The Utter Folly Tour (or Faith and Peter on the Run)

we're home!

Posted by Peter:

And it is good. We had a great, late evening Mexican dinner with our daughter and grandson and got to sleep in our sun room under the stars. The cats and the plants are happy to see us, the bikes are already at the shop for much needed tune ups and some parts changes.

Of course, it is the journey that matters, so how did we get from Edison, NJ to Newtown, CT in one day?  First, we had some of Anne's best blueberry pancakes. Then we biked 35 miles to Newwark's Penn Station led by Anne and Mike on their tandem (see photos). It was an amazing trip. We started at 7AM, in the heart of rush hour, in the most densely populated state in the nation. The only times that we saw much traffic were the times we pedaled over the Garden State Parkway, the rest of the trip was thru quiet streets and so many parks that I lost count. The parks were beautiful and very much in use by walkers, joggers, and the occasional cyclist. It's always wonderful to see these public green spaces being used. Given New Jersey's reputation as pollutedand dingy, filled with industrial wastelands, this ride was a welcome surprise. We were very thankful to have Anne and Mike leading, armed with about a dozen pages of cue sheets, because we would still be somewhere in Islin or Rahway or Newark without them. Even with their cue sheets, we got a bit lost in Newark. Faith and I were actually pleased that the ECG Trail Committee Chairman himself, got to experience some of our cue sheet experiences first hand (lol).

A little back fill: we had learned that we could take our bikes on the NJ to Manhattan trains during off peak hours (9AM to 3PM). No problem. In order to do the same on Metro North to get to Bethel, CT which is about 12 miles from our home, we had the same window. However, we had to cycle from Penn Station to Grand Central Station, apply for a "bicycle permit" there, and see if we could take the bikes on the 3:07, which is just outside of the window, but still listed as an off peak train. The only other train was at 12:07 and we decided not to drag our hosts out before the crack of dawn in order to make that one.

So we had a great morning ride. They are always great when we're led by someone who's knowledgeale about their area; it's history, the cycling history, and their personal history. I did start to get anxious when we were riding aimlessly (it seemed to me) around Newark (not exactly the proudest part of the garden state), because I was fretting over all of the logistics of getting the bikes in and out of, and up and down in, the train stations (three of them), plus getting permits and tickets, all of which would add to the time needed to make connections. On top of which, I had worked in Newark fresh out of college, and I was frustrated that I couldn't remember exactly where the station was and that so many street names (and even streets) had changed in the mere 44 odd years that had passed.

We finally found it (I did remember that it was on Raymond Boulevard when we saw that street) and said our good byes. We promptly walked into the crowded Greyhound waiting room by mistake. Fortunately, people were very friendly and helpful (as usual!) and gave us well wishes and directions to the train part of the building. Once there, I waited on a long line to purchase our tickets while Faith waited with the bikes. We were directed to a hidden elevator that took us directly to the track we needed and ten minutes later we were horsing our bikes onto the first of three trains (one in the car and the other and me in the vestibule) for their first train ride! Twenty minutes later we were in Penn station finding the two hidden elevators we needed to get to street level. A word here. In both cases, police were very helpful and in both cases, there were no "handicapped" signs that I thought would lead us to them.

Once on the streets, I had to calm my panicked, country mouse wife who was completed overwhelmed by the noon time hustle and bustle of one of the world's largest and least bike friendly cities. No bike lanes, drivers, pedestrians, and other bike riders who agressively ignored both traffic rules and us, and high pollution and noise levels. In the 1.5 miles between train stations, at least three people opened their driver's side car doors immediately in front of us when we had no way to avoid them and had to slam on our brakes. This wasn't a quiet Georgia road. Even route 17 has nothing on West 32nd Street. And at least US 17 was paved.

We made it to Grand Central, found the window to purchase our bike permits, and while I filled out the applications, Faith chatted with a fellow who was planning a trip that involved bikes on trains, and wanted to know about our experience. I asked the helpful station attendant about the 3:07, and he suggested that we take the 2:07 to Norwalk (where we would have to change trains anyway) and avoid any problems. Great idea! We purchased our tickets and went directly to the track where the train waited. No elevators required!  Our permits indicated that we should follow the conductor's instructions regarding where on the train to put our bikes, but there was none in evidence, so we got into the nearest car and settled in. Unfortunately, we were taking up about ten seats (two sets of five facing seats). A few minutes later, a conductor came by and directed us to the other end of the train (thank you very much). We gathered our stuff, struggled back off the train, and fought our way against a river of travellers who were going in the opposite direction. Faith, was frantic that our train would close it's doors and leave while we were trying to get to the front end. I wasn't concerned, having had my own anxiety attack earlier in the trip.

