Coffee Ride to Donut Crazy

The Ride

Today, I was on the BMW R1200GSA motorcycle. When I left, my Beeline showed a straight distance of 26.6 miles to my coffee shop destination in Fairfield County, Connecticut. See the article on discovering new roads with Beeline. The GS still had knobby tires mounted from completing the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discover Route earlier this year, so I wouldn’t object to hitting a few dirt roads along the way.

I headed north on Route 121 and took a quick diversion right after leaving Cross River onto Schoolhouse Road, a dirt road. I quickly connected back onto 35 & with at least some dirt under the tires. I felt better hitting some twisty roads the rest of the way.

Route 35 to Ridgefield, CT, and then a right on Route 33 with a left onto Rockwell Road, which connects to Route 102, were the first few road changes of the ride as the temperatures started to climb.

I took Route 102 to Route 7, and my compass pointed straight ahead to the east, but Route 7 heads north/south. I chose North, hoping to find a road to cut over with. Old Redding Road looked promising as there weren’t any “No Outlet” or “Dead End” signs. It started heading east but quickly looked to bear Northeast, so I took the fork toward Mountain Road.

Mountain Road did live up to its name, and looking back on the map, it brought me back roughly to where I got on Route 7 and then turned eastward when it merged with Peaceable Street.

I took this to where it joined with Route 107 (Redding Street) and took that heading east. As it started to head northeast, I hung a sharp right on Route 53, which ran along the Saugatuck Reservoir.

I stayed on it till it reached the reservoir’s central part and then turned left onto Newtown Turnpike, which hugged along the northern coast of the reservoir.

This started heading north again, so I turned off at Cross Highway to get on Route 58, heading south, as my zig-zagging had been moving me much further north than I needed.

I stayed on this and then took Pine Tree Road as it headed slightly more east where the compass was pointing. This worked perfectly as the road turned near a 90-degree turn to the left and became Rock House Road, heading east.

I turned again toward the southeast when the road pointed away from my destination again, turning onto Sport Hill Road - great name- but sadly, dead straight.

The temperature was hovering around 90, so I was glad to find many shaded back winding roads to keep some of the sun off me, and it may have led me to choose some roads over others solely for the shade.

I kept trying to find roads heading roughly toward the destination indicated by the compass. Still, everything became a dead end as I ran into the west side of the Easton reservoir. I finally found some roads to get me around it to the north and then began my progress eastward again.

I got onto a small highway numbered Route 25, heading roughly south, which was OK as I had gone too far north again, but once my compass pointed to the left, I had to find another road. This began a series of trying a route and finding another until I reached Warner Hill Road. I like roads with “hill” in the name, so I took that. It ran parallel to what I needed by ending at Route 110 directly in front of the Sikorsky Helicopter facility.

I turned left onto Route 110, heading north, and found Donut Crazy in a small strip mall about a mile up the road.

REVER is a mobile app designed to help you track, plan, or navigate your ride. With the app, you can easily plan your route, view maps and directions, and track your distance using GPS technology. The app is an excellent tool for anyone who loves to ride and wants to keep track of their progress and distance.

So, with all the road changes, trying to get around reservoirs, and finding some gem curvy roads, my original 26.6 straight compass distance grew to 49 miles in a track recorded by REVER. See the route below.

The Coffee Shop

Donut Crazy is in a strip mall of three shops on the main drag of Route 110 (River Road), with a sign that looks like it could be corporate.

But as you walk inside, you find a space with several fun, quirky elements, such as wooden and metal stools and benches, along with a light bulb sign imploring patrons, “Let’s eat Donuts!”

This is a donut shop first, of course, but they have typical coffee drinks like drip coffee, cappuccino, latte, macchiato, and espresso. But the 90F temperatures during my ride had me eyeing something on the iced part of the menu. While they had iced tea refreshers, smoothies, and frappes, I kept looking at the “on Tap” menu with nitro coffee, cold brew tea, cold brew coffee, and 2% milk.

Donuts on offer ranged from the standard fare of glazed and powdered jelly to options like “cereal,” lemon meringue, cannoli, fat Elvis, Nutella, peach cobbler, red velvet, black hawk (a reference to Sikorsky down the street?), salted caramel pretzel, maple bacon & even french toast.

It was quiet when I arrived shortly after opening, with a single staff member out front and no customers. There is also a drive-thru option, which might reduce the interior traffic.

To cool off, I ordered their Nitro Coffee, which offered “on tap” as iced coffee paired with a French Toast donut.

A family came in after I’d ordered, with the kids very excited by the donut flavor options.

The Refreshments

I typically prefer hot coffee, but the hot temperature of the ride made the thought of hot coffee crazy, so I sat down with my “on tap” nitro iced coffee and french toast donut along the tall stools near the front window.

Refreshing but with a hint of the strong coffee underlying it, this iced coffee hit the spot after the hot ride. The donut did taste like French toast blended with fried dough like a Zeppoli. The sugar of the donut provided the sweetness of my unsweetened coffee.

Many more options for donuts were available, and I’ll need to return to sample more of them and maybe one of the hot coffees next time.