Schedule

Fri  8.9
Sat 8.10
Sun 8.11  leave appleton, midnight ferry
Mon  ludington
Tue    mich
Wed  mich
Thr  arv greg's
Fri
Sat 8.17
Sun 8.18
Mon
Tue  to canada
Wed  canada
Thr  canada
Fri  arv niagara
Sat 8.24   niagara, meet tarricone
Sun  8.25  rochester
Mon  utica
Tue  albany
Wed  meet maurice 08.28
Thr  saratoga
Fri  brsttleboro
Sat 8.31
Sun 9.01  arv boston
Mon
Tue

Final thoughts

a few random thoughts about this trip:

i accomplished a few things i set out to do, and didn't others. 
i was very lucky.
i never had to face any adversity, those kind that make the most interesting stories. 
i also didn't have any that make up horrifying stories. 
i didn't hurt myself.  and my heel didn't heal.
although i reference google maps on a regular basis, i went alot of the trip without a map in front of me.  the window on my front handlebar bag was usually clear.  i didn't use an odometer or speedometer or any other measuring device.  i didn't spend a lot of time counting the miles, but rather looking, observing, listening, and feeling.
so i don't know how many miles i travelled.  sorry, dad, there are some inherited behaviors i try to curb.  my initial route measured out roughly 3,600 miles.  but things vary, plans change.  i didn't alter course much, didn't make any grand detours, but i did adjust some on the fly.
i did not have a single mechanical problem, not a single flat tire, nothing.  i lost the one bolt off my back rack that was easily enough replaced.
i think i did a total of two watercolor sketches and three pen drawings.  i took a lot of pictures.
there are a lot of birds and plants out there and, while i can recognize a few, i don't know most of them.
i carried very little with me.  i used almost everything, except some of the tools and spare parts.  i never used the collapsable bowl, the cup was enough.  the only things i didn't have that would have been nice are a light sheet, the sleeping bag can be too hot at times; a pair of binoculars; and a really good camera. 

i didn't solve any of life's great problems.  i did not figure out how to achieve world peace.  i did not find the cure for cancer.  and i still don't know what i want to do when i grow up.
i avoided thinking about work.  riding is, for me, about the here and now.  experiencing what is around me and within me.  i don't think about much else.

the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe and everything is still 42.

The end

i thought it was going to be anticlimatic.  after all, i was essentiially done, less than 10 mi from the harbor.  it was a mere formality.

but i was pleasantly surprised.  maurice and i both got up by 6:00, even though we were in no rush and told our host we would probably leave between 8 and 9.  the sky was overcast with a few rain drops sprinled in; temperature was mild; and, pleasantly, the streets were void of traffic.  so rather than get on bike trail, we just road down massachusetts ave. to harvard square.  we road across the commons, then we found a cafe a block or two away.  sat outside, drinking our espresso and chai, watched the people walk by.  according to a tourist director i talked to, people have gone to the beach for the final weekend of summer.  things are quieter than usual.

off again, we continued down massachusetts and across longfellow bridge into boston proper.  over the bridge (scene of my one and only 5k race triumph a few years back), we took a hard right into the beacon hill area.  we saw a coffe shop, and since it had been at least 30 minutes since we finished our previous drinks, we stopped at panificio, which maurice explains to means 'bakery' in italian.  another espresso and a chai, accompanied by a cinnamon twist, and we're ready to go again.

down the street to the boston commons.  oh, for the days when american towns had a 'living room'.  across the commons, we rode down throgh the financial district, picked up the gardens above 'the big dig', over to state street, and out the long wharf.  shezaam.  the other coast.  technically, boston's inner harbor, but who's being picky?  and what better scene than with a harbor full of ships moving in and out?  ferries, sailboats, yachts motoring about.  after the obligatory photo documentation, i just had to sit there for a bit and let it soak in.  it felt good.  it felt satisfying.

August 30 - minutemen and gaming

oh my god, our hosts are gamers!  i have never seen this before.  this is a far cry above the world i'm used to.  they have machines about 4x's the size of the ones we use.  the graphics is incredible.  we came home and found father and son, each sitting in front of their own machine and large monitor, playing an on line version of lord of the rings.  They've got head sets with microphones and their playing with 12 other people online.   the son is a programmer for a gaming company and he keeps a running discussion going with the other online participants.  this may explain how they are so socially inept that they went out for dinner earlier without telling us and left us just sitting on the back deck wondering what was going on.  we had to text them to find out if they had in fact gone out and what we should do about locking the door when we went out.

i'm sure this has some relation to the incredible time we had earlier touring the minuteman national park.  we got up slowly this morning, rode through the massachusetts countryside, up and down, up and down.  then we picked up the nashua river rail trail, stopped and had breakfast in a groton cafe, and continued on to concord.  outside concord we entered the minuteman national park ( and, no, jeff, it's not named after you.  stop bragging.)  what a real delight to see the actual location of the battles (skirmishes is more like it) betwen british and colonialists.  (and, please, do not tell me you do not know what happened at concord and lexington) we stood there and looked down on the north bridge from the same location as the colonists mustered, where they would have looked down on the 96 british soldiers there.  and we stood on the bridge, both sides, and felt what it must have been to be on both sides.  then we road the 'battle road trail' along the route of the british retreat.

