Maybe you did not know about Danbury
Connecticut's Favorite Milk Run 
You are a lean, mean cruising machine - a biker of stature among your peers. When you and your crew get ready to go on a run on a sunny Sunday afternoon, where are you going to go?
Well, if you are like a lot of other New England bikers, you want to aim your headlight towards some smooth, curvy scenic roads, that ultimately take you to a place where refreshments are cold and the crowds are motorcycle types like huge ice cream sundae, a cold shake, or some chocolate milk really hits the spot after a long, hard day of carving up the road with the thunder of your mighty steed. Right?
In the case of Marcus Dairy Bar Restaurant in Danbury, absolutely. What started as just a simple Sunday ride by a few guys from New Canaan has become the most popular weekend motorcycle hangout in New England. But how the heck did a milk for nearly a century grow into a two-wheeler mecca?
"It actually started in the late '60's, explains Marcus Dairy's Sean Marcus. "Guys started riding here because the roads to the dairy were great, and the restaurant had big glass windows out front so that wile they got a bite to eat, they could make sure nobody would mess with their bikes."
Now on Sunday (when the weather is decent) the dairy's parking lot is filled with hundreds of motorcycles from all over New England. Three times a year, vendors are brought in, bike shows are held, and upwards of 10,000 motorcyclists visit on these "Super Sundays" which bring so many machines into Danbury that the bikes spill over into the Danbury Fair Mall parking lot. Awesome.
The Hardware Store as Historical Treasure
Ah, the neighborhood hardware store. It's not just a vanishing fixture of small town America, or just a place to find that elusive solid-copper toilet valve you have been searching for like it was some sort of plumbers' Ark of the Covenant. No. if you are lucky (or just live in Danbury) your hardware store is a registered National Historical Place.
Meeker's Hardware at 86 White Street is such a store; in fact, it's the only hardware store in the country that is certified as a historical treasure. This is largely because it has been in its present location since 1889, and the family (through five generations now) has been taking care of the feed, hardware, and tool needs of the working community for more than a hundred years.
The monument in the front of the store is a part of the building's heritage, for it used to be found on the fourth store facade of the building as it stood until 1896. A fire that year destroyed the top two stories, and the stone was buried in the rubble and wasn't discovered until an excavation of the basement in 1976. The original two stories remain to this day, and despite the aura of historical holiness Meeker's is still a down-home place where you can score that evasive nut or bolt.
"My husband's grandfather built this store in 1883" explains Lucille Meeker, "and it was feed and grain mostly. We still sell hay and birdseed, but when the farms left we evolved almost completely into hardware. We still sell wood stoves, honey, whatever people need, like a general store. You can still buy nails and things by the pound here, too. You go into a modern hardware store and you have to buy them by the package."
Strangers at the Station
At first glance, the Danbury Railway Museum looks like an appealing little facility that chronicles the history of rail travel in this charming Connecticut city. That's exactly what it is, too.
But there's something a little weird about the place. In fact, you might get a creepy feeling that you've somehow seen it before. Lest you think this is a genuine case of deja vu, you should know that your strange feeling of unspecified remembrance is cinematically derived (especially if you are a Hitchcock fan).
Today the historic Danbury Station at 120 White Street may be the location of the Railway Museum, but fifty years ago it was a key location for one of Hitchcock's most memorable films, Strangers on a Train.
The year was 1950, and Hitchcock renamed the station Metcalf for the film, which starred Farley Granger and Robert Walker. The train station was critical to the story, as Granger and Walker meet on a train and this chance encounter results in murder with a very original version of blackmail thrown in. Toward the end of the movie, an important scene featuring Walker trying tho fish Hitchcock's Maguffin (in this case a cigarette lighter) out of a storm drain was also shot right in front at the station. Hitchcock also carefully chose the garbage placed in the drain for the shot.
The museum has a display with some great production photos from the film in addition to some great exhibits of railroad memorabilia, including a huge selection of lanterns. A tour of some classic railroad cars is available as well.
