South County Bike Path Ride 1

David: The South County Bike Path runs from Kingston Station to Narragansett, covering seven miles in total distance. It also has a third connection to URI, which is how I access the path. The path stops at a few small towns in between such as Wakefield and Peace Dale. Most of the cars here were found in the town of Wakefield. This was my first time on the path, as the weather was warming up and I was growing tired of walking around campus as I had been doing in the months prior. The path was a great change of scenery, and a great way to get into a nearby town. The problem with URI is that there is no college town around it at all, so you're very limited to what you can do on a weekend or after classes. This became my thing to do for the semester. 

Above: Custom Jeep SJ Gladiator (SJ-Series)

Also at George's was this '70s Jeep SJ Gladiator, making this the second AMC era Jeep found on this ride. Back before Jeep was purchased by AMC in the early '70s, it was owned by Kaiser. Kaiser called this the Gladiator, and the design was carried over when AMC bought them out.  In 1972, AMC changed the name of the Gladiator to the J-Series. Commonly, you will hear a J-Series be referred to as a Gladiator. Today, the modern day Gladiator doesn't bear much in common with its ancestor seen here. The new ones have more in common with the Jeep Scrambler pickup, which was a variation of the Jeep CJ-7, like the new Gladiator is a variation of the Wrangler. I think Chrysler missed the boat here. 

Above: 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe

This is a sweet Mustang. The car speaks for itself, but there was another aspect to this car that stood out to me. This may have been spotted back in Fall 2020. If you go back to the Fall Finds '20 entry, you'll see a grainy photograph taken at night of a dark colored early '60s Mustang with similar rims and body style. I have a theory that this is that car, but unfortunately I have no way to confirm. Well gang, looks like we have a mystery on our hands. Are these two Mustangs the same or different cars? What do you think?

Above: 1976 Mercedes Benz 240D (W123) 5MT

The earliest of the W123 Mercedes Benz cars, 240D is what came before the 300D. The design would be updated to the more common version of the car we're used to in '77. I had never seen one of these before in this body style, so I wasn't sure what I was looking at, and I had no idea it was a W123 car. Nonetheless, I really like this car, and it's a really clean example of a '70s Mercedes Benz. It has the timeless appearance of a classic Mercedes Benz that, even without knowing a lot about these cars, is instantly recognizable. 

Above: Punch Buggy! A Custom 1964 VW Beetle (Black) and a VW Super Beetle (White)

Making my way back down the bike path towards campus, I stumbled upon a pair of classic VW Beetles I missed on my way up. At the time of this bike ride, the black Beetle was up for sale on Marketplace, and I think it eventually sold. The white Beetle was kept. These are pretty nicely kept VWs, and it was definitely super cool to see these.