around the properties.

This statue of Nathan Hale stands in the Veteran's Memorial Park in Coventry, CT.  As you all remember, he is well known for his famous quote, before he was hanged.  'My only regret I have, but one life to lose for my country.'