Little Rhody - More Lobsters Than Mobsters?

Well it's just now a month since my return to the Ocean State. You can go home again, but that doesn't mean that your parents won't have turned your bedroom into a geriatric approximation of the boom-boom room. Just kidding, I never had a childhood bedroom here. But when you do go home again (and RI, especially that my family is all here now, feels more home than the Long Island of my birth had for a long long long ass time), it may be that you've changed and home hasn't, and that's what feels strange?

My mother and I disagree on Anthony's. They've got great fish, and their stuffies are tremendous. She thinks they have too much bread and chourico, whereas I - too much chourico? Okay, as if. In any case, I've had more seafood in the last 10 days than I've had in the last 10 years. My veins run red with brine, it's who I am, no sense fighting it.

More good news on cheap eats at Tito's. It's just fucking awesome. Three taco Friday, 2 of either bbq pork or redfish soft tacos, and one of the other, done. Happy me.

The bad news: my index of how much you are overpaying for your current real estate situation hinges on your proximity to a Whole Foods. In MD, I was within easy walking distance of 3, which well I'm an idiot. On the other hand, if you are a person to whom food generally matters as I am, Whole Foods is not a bad thing. Get a little disciplined about what you do there, don't fall victim to the infamous $97 snack of Page Valley Trip ca 2010, and you do very well at WF, eating better for the same money. Lovely though Aquidneck Island is, the food stores suck. There are two natural food stores that have some of the stuff that the chain stores don't have but they cost wicked bank, and the Shaw's/Stop and Shop scene just sucks. So there's that.

Coffee here is better. Customs House Coffee has you all covered. And when I ride across the bridge, Coastal Roasters in Tiverton is at least as good (I plan to move to Tiverton or Little Compton, perhaps Westport - but I can't brace the thought of having to be a Masshole - soon).

The riding here is interesting. I think everyone just mountain bikes and waits until cross. Weather be damned I've done several hundred miles and you pass the occasional dude. Oddly, every time I've seen dudes in like legit local team kits I've been driving. I think I ride later in the day than others, but I have schedule latitude and it's warmer later. I am a QUEEN about being too cold.

There is some funny Strava stuff going on here too. I now have a KOM, and let me tell you, when you can get a KOM on a 90" "climb" by 15" with a 400w effort, on a road where people do actually ride, well it's not as thick a culture here as there. I'm willing to wait it out and see what comes, and there are some segments with some impressive stats. But there's also wind. Any I mean wind, like it's actually a legit training thing to learn to deal with wind noise kind of wind. Windsurfing kind of wind. It's awesome. Saturday it was blowing about a bazillion and six, and this road that I used to live on (Wapping Road) has a long segment on it. I was 50x12 the whole time on it, monster tailwind, barely broke 300w for the 6 or whatever minutes (I think my average was 311) and kicked the crap out of Scott Giles' time (yes, that Scott Giles - he of about 4 Brazilian watts on this particular segment). So of course I will be cherry hunting segments according to wind conditions. Race your strengths, right? (sort of humiliating to even be talking about Strava in this but but any port in a storm, eh?).

I hope my ski season is over with a total of 3 days on the hill this year, just because I WANT SPRING, DAMMIT. Next Friday I go to Hong Kong and China for 10 days. I'll learn what all the guys who bitch about working out in crappy hotel gyms are crabbing about.

Next up: the mysterious case of Free Range Coffee at America's Oldest General Store.