Westerly is the last town in Rhode Island, and it knows it. The Pawcatuck River forms the state line here, and the neighboring village of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, sits across a bridge so close that you can cross the border for a coffee and be back before it cools. For anyone arriving along the coast from Narragansett, this is a natural place to end a ride: a proper small town with a working center, not a resort.
The town's old wealth came from granite. Westerly stone was quarried and carved here for more than a century and ended up in monuments and cemeteries across the country, and you can still spot the fine pinkish-gray polish on public buildings and gravestones as you wander. Wilcox Park, a leafy Victorian green in the middle of town, is worth a few quiet minutes and sits next to the library, a building with real presence. Main Street has the unhurried feel of a place that never entirely gave up on its downtown.
The beaches lie south of here, and that is why most riders pass through. Misquamicut stretches along the shore with the sort of amusement-and-clam-shack energy that lasts all summer, and a little farther on, Watch Hill sits on its headland at the end of a winding shore road, with a lighthouse, grand old cottages and the Flying Horse Carousel, a hand-carved carousel from the nineteenth century that still turns in summer, its horses with real horsehair manes. Summer weekends bring slow, bumper-to-bumper beach traffic on the lanes to Watch Hill, so mornings and shoulder season are kinder.
Practical matters are simple. Westerly is big enough for fuel, groceries and food at every price, and Route 1 runs straight through, so you can refill before the beach roads, where stations are scarce. Across the river, Stonington Borough in Connecticut is a fishing village of narrow streets and lobster boats that makes a lovely onward loop. Salt air, osprey on the poles along the marshes, and the faint smell of low tide are the signature of the place, and the only thing that will slow you is the draw bridge schedule of the weekend.