We got to Norwalk and waited an hour to get the connecting train to Bethel. No problem, nice waiting room where we had a pleasant three way conversation with a non-English speaking older woman and a bi-lingual station attendant. Nice.

Another hour on the spur line up to Bethel, and we were once again cycling. Before leaving the train experience, let me say that the subject of bicycles on trains could be material for a whole new committee in the ECG Association.  Although the railroads are reasonable in allowing a weekday six hour, off peak window, plus all day on weekends, for bicycles; the $5 permits that Metro North requires are pretty silly. In additon, there are NO other concessions for bikes. There's really no room in the cars for them and so we were making access difficult for other passengers. And were they intolerent!!! The Metro North riders were right up there with the worst Southern pickup truck drivers when it came to sharing the train with us.

A way into our ride, Faith finally caved and called her daughter for a sag. She came and took Faith to our son's house to pick up our car (each of the boys has been using one of our cars while we've been away) and I unloaded the bikes and removed the front wheels while I waited for her to return. We managed to get both bikes and all of our bags into the Maxima in additon to the golf clubs, basket ball and other sports equipment that Aaron had left in the trunk and headed directly to Cycle Fitness to drop off the bikes. And that's the rest of the story.

Later.

same day, different highlights...

Posted by Peter:

Stayed at a Hampton Inn last night in Bensalem, PA. Where's that? It's a little town north of Philadelphia.This Hampton Inn is apparantly the only hotel in the area.  It's always full and so we paid $217 for our room; the most expensive to date; and, more than twice what every other Hampton Inn has cost.  AND they gave me a hard time this morning when I asked for 4 bottles of water. I had to settle for three. Amazing!

We first rode 17.5 miles to the PA side of the Calhoun Street bridge which spans the Delaware River, ending in Trenton, NJ.  Ken was planning to meet us there and take us over the bridge and to the beginning of the D&R Canal Trail, a distance of 3 miles.  He had called us last night after he had gone home.  He felt that the route was too confusing and offered to meet us at the bridge and drive us to the trail head.  He did, and it was a nice break between the first 17.5 miles and the 22.5 we put in on the trail.

The trail. Ah yes, I'm sure Faith is saying enough about it.  I can only add how sore I am as a result of my silly fall while trying to dismount.

We hooked up with Mike and his wife Ann when Faith threw in the towel after 22.5 miles.  I didn't argue.  The rains came no more than a half an hour after we arrived at Mike and Ann's house, heavy and with thunder.  Looks like our luck has returned.

We've had a great visit, a wonderful Chinese dinner, and I'm falling on my face with fatigue. Enough.

Later

Pennsylvania to New Jersey

and tomorrow, into Manhattan, and home for a few days.  We discovered yesterday that we could get a pass at the Grand Central Station in Manhatton and put our bikes on the train and take the train to either Danbury or Bethel, both of which are about 11 miles from our house, and then bike HOME, HOME, HOME from one of the train stations in Connecticut, oh my goodness, we will be in our own house for the first time in over two months.  We are Edison, New Jersey for the night and it is currently raining like a b..ch outside.  We got to our host family's house half an hour before the rain hit.  We had considered not riding today because the weather forecast was for 60% chance of rain all day, beginning at 6 a.m. and raining throughout the day and one day of riding all day in the rain is enough for the moment.  We could not, however, bring ourselves to stay another night in the only hotel in town in Bensalem and they charged like they were the only hotel in town, at least it was a nice hotel.  We also decided to push through to New Brunswick on the D&R Canal Trail (34 miles of rough dirt and gravel we soon found out) after getting from Bensalem to the Calhoun St Bridge (17.5 miles) that runs between Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey.  Ken Edmunds, an ECG activist for the bike routes in Pennsylvania and the gentleman we had dinner with last night had scoped out the route from the PA border to the trail head 3 miles into Trenton on his way home last night and warned us that the route is confusing and went through a number of risky neighborhoods - he then offered to sag (drive) us the three miles.  We met Ken at the bridge, loaded our bikes and bags in his truck, he took us to the trail head (the beginning of the trail (or end if you are riding from North to South)) in Trenton and dropped us off for our next 34 miles of riding.  Though 3 miles isn't much in the grand scheme of things, this 3 miles was a big deal and we were safe on our way on the canal trail for the next few hours.  This is the third time we have been sagged to date (once in Floriday for 20 miles when we each had a flat on US 1 North in the noon day 90 something degree sun, once in South Carolina when opportunity knocked and we accepted, and twice today, oh yes, twice today, but I will get to that.  First, let me count the ways I did not like the D&R Canal Trail in New Jersey (the first designated East Coast Greenway bike trail, the longest off road single thread trail at this point in time in the ECG inventory, and a trail of historic import.  However, the only way I would get on that trail again is if someone paid me a lot of money or it was a matter of life and death. 