it's amazing how little damage was actually done by all of this.  the muskets both sides used were incredibly inaccurate.  i remember watching 'last of the mohicans' and marvelling as daniel day lewis shot the english officer through the heart from a hundred yards away.  well, that just didn't happen.  these guys could stand a hundred yards apart and fire all day and they wouldn't have hit anyone.  in fact, that's pretty much what they did.  at the battle of lexington commons, where the british and colonialists faced off, the total damage to britsh forces was one leg wound and one hand wound.  unfortunately, there were 8 colonialists killed.  this by trained british soldiers.  but there was a lot of noise and smoke.  anyway, it was exciting to see the actual battlefield.

from there we went through lexington and on to arlington, where our hosts are.  and now we are.  45-50 mile day, but it felt longer.  and although the gods continue to smile on me (is it a joke?), maurice came up limping with his second flat tire of the trip.  on the battle road trail, no less.

it's amazing how much nicer it is to approach a city through rich neighborhoods, with stone walls and orchards and shaded woods, versus the slums of saginaw.  the barns of massachusetts are distinctly different.  they're not the classic dutch gambrel, painted red, but simple tent roofs with gable ends, often painted brown.  and the town halls are unique, shaped by the fact that they served as meeting halls, not courthouses and administrative centers as we commonly think of them.  a more purely democratic government (if you were a free, white male) the populace would meet together to discuss issues in a large room.

tomorrow, the final 10 miles to boston bay.

August 29 - in and out of new hampshire

we crossed vermont, went in and out of new hampshire, and then entered into massachusettes, the final state of the journey.

it was very foggy, 100% humidity, but it wasn't raining.  air temp was cool and we started out with jackets.  we didn't get more than a mile down the road when a pick up truck turned around on the highway, went passed us and pulled over.  as we got closer, the driver waved us down.  he wanted to show us what he thought was either a small moose or a large buck on the other side of a field.  i can't see all that clearly anyway, but with the condensation on my glasses, it really made it hard, but i would have voted for the large buck. 

we reached brattleboro, but not without maurice first getting a flat 2 miles short of downtown, for a late chai latte and breakfast.  maurice has become my brother in his fondness for cafes and chai lattes, when he's not drinking an espresso.  brattleboro sits on the conneticut river, which is the boundary between new hampshire and vermont.  there's a lot of activity downtown and way too much traffic; several roads come together and then split apart there.  and everything slopes to the river, though not much actually crosses it.  there are a lot of shops and it appears vibrant.  it has a reputation of being a top 10 small town. 

the rest of the day was spent going up and down hills, several 8% and one i would swear was at least 10%, but none of them very long.  it felt like riding through the foothills back home in tennessee.  maurice and i discussed the differences between here and east tennessee.  the buildings are different; more colonial and more wood siding.  we've seen three covered bridges so far.  the air is cooler; of course, but that's hard to compare on one or two data points.  the towns are built tighter, closer to the downtown, and most centers of towns is where the commercial activity takes place.  i'm not sure how they pull it off, but there are no strip developments.  but the country side is amazingly similar.  i think the undergrowth may be less dense here, and things are a little drier,  and i'm sure the trees are different.  but today we rode along a mountain stream for periods and we could easily have been in the smokies.

we arrived in willard brook state forest to spend the night.  it's a pretty state forest, the camp site was in a level area covered in pine trees.  there is no undergrowth, so the whole camp site is open, but considering we were the only ones there, not a problem.

we finished todays ride outrunning or dodging rain for the last 20 miles.  it was overcast, the clouds hanging low, and moisture filled the air.  and it was cool; maurice slipped his vest back on.  and speaking of maurice, i know he was tired and a little sore, this being his third day, but he really sucked it up at the end.  80 mi day on top of 70 yesterday, so he did very well indeed.

tomorrow, we have a light day, riding only 45-50 mi into the inner ring of boston.  we have a warm shower arranged in arlington.  this will be my 13th consecutive day riding without any rest days.  then on saturday, we will ride the final 15-20 miles down to the harbor and the official end of my journey.

