Mission Accomplished!

We made it to Boston! Dipped the front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean!!!

Harry then said something to the effect of "Alright then, I guess I'll be going home now" and walked out into the big pond as he waved goodbye.

We somehow managed to get him to come back. I think someone informed him there would be beer served at the banquet tonight.

Today was just an 18-mile ride. For the last 13 miles , we all rode together, in a 2x2 formation, taking the lane as the support vans led the way.
Sorry I didn't get this post published sooner - I had a bit of writer's block. I mean really, what do you say to acknowledge that the trip you have dreamed of for 20 years has been successfully completed???And that the trip far exceeded any expectations. And how do you communicate that the friendships forged are even more valuable than joy of riding the bike? And the appreciation for being fortunate enough to take this trip and to complete it safely....
For now, let me put it this way - IT WAS A TOTAL BLAST!!!!!
I will perhaps get a little more eloquent when I get back home. For now, my deepest thanks to all my fellow riders. The way we all knew we had the support of each other across the country was incredible! You all made the trip for me!


Of course this trip wouldn't have happened without the fabulous CrossRoads staff: Tracy, Larry, Mack, Margaret, and Rick. Professionalism always, and work done from the heart - fabulous!
I am also indebted to all of you folks back home -- your supportive comments along the way did wonders to keep me going in the times of desert heat, wind, rain, potholes, and even the chest cold at the very end.


The photo above shows me next to the map on the final day. Notice the glove tan line ?
If you have been curious as to what the guardian dog and the aquarium loked like, here's your answer - they came to the celebration banquet. Since nobody replied with a guess as to the dog's name, I will have to tell you. It is Boston. :) The thing that looks like a Q-tip is just his celebration bone. Good boy Boston - job well done. (Yes, all those folks who said we were crazy to ride our bikes across the country - you are right - but only because really we are crazy anyhow). No regrets on the transcontinental ride!


The photo below is a peek at the flags we were carrying - the top orange one was for safety. Other stuff got added on, mostly for ceremonial or sentimental reasons. The flags with other riders names were for those riders who had the shorter trip planned but wanted to at least go to Boston with us in spirit - something we were happy to do, as they were definitely in our thoughts the whole way. From left to right, they belonged to Harry, me and Ira. Yep, the Brit had the most American flags.



Since I don't need to thank the Academy, I will go straight to thanking the folks back at the office. (Hopefully I still have a job there!!??) So, last, but certainly not least, a huge Thank You to everyone at Burger Rehab!! The support from Shawn and Mike in allowing me to take the time off for this sabbatical was incredible!!! And I am deeply grateful to the entire team of the Folsom Clinic - your support and willingness to step-up to help out in so many ways while I went away is remarkable. A truly awesome team!!
One last thing for now --- my bike performed flawlessly!! Zero mechanical issues! And with only 4 punctures (as I now call them), the Armadillo tires served me well. The bike never had to get on the mechanic's stand until it was time to get packed up to get shipped home! Wow! Guess that mechanic back home was right - the bike was the last thing I needed to worry about. :) Bike shown below all stripped down and getting it's last bath before getting packed up. Wow - what an incredible bike ride we just had!

VT, NH, MA!

Today we started in Vermont, rode through a small piece of New Hampshire, and ended up in Massachusetts! Another day of some nice climbs - a few short/steep ones, and a few long gradual ones. Again, only about 5,000 foot total vertical gain. I did feel better when I later heard that one of the short hills was a 12% grade - I was wondering why I feeling a bit sluggish!


Very pretty route. I really enjoyed the New Hampshire bit - the quiet road was lined with pine trees and ferns! Interesting combo!


The route from Brattleboro, VT to Burlington, MA was 91 miles, but Harry and I were able to round up to 100 by cruising around Burlington upon arrival. So, officially, I had twelve "Century" days during this trip. This is counting days of 100 miles or more only -- not days that are "close to 100".

