Craig's Big RIde

We repacked the car today in preparation for our drive back home. And instead of keeping the bicycle assembled and inside the car (i.e. ready for me to pull out and ride), I partially disassembled it and was able to get it into the Thule "rocket box" on top of the car. As you can imagine, that cleared up a great deal of room inside the car so that we could rearrange things in a better way for a more normal road trip. We also did a couple other chores, but then we had a free afternoon to go to downtown Portland. The weather was very pleasant with a high near 82F and it was a nice afternoon to go walkabout. We tried following the Portland Freedom Trail, which documented the sites of Underground Railroad. Mostly what we found was that everything burned down in the Great Fire of 1866. So that was kind of dud. (Sorry, Portland.) The one thing we did find that was interesting was the Eastern Cemetery, where they just happened to have a graveyard tour every Saturday afternoon at 4pm...

We made it to Portland, Maine, today and thereby completed the transcontinental bicycle ride! I rode to the Portland Head Light (lighthouse) and Lailla was waiting for me there. We took a few photos on the beach and then a couple at the lighthouse as well. That's a wrap!   I started in Fryeburg, Maine, near the border with New Hampshire this morning. The first few miles of the ride was on the Maine Mountain Division Trail. I started without my windbreaker on, but stopped after just 1.55 miles to put it on because it was quite chilly. Somehow, I paused Strava while messing with my phone at that stop. I didn't realize that it wasn't recording my ride until I was nearly 20 miles into the day's ride. I've been so careful every day to make sure Strava was accurately recording each day's ride and I messed up the final day. Using Google Maps and matching it up with my Strava map, I determined that I had missed recording 18 miles of my ride. Doh! So today's total wi...

Before I get to today's ride details and photos, I wanted to briefly mention my plans for this blog. Tomorrow is my last day of riding and of course I'm going to post something tomorrow evening. But I also plan to post some entries for a few days after the ride. Lailla and I have some "awards" in mind (like best hotel and worst hotel), but we need some time to think about the dozens of places we've stayed and what else we might give awards to. And I also plan to post some general impressions, an updated spreadsheet of my ride data, and so on. So keep checking back for a few days to see what other goodies I can come up with. I also haven't posted all the photos I took and I may be able to post a few more that I overlooked in my post-ride-and-a-beer-or-two tiredness. Okay, back to our regular programming... After yesterday's struggle, today was a good day. I had to tackle a couple significant climbs. But it wasn't windy, my legs and attitude were feeling...

I finished my ninth state today! I finished Vermont and rode into New Hampshire at Lyme this afternoon. From Lyme, I was heading mostly north--directly into a head wind--and I finished out the day in North Haverhill. I struggled some today, finishing with 71.4 miles at an average speed of 12.6 mph. There was no "Welcome to New Hampshire" sign, so I had to be content with a state line marker on the bridge into New Hampshire. But before I started across the bridge, I did look back and noticed that there was a "Welcome to Vermont" sign coming off this bridge, unlike the one yesterday. I did take a few pictures before leaving Vermont. This old motorcycle was bolted to a rock just a few miles south of my starting point of Rochester. Shortly after stopping for the picture of the motorcycle, something stung me on my forehead just above my left eye. I barely saw the unidentified insect coming toward me as I was cruising along at almost 20 mph at that point. It hit my forehe...

As I mentioned yesterday, the Ticonderoga Ferry that I was planning to take across the river from New York to Vermont has ceased operations for this year. So I took the Lake Champlain Bridge to Vermont instead. Getting there took most of the morning. First, I had to ride nearly to Ticonderoga. The descent out of the Adirondack toward Ticonderoga was a beautiful view and a fast and fun descent. After I turned north toward the Bridge, I encountered another very old cemetery, the Streetroad Cemetery. The Lake Champlain Bridge from two different perspectives.   Before leaving New York, I took a picture of their nice Welcome sign since the one I took in Niagara Falls was somewhat distant from where I was riding. On the Vermont side, there was no welcome sign; instead, there were just a number of directional and highway signs. Come on, Vermont, you can do better. An old canoe is now a flower planter in Crown Point, Vermont. I happened to see another Lover's Lane. (I saw the first one in ...

Before I get started with today's ride and pictures, I have an addendum to yesterday's post. Shortly after I posted my blog entry for yesterday, I heard loons through the open window of our cabin on Fourth Lake of the Fulton Chain. I've only ever heard loons on videos or audio recordings before, never in person. Although it was after dark and I couldn't see anything, I could hear the loons on the lake! I know it's a small thing, but I was happy to hear loons in person for the first time. We woke up this morning to a fairly thick fog. It wasn't as thick as what we experienced in Bismarck, North Dakota, but it was enough to delay my ride start for almost two hours. I finally started turning the pedals just a few minutes before 10am. It turned out to be a nice day for riding. The temperatue topped out in the mid- to high-70s with a light breeze and mostly sunny conditions all day. I ended up logging another 84.6 miles and nearly 5200 feet of climbing. The numbers w...