Day 48

Brattleboro, VT to Burlington, MA -- 90 miles We are (unofficially) finished!!! Today was the last long day of the tour and it was a tough one. More about the ride in a minute. We are in Burlington, a northwestern suburb of Boston, and this is the last stop on the tour. Tomorrow we will do a ceremonial 18-mile ride to Revere Beach on the Atlantic Ocean for our "wheel dip" and then we will have officially been all the way across the United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic in 44 or 45 days (not really sure). I originally thought it was 52 days because that's what the pre-trip information said but that included our five rest days and two pre-departure days in the Los Angeles area. I know one thing: I'm very thankful to have completed the 3,400 mile journey accident-free. I only had one little mishap and that was the day I basically "bonked" between Blythe, CA and Wickenburg, AZ (115 miles). I learned a lesson the hard way. Don't give up coffee "cold turkey" and don't try to skimp on calories when you have to ride long distances! My little accident occurred in the parking lot as I was clipping in and fell over on the "clipped in" side. It got a little scrape and a couple of small bruises but that's very minor compared to what could have happened! Anyway, today's ride was a humdinger. First of all, the forecast called for rain all day so we weren't looking forward to riding 90 miles on our last long day in inclement weather. We've all been very cautious to pay extra-close attention to what we're doing so as not to have an accident at the end of the tour. We crossed our 13th state line at mile 2 when we rode into New Hampshire. A couple of miles after that, I missed a right turn and went an extra 2 miles before I realized it. Then the fun began REALLY began at mile 7. After doing some rollers we saw two very long climbs in front of us that we later found out (from someone who has a computer with this information) that the first one was 14% and the second one immediately following it was 15%. They were each about 200 yards long but these two hills had a few riders walking today. We had 6,100 feet of climbing yesterday so you could say our quads were just a little bit fatigued! After the first SAG stop at mile 31 the climbs were less severe but we still had quite a few left to go. I started riding with my regular riding buddies, Bill and Ken (Peoria, IL), John (St. Joe, MO) and "Boston" Bob (not to be confused with "Iowa Bob") at the 2nd SAG. At mile 42 we hit the Massachusetts state line, our 14th crossing and 15th state. The rain started to pick up by this time and so did the traffic. Coming into our second SAG stop at mile 60 was a harrowing experience. The highway was incredibly rough with holes and bumps galore and the cars came way too close to us for comfort. All of us were pretty shaken up by that point. We finally turned off of that highway and got onto a less congested road, thank goodness. The four guys wanted to stop for lunch but I had filled up on cheese and Triscuits at the SAG and decided to ride on in. Fortunately, I quickly came upon Meredith (Bowling Green, KY) and Laura Kuhlman (Chicago) and the three of us navigated our way through the suburbs to our hotel. We thought we were home free with only a half mile to our left turn to the hotel, when we found ourselves on the entrance ramp of I-95! We had turned one light too soon. Whew -- that was a close one! Of course, we all said, almost in unison, that we had pulled a "George" because he gets lost at least twice a day and has been known to ride on interstates we weren't supposed to be on! We all celebrated with "high fives" when we pulled up at the Hilton Garden Inn, our last hotel (and there have been over 40) of the tour. Tonight we have a reception planned for 5:00 before dinner where I'm sure there will be more than a few drinks consumed to celebrate this amazing journey. Tomorrow's ride: 18 miles to the ocean. It will be like a walk around the block!!!

Day 47

Albany, NY to Brattleboro, VT -- 79 miles -- Today was a spectacular day! I think it was my favorite day of the whole tour. We only have one more day to ride so tomorrow's ride better be perfect if it's going to beat today. Maybe it was God smiling down on us due to the blessing by Father Michael, Don Behrens' pastor, who came to the hotel to see us off this morning. The five of us who have been attending mass each week stayed around for an extra 15 minutes so we could receive his blessing but it was worth it. He was a humorous and delightful man and we wanted to be there for Don, as well. He has raised over $25,000 for the Catholic Charities Emergency Relief Fund for the Diocese of Albany. This group really rolled out the welcome mat for us by providing two SAG stops fully stocked with homemade brownies and all sorts of cookies and drinks. How I'm going to go back to my Weight Watchers lifestyle after eating like this for two months I'll never know! I'd love to know the average calorie consumption of our group on a daily basis! Anyway, back to the ride itself. The weather was perfect. It had rained during the night -- as it has almost every night for the past two weeks -- but by morning the skies were clear and the wind was blowing gently out of the west. We've had a tailwind almost every day since we got into Missouri. We paid our dues the first part of the trip with horrendous head and crosswinds, that's for sure, so we were due a change there. We crossed our 12Th state line when we crossed into Vermont just outside of Bennington. I have biked in the Bennington area before when I did a bike trip with Walt and Claudia Stallings and Debbie Mickel a year ago last October. We had a continuous 7-mile climb coming up outside Bennington which was very similar to the climbs we've done many times out in Colorado. The descent was fast, fun and scenic. I topped out at 45 mph and I was holding back a little. Our German father and son team, Achim and Alex, reached 53 mph which I had no trouble believing. They have a slow go of it on the climbs with their tandem recumbent machine, but boy can they fly on the flats and downhills. We had another SAG stop at mile 52 and still had more climbing to go but it wasn't that bad. The Green Mountains are a beautiful place to ride and I'd love to bring Lee back here to do the very ride we did today. Brattleboro is a charming Vermont town with lots of quaint shops and restaurants. Four of us opted to walk to a barbecue place about a mile from the hotel and it was one of the best meals we've had the whole tour! I have to admit I had my doubts about barbecue in Vermont but they nailed it. It also probably tasted so good because we had ridden nearly 80 miles and climbed over 6,100 feet without stopping for lunch (that's if you don't count string cheese and triscuits as lunch). We're all getting a little bit sad that tomorrow is our last day. It's a strange feeling. We've been together for 7 weeks and I do mean together! We've shared breakfast every single day, SAG stops, riding experiences, laundry duties and group dinners for over 50 days and after Friday night, I may not see most of these people ever again in my lifetime. Tomorrow is going to be a long, difficult day when we go through New Hampshire into Massachusetts heading for our final destination of Burlington (89 miles).