Sadly, Alec did not ride with us today since he is still feeling quite ill with flu symptoms. It just wasn't the same to be riding without him. Indeed, I think it got our little group all out of sync.
For the first time, we got separated! Here's how it happened:
Harry, Ira, and I were joined by Willie after the SAG stop. At around 45 miles, one of the little American flags on Harry's bike fell off, so the three guys stopped to get it but the plan was for me to just continue on since I was a bit slow on the hills today (mostly due to a chest cold making the deep breathing of the climbs turn into coughing fits, etc); no big deal - they would all catch up. So I carried on. Since nobody had caught up to me by the time we were to make a significant turn onto a different road at mile 49, I decided it would be wise to just wait there; we could re-group as everyone made the turn. After a few minutes, I happened to glance up and I see Harry absolutely flying down the descent. He was only in my view for less than one second, but it was clear that he was in chase mode - trying to catch me, no doubt. The problem was that he went straight pass the turn. There was no way I would be able to catch him from where I had come to a stop. And I could not yell nearly loud enough due to a hoarse voice today.
The only reason this is a bit of a dilemma is that - as you know- Harry does not even carry a route sheet with him - usually I am there in the # 2 spot to navigate! OK, I figured, Ira and Willie must be right behind him and they will be able to chase him down. (I knew that even on a day that I am not sick, there is not chance I could catch Harry if he was in full chase mode). Here's where it got weird: Ira and Willie were not showing up. What the heck happened to them??? (I found out later that they stopped for one of Willie's fire-station stops and sent Harry on ahead with a brief instruction to watch for the turn). Cell phone was of no use - no coverage for me in this spot.
Anyhow - to make a long story short - Willie and Ira did finally show up at the turn. We sent "fast Ira" off on his bike even though it was quite unlikely Ira would catch him. Ultimately we were able to chase down Harry by flagging down a man in a truck to go look for him and deliver the message about where we were. The plan worked really well, and we were able to carry on, with Harry really only getting 4 extra miles in round trip. (Seems he does pay some attention after all; when he saw that he was on a route labeled "South", he knew he should be going "East", so he did stop and that let our stranger in the truck catch him).
Ah well, guess it's kind of surprising things like this didn't happen more often on this trip.

Almost to the Atlantic. Ceremonial 18 miles to dip the front wheel tomorrow!

Vermont

It was a quick trip through Vermont for us. Today we rode 79 miles from Albany, NY to Brattleboro, VT. Before getting to VT, we got to ride over the Hudson River, which is quite impressive. Throughout the day we were treated to view of lots of little rivers, falls, creeks, and an honest-to-goodness "babbling brook" meandering through a green meadow that had orange and yellow wildflowers on display. Sounds too perfect, I know, but really- I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted too!!
I must say, I do like Vermont. Seeing lots of Subarus on the road here, so I feel at home. It was great to ride through a completely different part of the state than I done on my trip with VBT for the fall colors a few years back in the Lake Champlain area. Our route today took us through the Green Mountains, so we got back into some decent climbing. Nothing too severe though - really only about 5,000 feet total vertical gain for the day. We had quite a bit of rain during the last 2/3 of the ride. This is not what we had ordered, as Alec was riding while sick -- seems to have the flu, poor guy. But man, he kept on pedaling even though he was shivering and pale as a ghost at times. (And yes, we - his friends- let him carry on. We all understand the persistance).
We rode through Bennington, VT so we got to check out the impressive monument for the battle in the Revolutionary War. This town is big on moose. Didn't see any real moose, but Bennington pays a lot of tribute to the creatures with life-size sculptures of moose all around town. And the local artists put a lot of work into painting/ decorating these sculptures. One of the locals says they have a Moose Festival every four years, so the decoration of the moose always gets updated as part of a "competition" of sorts.

There was a gradual 7-mile climb out of Bennington which took us past an adorable little ski area called "Prospect". I saw two runs carved out of the tree-scape.(See photo below). Another climb took us up Hogback Mountain, which boasts a "100-mile view". And it was fabulous; even with all the rain, clouds, and mist - we did get quite a view.

I know we are in Vermont because we got to ride on/through a covered bridge! (see photo at the top of this post). The bridge below is one we passed as we headed into Brattleboro; this is a lively little town - very cute place!

Albany, NY

With an easy 69-mile ride from Little Falls, we arrived in Albany. Blue skies smiled upon us. We were able to start out in shorts and short-sleeves!

The route took us into the historical Mohawk Indian region, and we followed the Mohawk River. This is a really lovely area with vast views of green rolling hills and lakes beyond the river. It was very cool to see the locks along the river and appreciate the history of the transport methods in the old days. We are passing through towns established in the 1700's!


We discovered the lively town of Scotia along the way and had a great lunch stop at an Irish pub/grill since we noticed a few other riders stopped there. Fun times were had as we joined George, Mike and Nancy.
Yep, Nancy was back on the bike today and completed the whole ride! She is tough! (She managed to get a new helmet at a Walmart yesterday). It was great to see her back out there!
Two photos taken in Scotia are shown below.