• The surface of the trail was packed down dirt and gravel.  This made the ride extremely rough - my body hurts all over.
• Peter and I encountered many puddles and mud patches and had to work around them which was physically demanding on a rough surface - this is really dirt biking trail, not meant for touring bikes.
• There were ruts, roots, rocks, and after a few hours of this I felt like I had spent the day in one of the hardware store paint mixing machines.  We were on it for 3.5 hours, I had enough long before we called it quits.
• There were many spillways for the canal itself and they often were difficult to ride on (Peter took a nasty fall 15 miles into this part of the ride) and often there were sections where the terrain just dropped off steeply from the very side of the trail for 3 to 10 feet.  I would have preferred a busy roadway fighting traffic to this.  There was very little looking up as the trail demanded so much attention, one wrong turn and you could wind up down one of these levies or embankments and there were so few people on the trail in the 3.5 hours we were on it, if you were riding alone and had an accident off one of these and got knocked out or seriously injured, you could be there for a while, or longer. 
• Of the few people we met on the trail, most were on foot.  Hmmmm.  Most also were agressively unfriendly, go figure.  No response to hello or good morning or a smile, or worse, a look like "don't you say another word to me, or else" - what am I missing here, who do they think would be out on a trail like this?
• There were few entry points along the trail, they were spaced miles apart for the most part and when you crossed over a tar road it was usually in a rural setting where there was little or nothing in the area so forget a cup of coffee, a pee break, a cold lemonade, an attractive rest stop.  The little park areas at nearly all of these cross overs were baren providing nothing more than parking space for a few cars.
• Then there were the mosquitos which is why I didn't just drop trou and pee right on the miles of isolated dirt trail with no one in site for long periods.  It was enough to get out of there alive anytime we had to stop because of a bike problem, and we had lots of them today.
• Peter lost his chain once, took a bad spill once, I lost my chain once, lost control of the bike three times that I can remember and had to wrestle to keep me and the bike from ending up on the ground, though the bike did end up on the ground on two occassions, once when I just let it go to keep myself upright, and once when I dropped it to run back and help Peter.  Our bikes are covered with dirt after being so lovingly cared for by Jeff the day before yesterday, and the mud and dirt are in everything that it could be in on the bikes, well, okay, not everything, but close enough for me to whine about it.
• And then there was the scenery, well, it was scenic, but it was the same scenic for most of the 22.5 miles we were on it, i like something to look at, though, like I said before, there wasn't much looking up on this ride today.
• I think you get the idea.......

After almost 23 miles of this, I had enough and since we had an offer from our host, Mike Kruimer, to pick us up and sag (drive) us to his house at any point we wanted, we called him and blew off the last 11 miles of the trail and another 4 miles to his house.  This is our fourth sag (assist) to date and we have now been driven almost 140 miles in the past 65 days and cycled almost 1700 miles.  In the grand scheme of things, there I go again with those grand schemes, well, you get the idea.  If we had not called the rescue squad, Anne is the one who actually picked us up in the van, we would have been caught in a sudden torrential downpour, but we weren't - works for me.

See you on the road......

eep checking back until this post is completed....

Do you ever feel like things are just out of control?