Day 46

Little Falls, NY to Albany, NY -- 72 miles -- Today's ride was one of the easiest we've done the whole tour. The route was all on Route 5, a fairly flat highway along the banks of the Mohawk River. Our only official SAG stop was at the top of our only significant climb. The view from the top overlooked the river valley and countryside beyond and it was a beautiful sight. The weather was cloudy and cool most of the morning but we didn't get any rain, thank goodness. It's been raining most every night but over with by the time we start riding. Don Behrens' charity volunteers provided another SAG stop for us about 15 miles away from the finish. There was a large crowd gathered in the parking lot of Dunkin Donuts cheering and clapping for us as each one of rolled in. It was a nice welcome! Don personally led us on a route that he regularly rides and he promised there would be much less traffic and more scenic than the CrossRoads route. So with Tracy's permission, Don led us on a personal tour on a nice bike trail along the Mohawk River into Schenectady (where we saw Union College and some nice old buildings) and then into the Albany area. Tonight is our last official route rap at 5:45. It's starting to sink in that this will all be over with in three days. We still have two of the hardest days of the tour left to do tomorrow and Thursday. We ride from here to Brattleboro, VT over the Green Mountains (a BIG climbing day) and on Thursday, we ride from Brattleboro through New Hampshire and on into Burlington, MA, our final destination. Then it's all over except for the ceremonial ride to the Atlantic Ocean on Friday.

Day 45

Syracuse, NY to Little Falls, NY -- 78 miles HELP! I can't remember one thing about the ride yesterday. All the days have been running together for some time now but eventually I can remember something, but I am truly drawing a blank. I guess I've just been on the road too long! Don Behrens (Albany, NY) is raising money for Catholic Charities for Emergency Relief for the Diocese of Albany. His organization set up a SAG stop in addition to our regular one so we had extra junk food on the ride today. They're planning a bigger SAG stop with more volunteers for us tomorrow. Little Falls is a small town on the Mohawk River that, in its heyday, was a thriving commercial town on the river and Erie Canal, but that was then and this is now. There's not much to tell about Little Falls except that a lot of trains go through there at all hours of the night! There is one special thing about this town, though, and that is that the lock there is the highest one on the Erie Canal. We stayed at a Best Western (the only hotel in the whole town) and they did a buffet dinner for us in one of the meeting rooms. There was no internet in the hotel so I wasn't able to write this yesterday. This probably explains why I can't remember anything about the ride today! We didn't get rained on yesterday and that's probably because I had my rain jacket with me all day -- good insurance! Only 3 more days to go until Burlington, MA!

Day 44

Canandaigua, NY to Syracuse, NY -- 68 miles Today is Sunday so Ken and Bill (Peoria), John (St. Joe, MO) and I rode our bikes into Canandaigua to attend 7:30 mass. It was a really beautiful church and the sermon was good. The greeters were very nice to let us park our bikes inside the church, too. Since we were riding shorter mileage today, we got to leave an hour later so we were only 45 minutes behind everyone. We caught up to them at the SAG stop (mile 37). We got lucky again with the weather because it was a beautiful sunny morning with temperatures in the low 70's. I'm going to suffer when I get back to Arkansas where temperatures are in the 90's with high humidity! We rode through the pretty lakeside town of Geneva which sits on the northern edge of Seneca Lake, the deepest of all the Finger Lakes. Beverly had a little crash in Seneca Falls but was OK enough to continue riding. Seneca Falls is the place where the women's suffrage movement began and women attained the right to vote. There was a museum there but John (St. Joe, MO) and I didn't stop to tour it because we wanted to check in at the SAG stop before they closed it. As it turned out, we weren't the last ones there. It seemed like everyone was taking their time today. My legs felt heavy and tired all day so I didn't have a great riding day but the scenery was beautiful so it was a good day to ride at a more leisurely pace for a change. We also stopped at the Erie Canal where you could take a boat ride along the canal but we opted to pass on that, too. We got into Syracuse about 30 minutes before the rain but I was prepared today with my rain jacket. Since the forecast calls for rain the rest of the week, I've decided to ride with my rain jacket with me at all times! As soon as I got to my room, I took a bath and lay down and took a nap before route rap -- my first nap of the whole tour! I was really tired. There was a little social at 5:00 hosted by our German father-son team to celebrate Achim's (Dad's) birthday. He provided LOTS of beer and wine for all of us and we sang Happy Birthday to him and took lots of pictures. It was fun. Dinner was a Chinese buffet across the street. It was actually pretty good but not as good as Wegman's last night! We only have 4 more full cycling days until this is all over. They will be long, tough climbing days but the end is near and everyone is getting pretty excited about getting finished and going home.

