Seconding the recommendation for Liberty Bank, they were great to work with for a conventional 15yr mortgage.

Also, a bunch of years in and they're still the ones servicing the mortgage. That's been very smoothly-run, and I've never had any issuees. Escrow payments to my town were always done promptly, the website is easy to use for setting up auto-pay and paperless statements, etc etc.

Between exits 73 and 74 on I84, near Union CT. Pretty much right before you hit the state line at Sturbridge MA. Bigelow Hollow is up there on the other side of I84 as well.

I love Bigelow Hollow state park. Nipmuck state forest and Natchaug state forest are both very nice as well.

Here's all the details about our state park system's river camps: https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/State-Parks/Camping/River-Camping-Information---CT-State-Parks-and-Forests

Tibetan Kitchen moved to New Haven recently. A new Tibetan place, Potala, opened up in the same storefront. https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticutmagazine/food-drink/article/potala-himalayan-restaurant-in-middletown-17512237.php

Most of these companies are based out of an office in Guilford, CT. https://www.4catalyzer.com/

Honestly, no. I've been out of college for a while now, but I was not impressed by their engineering school when I was looking. They offered me one of the weakest financial aid / scholarship packages of anywhere I looked, too. Even WPI would have been cheaper, if I recall correctly.

UConn has significantly better academics and better name recognition for engineering, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper. Their CS, CSE, Comp Eng, and EE programs are all excellent.

Gravelmap is a pretty handy resource for stitching together gravel roads in CT: https://gravelmap.com/#8.69/41.5885/-73.0269

Like a bunch of other folks said, the Airline Trail is fantastic. It intersects with the Hop River trail in Willimantic as well. In that same region, there's also some fantastically hilly dirt roads that run through the Meshomasic State Forest. Some pretty sick 10% grade roller coaster stuff in there, I absolutely love it.

It's possible to stitch Airline, Hop River, and The Mesh together to create a pretty huge and unforgettable gravel loop. You can also check out the maps on Trailforks, you'll notice that there's a whole bunch of singletrack MTB trails that intersect the rail trails. So there's plenty of opportunity to get rowdy and underbike it on a 650B wheel set too.

You should also plan on checking out next year's Nutmeg Nor'easter event. The photos speak for themselves: https://theradavist.com/6th-annual-nutmeg-noreaster-an-alternative-new-england-experience/

Having spent a decent amount of time either living or working in all of those regions, definitely Guilford and Madison. They're the least crowded-feeling of any of the towns you listed. Madison has one of the nicest town beaches in the state (Surf Club), and Guilford has one of the nicest town greens along with town beaches on both LI sound and a beautiful lake. They also have the easiest access to New Haven, including a rail line. New Haven is a better city than Hartford in nearly every way.

If those towns are a bit too sleepy, my next pick would be Glastonbury. It's nice and has a more built-up downtown area, and it's close to Hartford.

Personally though I can't stand the Farmington valley area. The main roadways there were never designed for the amount of people that actually live there. It feels congested but in the woods, imo it's kinda the worst of both worlds. Anything on route 4 anywhere around commuting hours kinda highlights my point. Taking 84 into Hartford also sucks in general through that area. The canal trail is nice, though, so it has that going for it.

It's because OP is probably Happy's latest troll account. He's just rage-baiting the sub again. 🤷‍♂️

This calls for an obligatory "Eat shit, Bob."