We have had to do one day of route planning at a time for the past week with our unbelievably busy social calendar (on the road?).  Again, tonight, we are about to try to figure out where we are going tomorrow, where we will stay, and lastly, to our surprise (which came up over dinner with a local ECG activist), whether we are going to take a Metro North train from Manhattan to Danbury or Bethel and bike to our house in Connecticut for a few day layover.

First, we had an incredible breakfast with our hosts Bobbi, the Delaware ECG Chair, and her husband Jeff, the cycle doctor.  What an extraordinary visit we had with them (like so many home stays before, we are amazed at our good fortune).

Second, we did 45 miles today, oh my.  And I have a nasty sunburn on my very tan arms.  The weather report called for MOSTLY cloudy with scattered showers so I opted for a sleeveless shirt and I paid dearly for it.

Third, our friend Victoria from Connecticut who met us in Fredericksburg on her way down to Florida to visit her parents met us again this afternoon on her way back to Connecticut.  We spent several hours with her, and she graciously saved Peter a major headache of a 4 mile out and 4 mile back bike ride to the nearest CVS so he could get one of his medicines refilled which he alarming discovered this morning he was out of. 

Fourth, Victoria left us ten minutes before Ken met us for dinner.  Ken, who is responsible for the best signage along a bike route in the 65 days we have been on the road.  The route is called the E-route, for ECG (East Coast Greenway), but Ken tells us it is often referred to as the Edmonds route, that being his last name.  And he should get lots of kudos for it, the signage is excellent and outdoes anything we have encountered to date.  The bike lanes in Philly are great, miles and miles and miles of them.  The only down side is that much of the route is not very attractive, but the route is well marked, easy to follow, and will move to the river front as more of the off road paths are completed.  It was great to meet another mover and shaker in the ECG world.

Fifth, it is 8:15 p.m., do you know where your bike route is, I mean, do we know where our bike route is (for tomorrow)? NO!!!!! - so, we are off to figure it out.

See you on the road......

Singing in the rain...

Posted by Peter:

It did rain, indeed! Fortunately, we have been packing most (unfortunately, not all) of our things in plastic bags, so it wasn't too much of a mess. I only had to use a hair dryer and a lot of patience on one book (the GPS instruction manual).

The real good news is that Jeff's (our host) hobby is restoring older bicycles. Not only does he have every bike tool and lubricant known to man, but he knows how to use them. And loves  to do it. He took loving care of our wet bikes, checking their tires for damage, wiping the rims, cleaning the brake pads, lubing the chains, topping off the tires. I got to look over his shoulder while he caressed them and tended to their needs. I also got to look at the eight or nine beautifully restored 1970's and 80's bikes that he rides. In addition, it looks like he's got enough wheels, gears and frames to build another dozen should he so desire. The other really neat thing about these bicycles is that the most that he's paid for any of them is $20 at a yard sale. He's gotten a number of them for free. One of his joys is keeping up with the younger (he's in his mid 50's) crowd on their multi-thousand dollar bikes on club rides.

While we were in the workshop, Bobbi (our host) was busily cooking us a wonderful dinner, complete with dessert (brownies at Faith's request)

On top of all of that, they have a lovely nine year old Rottweiler, named Abigail. I love large dogs and Abigail loves attention. It worked for both of us.

So, a wet day, but a teriffic one.

Later.
(more to come.....)

Three states and 40 days of rain....

From Maryland through Delaware and into Pennsylvania.  So, at least the three states in one day part is true.  The 40 days of rain, well, okay, one day of rain, all day, all damn day.  We had a short ride planned and the forecast said 30% chance and we always see 30% chance and then we don't encounter rain.  Today made up for all our good luck to date.  We spent over four hours in the rain, about 30% of that in solid, steady "get yourself inside" rain.  The good news is we did it, we just kept going and we did it!!!!  Of course, lots of stuff was soaked through, like us, like our bags, like unprotected stuff inside our bags - so we had a lot of drying out to do at our home stay including our shoes that probably were holding a pint of water each shoe (I cannot imagine that we could have managed in a hotel after a ride like this one).  We spent an hour at our home stay unpacking our bags and wiping down the inside of our bags, laying out stuff to dry all around on our room on flat surfaces, doing a load of clothes because we had to (thankfully we were not in a hotel without laundry services, that would have made for a couple of ugly days, and one ugly day is enough.)  Jeff (of Jeff and Bobbi, our angel hosts for the night) set up a make shift dryer for our shoes by elevating them next to a space heater for several hours so we have dry shoes in the morning (YES!).  One positive thing that came out of this was I found my eyeglass repair kit having to unpack everything which I thought I had sent home and I was able to repair my prescription sunglasses for the second time on the road.