Day 43

Hamburg, NY to Canadaigua, NY -- 95 miles Canandaigua is one of the small towns in the Finger Lakes region of western New York. Lee and I biked in this area about 10 years ago when we came up here to do a ride called Bon Ron Roulet. It's really beautiful. This was a long day but the weather was spectacular for the first 70 miles or our second SAG stop in Avon, NY. The forecast was for afternoon showers but it was such a clear gorgeous day that I asked Paula who was riding in the van because she had crashed the day before to carry my rain jacket for me -- big mistake! We passed another milestone today when we hit the 3,000 mile point of our tour. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with my today to capture the moment. I was afraid we'd run into rain (which we did after the lunch stop in Avon) and I didn't want to run the risk of getting Melissa's camera wet. I already had to replace a cell phone that died after it got wet just from sweat! Clark, Jim, Tracy (staffers), Paula (Sacramento) and Scott Hlady (Moline, IL) were there holding up the 3,000 mile sign and cheering us on with cheerleader poms and funny hats and disguises. It was such an exhilarating feeling to see that sign and realize that we'd all ridden that many miles on our bicycles! The reason Scott was in the van today was because he had gotten up during the night to answer his phone and broke his 4th toe when he ran into the dresser -- ouch! Beverly, one of us riders, is from an area around Rochester so today's ride was along the roads she rides all the time. She said we had to eat lunch in Avon at a place called Tom Wahl's. It's like a big Whattaburger and it lived up to its reputation. They had their own homemade root beer that was great. I've become a big root beer fan on this trip! We sat around a visited a little too long and got into a pretty big rain about 5 miles out of Avon. About 5 or 6 of us huddled under a Mobile gas station awning until the worst of it was over and then finished up the last very hilly 20 miles. We got into Canandaigua just before another storm hit. We had to wait about an hour and a half to get into our rooms, though, and that was pretty unpleasant since we were wet. Dinner that night was across the street at a big grocery store called Wegman's. It was the most unbelievable grocery store I've ever seen. There's a big food court with all kinds of buffets -- enormous salad bar, Chinese food bar, sushi bar, etc. They told us we could go through the line one time only so we better get all we want in that one trip. They weigh your plate(s) at the register and you pay so much per pound. You should have seen some people's plates (mine!). It was the best place we've eaten on the trip in about 3 weeks. After dinner I got a decaf latte and walked around the store for about 45 minutes just looking at everything. They have Wegman's all over this area. They're similar to Whole Foods but have more to choose from. I sure wish Little Rock had one!

Day 42

Erie, PA to Hamburg, NY -- 80 miles Last night in Erie threatened to be a short night because there was a block party directly under my hotel room window with live bands playing (loudly) until after midnight. It became necessary for me to pull out the emergency sleep enhancers -- Ambien and earplugs! I slept like a baby! It had rained most of the night and the forecast calls for rain all week in this area, but thankfully, all of it seemed to move through during the night and we had a perfectly beautiful day of riding along Lake Erie on Route 5. There were beautiful vineyards all along the highway to the right and huge Lake Erie on my left. We crossed our 11Th state line today when we entered New York state. Paula from Sacramento had an accident today when her wheel got caught in a deep rut between the shoulder and the highway. She went down pretty hard, but Mary Ann and Janie were with her and got her stabilized until Tracy and the ambulance arrived. The last I heard she has a concussion and cracked her helmet in four places. So to all of you who don't think it's necessary to ride with a helmet, you're an idiot! Her helmet saved her life. She'll probably have to take a couple of days off, but knowing Paula, she'll be back and ready to go as soon as she can. It's really amazing to see on our map each day how much distance we've covered by bicycle in six weeks. Everyone is getting excited and anxious about this last full week of riding. I'm trying to be especially careful because when my mind wanders I tend to make careless mistakes. With less than 500 miles left to go, I'm not going to take any chances! I've come this far with no accidents and I have to keep my head in the game if I want to arrive safely at the Atlantic Ocean next Friday morning. I was thinking today while I was riding that it would be so great if Lee would surprise me and show up at the hotel when I get there next Thursday afternoon. I doubt that he will be able to, however, because of all the responsibilities he has between now and June 30Th, the date we close on the house we're selling and the house we're buying (which I haven't even seen yet!). Our ride tomorrow will be a very tough one. We're riding 93 miles to Canandaigua, one of the Finger Lakes towns, and it's going to be a big climbing day.