August 28 - saratoga to bennington

southern history is saturated with the civil war.  i think they forgot that there ever was a thing called 'the revolution.'  it wasn't televised.
but we yankees know better.  and it is a sad thing to me that my wife and daughters cannot answer the question concerning the battle of saratoga.  when i was young, i found a couple of books my father had from his navel academy days.  they were 'arundel' and 'rabble in arms' by kenneth roberts.  the first told the tale of the american attempt on quebec by traveling up the arundel river in maine.  if i remember correctly, benedict arnold led that campaign and almost pulled it off.  the second book dealt with the battle at saratoga.  at which benedict arnold also played a significant role, helping to pull off a significant defeat of the british.  the first defeat of the british by american forces and one that helped bring the french over to our cause.  it was arguably the most important battle ever fought by the u.s., because if we had failed to defeat the british there, the united states would probably not exist.

i still have those books in my library.  i used to love to read 'drums along the mohawk', 'last of the mohicans', 'ethan allen and the green mountain boys', etc. about the northeast and the french annd indian war and the revolution.  i always thought that new england was the place i would end up living.  that's why this part of the trip is so interesting to me.

maurice and i toured the battlefield this morning and watched the short movie that gave an overview of the battle.  then we headed down the road and crossed the hudson.  we passed the county fair that was in progress in schaghticoke (pronounce that one if you dare), headed up the hoosic river, and eventually crossed into vermont and ended up at a cafe in bennington.  for the first time in about six weeks, i'm back in the mountains.  riding here is just like east tennessee with the steep little climbs mixed in with the rolling hills.  ah, three cafes in a row, and maurice is putting away the espressos and chais.  it was a nice place, though, and they served sandwiches as well, so we could get something to eat.  we sat outside on the sidewalk tables.

after a good rest, we headed out for the final 12 mi to our camp ground for the night, woodford state park.  the twelve miles included a significant climb into the green mountains, 1500 - 2000 feet with a pretty steep grade.  but we made it and managed to set up camp just before the occasional scattered thunderstorm hit.  it was a light but steady rain.  we ended up picking all our stuff up and moving to a nearby leanto that was unoccupied, which is where i sit now writing this.

the one draw back of riding with maurice is the temptation to talk about work, since we do so much of it together.  i have done very little thinking about anything these two months, just living in the moment, basically.  and i want to keep it that way for the final few days.

August 28 - trading places

today was the day of the great exchange, paul and maurice.  paul and i had a 25 mi ride into troy/waterford.  pretty uneventful, though paul was feel pretty good and he smacked my ass going up the one steep hill we've had.  that made him feel even better.  380 miles completed, he rode the full length of the erie canal.   we pulled into cahoes and stopped at the mohawk river's water fall, which is just a mile short of where it joins the hudson.  the water levels appeared low and there was a lot of exposed rock.  we found out later that back in june there had been flooding and the falls were looking a little more like niagara at that time.

we tooled on into to troy with several hours to wait till maurice would showed up.  i, of course, wanted to find a coffee house; paul wanted breakfast.  we ended up at the infinity cafe, which in keeping with most of our experiences, was not a coffee house.  but it was a small neighborhood cafe serving breakfast.  we were the only ones there.  the owner, matt, made us whatever we wanted, substitutions allowed.  we talked with matt awhile about troy, the neighborhood, et al.  then we took our leave and headed to the visitor center in waterford, lock no. 2 and the beginning of the canal.  never did figure out what happened to lock no. 1.

there we talked with bill and martha for awhile.  they owned and lived on a fairly large cruiser currently tied up to the dock.  back in 2005, he had sold half his company to his sons, sold the house in appleton, wi, and moved on board.  now they motor around the u.s., wintering in charleston, just enjoying visiting with old friends and making new.  they had just completed a trip up the lakes to ontario and were headed down to charleston for the winter.  it's a rough life, but i guess someone has to do it.  they looked pretty happy; we probably looked envious.

maurice got lost on his way into waterford, but after taking some time to figure out exactly where in the world he was, we managed to guire him intonthe visitor's center.  hugs and kisses all around and much joy, we went and had lunch.  then paul and maurice exchanged equipment and car keys.  parting pictures were taken, paul headed home, and maurice and i headed to saratoga springs.

question:  what famous battle took place in saratoga, when, and why was it so important?  the answer to come later.

i enjoyed riding with paul.  everyone has there own style and there's some adjustment and acommodation that has to be made.  it wasn't difficult for me to adjust to him.  i can relate to his sciatic issues, and he was pretty stoic about the pain.  he was pretty aware of everything going on, the geography, history, culture, wildlife, etc.  it was a real pleasure to ride with him.

maurice is an old friend.  this is now the fourth year in a row we've ridden together, so we know what to expect.  our start was a little rough, as we ended up in weeds and dirt trying to follow the champlain canal trail.  we quickly abandoned that and headed on to the road.  one thing different about maurice than most, he doesn't mind traffic at all.  on the pavement, he took off to a rapid start, i think he was nervous about what kind of condition i was in from all the riding.  i had to tell him he  didn't need to ride so fast, and it didn't take a second recommendation for him to settle down in a more comfortable pace.

by late afternoon, we were in saratoga.  we stopped at a cafe on the main street for an espresso and a chai.  then on to our warm shower host, who proved to be a nice, 20-something kid, in the middle of enovated an old, historic home.  he's a math teacher at the local middle school.  maurice was able to help him with some strucural problems he was having with a sagging floor and chimney.  colin and i talked about canoeing in the adirondacks.  he and his father are avid canoers and i took a seven day canoe trip back in my college days.

then it was time for bed.