• Question:     What is Faith Vicinanza's (that would be me) favorite weather to ride her bike in (don't you just love when people talk about themselves in the third person?)?
• Hint:            It isn't rain all damn day.
• Answer:       Overcast skies, 60 to 70 degree temperatures, and a slight breeze (tail wind) to keep her (me) dry. Of course, we have not had a single day like this one, yet!  A few close ones, and we will take those happily.
• Question:     What are the five common things people do to support Faith and Peter (that would be us!) on their ride up the East Coast?  And put them in order of occurance starting with the most common.
• Hint:            It isn't drive them (us) from point A to point B and promise not to tell anyone, lol.
• Answer:       1) cheer us on (and we LOVE IT!), 2) feed us (and we SO LOVE IT!), 3) help us when we are lost (YES!), 4) take us into their homes (this usually includes feeding us) (we cannot thank every home stay host enough, we are so honored by this degree of generosity and support), and 5) give us $$$$$ (and we so appreciate the financial support, again - we are honored by these generous gifts which includes hotel and bed and breakfast owners cutting our room rate (this has happened to us a few times, unbelievable!) (you would think we were doing something pretty cool, oh wait, we are!) (we love all of you, we can not do this without each and every one of you!)
• Question:     Name something that I have only seen once on the side of the road in 64 days?
• Hint:            Not the hypodermic needle we saw on the Light Rail tracks in downtown Baltimore (though that was the only time I have seen a needle in all these days of riding).
• Answer:       A condom.  (this surprises me, actually, given all the women's and men's underwear we have seen on the side of the road these past two months, and in the oddest places, no lie, I have lost count)
• Question:      Name something we have seen a lot of to my surprise, who would of thought?
• Hint:            No, you don't get to use the women's and men's underwear from the prior question, that would be too easy.    
• Answer:       Those plastic bead necklaces, the kind you get at Mardi Gras.  I am not making this up.  I have lost count of these, just has I have lost count of countless, lol, cigarette lighters, cigarette butts, cigarette packages and cartons, bottles, cans, cardboard, sections of electrical wire (I'm not making this one up, either), work gloves (really, another "who would have thought"), etc., etc., etc.
• Question:      Can you name something that I have become most improved at over the past two months?
• Hint:             Oh sure, you could say riding my bike, and you would be correct.  You could say packing and unpacking our clothes and gear on a daily basis, and you would be right again.  But come on now, be more creative. Think again.
• Answer:        Going five hours without peeing (which I did today).  Alright, alright, maybe this is a bit crass, but (as I have often been known to say and I have learned that my cousin Andy often says this, too) "it is what it is."
• Question:      Name one thing that I have not unloaded and sent home yet that I now know can be left behind when I unpack and repack in Connecticut for the CT to Maine leg of the trip.
• Hint:             No, not Peter.
• Answer:       Rain Gear.  We are so glad we did not invest in $500 a set rain gear for this trip.  We have not used what we did buy ($100 or so a set), and I can tell now that we won't use them.  Once you are wet, what is the point.  They don't have hoods on the jackets and we still get pelted in the face as we ride and who cares about the rest of the body when you are just trying to look up periodically and see where you are going and the rain is reminding you second by second who is boss.
• Question:    What is the most states we have traversed in a single day?
• Hint:           Florida isn't part of the answer.
• Answer:       Three, lol.  And we did it twice if you count D.C. as a state though we all know that isn't a real state, they cannot even vote there in federal elections.  What bullshit is that? Read up on your politics on this one.  We did Virginia through D.C. and into Maryland in one day and today we did Maryland through Delaware and into Pennsylvania.

Okay, I have work to do.  Hugs to all.

See you on the road......

Another day in MD...