Earlier in the day, we met up with a solo rider going from this area out to Massachusetts. He was at the same hotel we were in last night and in our conversations with him then he mentioned not really knowing much about biking or fixing flat tires. Hmmm. Then we saw him out on the road today. I noticed his Converse high tops while he passed us. Yep, he passed us. Oh well, our motto has been to ride smart, not hard....

Blue skies

Big news of the day was "sunshine and blue sky"!! Need I say more???
The nice weather and pleasant route made the day fly by. We rode 78 miles to get from Liverpool (Syracuse area) to Little Falls, NY. Of note, our route took us through Utica. I was able to shed the arm warmers and vest early on, and it was nice to not be wearing the leg warmers for the first time in a few days.


Little Falls is a cute little town with wonderfully old grand architecture.(Examples shown in the two photos above). I guess the town was a big paper mill area back in the day. And apparently thereis quite a rock-climbing scene here now. A quick walk around town after dinner revealed lots of steep hills in the downtown streets. Must be interesting in the winter!! Some little water falls right in town - including a few in peoples' back yards!
Not much else to report - just the typical awesome day on the bike.

The "other" Liverpool

It was a hoot to arrive in Liverpool, NY with someone over here from Liverpool, England.
The ride from Canandaigua was only 68 miles, but it took us most of the day due to a few puncture issues and a lot of photo stops, etc.
At mile 3, we came upon Nancy at the side of the road with a flat. We stopped to help, and we knew this would just be ~ 4minutes to get her rolling. We were wrong. She has some tricky tires/wheels so there was a "pinch flat" in the process, then a broken valve stem on the next try! Uuugh! As we were finally leaving, Harry noticed he had a flat. No big deal - another 4 minutes, right? Well, for some reason, that one didn't go smoothly either - another pinch flat!!! (For any non-cyclists out there - the pinch flat is a self-induced flat that occurs with putting the new tube inside the tire but getting a little piece of it pinched between the tire and rim such that when air is added, it punctures. It is not a pretty thing, because you essentially start all over on another repair, just when you thought you were done). Really, we do know what we are doing, but I think we were just nervous due to the rain and the fact that the ride director was there watching us, maybe???
The rain did let up as we finished with the"flat tire fiasco of 2009".
Later in the ride, Alec had a flat, but that fix did go smoothly. We hadn't gotten flats in quite some time. (I hadn't mentioned this due to some superstitions in the group about commenting on things like that.


We stopped at Seneca Lake, rode through Seneca Falls (home of women's rights Hall of Fame), then Waterloo (birthplace of Memorial Day).

We also found out about a 9/11 tribute from a local, so we went 1 mile off route to see a fire truck that was used in 9/11 rescue efforts and is now turned into a memorial. The names of all the firefighters who died in the rescue efforts were painted onto the sides of the truck. Quite sobering.



Poor Nancy (riding quite a ways in front of us after her flat got fixed) had a crash at about mile 20 or so. There was a tricky little curb that appeared - just an inch or so high; seems it caught her wheel. Her helmet was cracked in 2 places, and she got some impressive road rash and a very sore shoulder. She was released from the hospital and able to join us at the hotel tonight but won't be riding for a while. It was good to see her join us at the hotel.

Rainy Day in New York

The ride from Hamburg to Canandaigua, NY was 95 miles of constant, heavy rain. Of course, Pollyana noted that at least it wasn't very windy. It was also noted that we really couldn't get any more wet, so we might as well keep riding. As you know, our need to round up to 100 applies in this case, so Harry and I made the chocolate milk errand into a 5 mile loop.
While getting the milk, we noticed the Subway sandwiches right next door, so decided lunch would be a good idea. As the gal was making our sandwiches, we thought it would be a perfect time for standing quadricep stretches. The funny part was that the full knee flexion also served to ring out sopping wet tights a bit, so we left quite a puddle on the floor. The folks were quite gracious about it, fortunately, since we didn't realize it until our second repetition.
The Dalton Four showed that we can ride when we really need to. Very short SAG stops to prevent getting too cold. Steady pace. Jokes about how we were riding "upstream" ; it was true as we went through a few towns where the water runoff on the road had a decent current that was carrying sticks with it - we really were riding upstream.
We had the extremely good fortune of not getting any flats in our group, which is quite rare on a rainy day like this when all sorts of debris shows up. Others were plagued by flats and misc. mechanical issues. We did make sincere offers to help any folks along the way, but those big dogs are all quite self-sufficient. So, this was a first, but our group was the first to sign in at the hotel. Quite a few folks rode most of the day in the comfort of the SAG wagon. They are probably quite a bit smarter than our group.