Ride # 30: Going to the Movies

Thursday, April 3, 3:30, high 50s

The snow is almost gone from the front yard except for the yardberg, a trace of which can be seen in the picture above at left. That particular patch of ground gets almost no sun and so every spring is the last spot to emerge from the snow and ice. On a day like today, though, with a breeze and temperatures in the 50s, it will shrink a little.

Turns out to be movie day today. No, not in my head - out on the road. The thing is, in the past few years, Hollywood has come to central Massachusetts, drawn in no small part by tax incentives offered to companies interested in filming in the state as well as, I assume, the abundance of historic buildings, landscapes, grit, spit, and laconic Yankee mettle. The state has been around a long time, after all.

One of the oddest developments has occurred on what used to be Fort Devens and is now, since the base was officially closed in 1996, the town of Devens (though there are still training grounds for military reservists). The Fort was considered an economic anchor of the surrounding scruffy little towns of Shirley and Ayer so when the Department of Defense announced that it was closing the base, the reaction among many of the citizens was despair and panic. The towns would die! They'd fold up and blow away!

And yet contrary to the collapse of the local economy and a withering away of the population, Fort Devens, with state aid, reinvented itself. Given the great swaths of available acreage, various corporate development projects soon emerged and within a year of the fort's "mothballing" Devens was generating employment and attracting business interests from near and far.

One of the latest projects to come to fruition is NE Studios, a massive Hollywood-worthy film & TV studio with a total of 72,000 square feet of sound stage. Brand new and ready for business, I rode by it today and snapped a shot from the hip looking toward its gated entrance.

NE Studios, Devens

Shad, ignoring the shouts of studio moguls urging him to
"come in for a try out, you're a natural!"
rides on

But I wasn't done with the movies yet, though I didn't know it at the time.

An hour or so later, I had turned the corner on this ride and was in return mode heading back to Lemonstar. My route took me past the old Shirley Airport, one of those small town landing strips from which, once upon a time, small aircraft would come and go. The airport is no longer in existence and the landing strip is now part of a trash removal outfit. However, the old "airport diner," a classic silver-sided type, remains and still serves up greasy eggs and white toast on the weekends.

As I approached I could see quite a few people, a throng actually, and lots of parked cars including a few cop cars. Some of the standers-by seemed to be in military garb. My first thought was that a SWAT raid was going on, or that some emergency had occurred and I'd be unable to pass. Wrong. Turned out to be a film set for the movie Tumbledown which is being filmed throughout the area.

I made a couple passes and snapped a few shots from the hip.

The movie Tumbledown Being Filmed

I hoped to hear someone yell "Action!" but
that never happened

There were so many people standing around and so little actual movement that I thought to myself as I rode on 'No wonder movies cost so much, all these people standing around doing nothing!'

Ride Summary: 29 miles (46 K), about two hours in total. No road kill. Felt strong but am growing tired of the fatter cyclocross tires and all this pavement riding. Am eager for the road bike and for the ability to cover greater distances faster. I figure I'll ride the Crux Elite at least until after the Rasputitsa and then hopefully, around the end of the month, make the switch.