Posted by Peter:

32 miles later and we're still in Maryland.  Barely, but still. Last night, while Faith slept, I did the routing and accomodations for today. What a pain in the ass!  It was another one of those situations where there weren't any hotels, motels, or Bed and Breakfasts within our biking range. None that were readily apparent, anyway. And I was too tired to do a major online search.  However, there also weren't any real bike trails on the route, so I didn't feel very compelled to follow the "designated" route. In fact, after a long day's ride today (45 long, hot miles), what I felt was a need for more direct routing.  After 1,500 or so miles, we're pretty accustomed to sharing the road with drivers who act like they've never seen a bicycle, and our experience of route 40 today was that it wasn't too bad, plus it had a wide bike lane along most of it, so when I saw that it provided a direct route to where we wanted to go, I went for it. Then I found a delicious looking B&B in a 1700's period house at a distance of about 35 miles. That nailed it for me. With Faith in the grip of her 12 hour coma, I thought that we needed a reasonable length ride with a B&B at the end.  I made the reservations, wrote up the cue sheets, and emailed an ECG couple who had wanted to ride thru Delaware with us, letting them know that we weren't going to make it to Delaware on Sunday.

This morning we headed up route 40 and it was as I had expected: not much traffic, two lanes in each direction, a wide bike lane, and some hills.

I knew that we would take a bridge over the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace (that's a city in MD). My first clue as to it's size was the sign announcing that cars would pay $5 for the privilege.  Too bad my keen eyes missed the "no pedestrians or bicycles" sign that the gun packing officer asserted was there. On the plus side, we didn't encounter the toll booths or the officer until we had already crossed the bridge. Also on the plus side, neither of us was foolish enough to argue with him and so he let us off without paying a toll, without paying the $100 in fines for going over the bridge, but with our promise to avoid the bridge on "our way back". Which we agreed to without hesitation.  Let me say however, that regardless of whether any sign existed, we shouldn't have been on that bridge.  There were two lanes in each direction (a distinct plus), but that was it: no shoulder, no bike lane, no sidewalk.  And as an added treat for us acrophobics, it was both high and long. Very high and very long, actually.

We reached the B&B in very good time, as we were eager to get out of the hot sun, and our room wasn't ready.  Not a problem, we sat outside in the shade, enjoyed the iced water they gave us and took some photos.

After a while, a car pulled up and a woman got out. She asked if we were Faith and Peter. What? They were the couple who had wanted to ride with us. They had decided to plot the route we would take tomorrow, and give us cue sheets.  They didn't think we would be at the B&B already and so were as surprised to see us as we were to see them!  We had lunch and lots of conversation and accepted their invitation to host us tomorrow evening. They are really nice and interesting people and we are looking forward to spending more time with them.

This B&B is another winner (see photos) and we even have a high speed internet connection in our room. That's great because we have a backlog of things to do on the internet. So that will be the rest of our day!

later.

Updates, updates.....

I fell into bed at 6 p.m. and slept to 6 a.m. - the last few days have been so exciting, up late Thursday and Friday nights and up early because that is what I do out of habit at this point, then a long ride in the hot sun yesterday and bam, I had to recover and 12 hours of sleep is what I needed, apparently.  I have just loaded 12 updated web pages which includes updated daily posts from day 57 through day 63 (which is today so that one is a partial update), plus the WHERE page is current and I have loaded an updated News Room which includes the Richmond.com news article (a nice article, indeed).  Peter ended up doing the routing all by himself last night, and I love getting a break from the routing work.  When we get home, we will be doing the routing for the remainder of the trip, and print out paper directions and paper maps to carry with us - so that will surely make the rest of the trip easier.  We are expected home in about a week.  I am excited to be so close, to know we will have a few days to completely unpack everything, redecide what to pack based on our experience to date, to do the routing for the remaining 30 days of our trip.  Can you believe it, we only have 37 days left to go, 37!

See you on the road.....

A ride thru Baltimore...

Posted by Peter:

It was hard to leave Faith's cousin and her husband this morning. We seem to be able to have long, comfortable conversations that even extended to their driveway today. It was a great visit, and I look forward to seeing them all again.

After a few miles, we found the beginning of the Gwynn's Falls Trail, an urban trail that includes park land that borders on Baltimore's harbor, bridges over small estuaries, trash covered streets thru blighted industrial areas, football stadium parking lots, charming downtown residential streets, and the Inner Harbor area. At one point we saw a crowd of rowers getting more than a dozen shells ready to go. The boats ranged from 2 to 8 seaters. I must say however, that I had pictured myself kayaking there and had decided that the water looked too poluted for me to want to be that close to it.  Nevertheless, I loved this trail! I did wish I had armor plated tires, but we did escape without punctures, luckily.  That was, for me, the highlight of today's 44 mile ride (the trail that is, not escaping without punctures, although that was pretty ok too). 

Once we were out of the harbor area, we pedaled along some of the more usual depressed urban avenues and out into a more suburban highway with the requisite strip malls and used car lots. Again today that long part of the ride was hot and hilly, so it was a relief to get to the hotel, out of sweaty clothes and into a nice shower. We're doing laundry again (when opportunity knocks, open the door!) and there's a Cracker Barrel restaurant next door. Life is good.

Later.

What to say, what to say....

We are in Bel Air, Maryland, and tomorrow we ride through Delaware and into Pennsylvania.  I realized today that I have not said anything about body aches and pains in a while and decided that effective with this blog, I will no longer list out umpteen technical details like:

• the weather today was in the high 90's, Peter's cycle computer registered 101 and mine 100, and it felt like it out there
• we got a late start, near 7:30, and, with the heat, we arrived at our destination at 2 - a late arrival for us - our "dark" "cold" hotel room is greatly appreciated
• we have hours of p.c. work to catch up on but spending every minute with my relatives that I could over the past three days (this includes this morning) was well worth the catch up work I now have to do
• one of the stops we made today was at a Wendy's where we took the bikes in with us and one of the staff just stood and stared in disbelief for the whole five minutes it took us to wrestle them through two doors and get them to the far back wall and prop them up - we met a nice family who already take their son, who looked to be two years old, biking by using a tag-a-long, way cool (sorry Elliott)

What is important about today is that I am so infused with energy (and today was a good day to have some extra drive) from my stay in Glen Bernie with my cousin Laura and her husband Dale, from the great feast of a meal Laura orchestrated and mostly prepared Thursday evening and invited my 80 year old Uncle Paul and my 72 year old Aunt Betty, (Laura's parents), Laura's two brothers (my cousins Andy and Paul), Andy was joined by his wife Anne-Marie and their youngest son Jordon - and Laura made a bunch of special foods to accomodate my self-imposed dietary restrictions (veggie chilli and a big pan of sweet potatoes among other items - both were fabulous),infused from our trip into downtown Baltimore on the Light Rail yesterday with Dale and our lunch with Dale and Laura and our dinner out last night with Andy and Anne-Marie where I ate Maryland crabs steamed for the first time since I was a teenager (I had forgotten how to do it, how to open the crab, how to get the meat out, but it was a great experience and a reminder of crab feasts around the kitchen table when I was young and my family lived in Florida), infused from the cake (you must see the pictures when I get around to loading them) for the family get-together Thursday night that Laura had specially made and it had a map of the East Coast Greenway states and route done in frosting, I am not making this up, and two bicycles and well wishes and a flag to show how far we were on our ride to date, I wish we could have frozen it as a wonderful souvenir of this trip and our visit.  I am infused from reconnecting or connecting with family I have not seen in 30 to 40 years or family I never met (spouses of my cousins, children of my cousins), with hearing so many family history stories over the two days of our visit, with feeling like I was home and I needed that being so home sick of late.

I learned so much about my father, about my relatives on his side of the family tree, and about myself these past few days.  I have closed a gap that I did not notice was there until now, a gap that traverses not only the 30 plus years since I have seen my cousins, but a gap that reaches back to my father's childhood, a gap, a ravine, a thousand mile fault line my father created and we, my sister, my brother, and I inherited without knowing it.  I have often felt adrift in my life, we all do at times, and this adriftness has been fanned over the years by a lack of knowledge of my family history on both sides, a lack of connection to relatives on either side of my family,  my mother's side or my father's side, but more so on my father's side (on both sides, there are many skeletons and many reasons why people have distanced themselves from their birth families).  I feel as if someone has given me an anchor and I did not know I wanted an anchor, and I realize now it is just what I wanted, to be anchored, to be connected.

See you on the road......