Day 96 - or - "O, Canada"

When we first planned this trip, it was easy to settle on a round number like 100 days.  What did we know of doing a trip like this.  NOTHING.  In concept, 100 days seemed quite doable.  Early in the trip, it seemed impossible, and we eliminated days off and touring days and eventually it seemed we could do it in 100 days or less, and here we are in Canada with four days to go.  We have cycled 75 days out of 96 days, we drove for three days to get to Key West, that leaves only 18 days off this whole time.  Sounds like a lot, but it does not feel like we had 18 days off.  We had 7 of those days off in Florida, if I remember correctly, that leaves 11 days off since we left Florida, wow, no wonder it doesn't feel like much.  We averaged 33.16 miles per day over 75 days.  Two of those 75 days were really short rides given by circumstance, but even if I take those out, we averaged 33.8 miles over 73 days, and it isn't much difference in the end.  I don't know what our weights will be, but it won't be anything miraculous, we probably lost about 20 pounds each, and we were both significantly overweight, so that's a nice weight loss, but falls short of our expectations. It is what health officials say is a good program, 2 pounds per week to keep the weight off, that would have been 14 weeks, or 28 pounds each, so I guess from that perspective, we ain't doing too terribly bad. It's no surprise we only lost a little weight when you look at the outrageous meals we have had, breakfast especially in the more northern states, dinners all along the way, and we didn't pass up one of them, lol, except on nights we arrived someplace where getting out to dinner was a 5 mile ride out and back on the bikes and we opted not to do that and we had a few things on us in the way of ROAD food to keep us from starving, but there was no formal dinner, and sometimes no formal lunch, and sometimes no formal breakfast, but when we could get a meal, we took it, always, and eating has been a sort of orge on this trip, experimenting with new foods along the way, spoiling ourselves,  eating things we would not ordinarily eat at home, and we pay the price, but all in all, we did lose about 20 pounds each, and we are much healthier even if we aren't much skinnier.

Today is the ultimate day of cycling, though not really the ultimate day of the trip, we still have to get home, we still have to go back to being normal, well, maybe we don't have to do that part.  We rode for over ten miles today up route 1 North along the St. Croix river the whole way, and it was low tide.  There were so many spots where you could have practically walked across the river (tides average 20 feet here and can get up to 28 feet, that's twice a day so every 6 hours the tide goes out, comes in, goes out, comes in, and that means about 240 inches in 6 hours, which is 240 inches in 360 minutes, or two inches every three minutes, is that amazing.  I think so.)  What struck me, however, was the ease with which you could get to the other side at low tide, it makes the whole check point thing seem a little, well, silly.  I am sure if Pres. Bush were reading my blog right now, I would quickly be in handcuffs and suddenly be among the missing for saying something that would be considered politically sensitive.  But nearly anything you say today is politically sensitive.  We live in a time where government wants to keep people afraid, okay, okay, enough of my political rant for the moment.  Calais boasts the third busiest crossover point between the USA and Canada.  The towns on both sides are small, nothing spectacular, and not designed to handle the traffic that passes over the bridge between Calais and St. Stephen.  The design and check point are obviously older and on both sides, traffic backs up along one of the few main roads in either town causing havoc on both sides and if you aren't trying to cross over - this can be pretty frustrating I'm sure.  If you are local, you probably know when to stay off those roads and all the options for getting where you are going without taking those roads.

There were the prerequisite hills this morning, even though Peter called it an easy ride, hmmmm, I don't completely agree, but then, Peter and I often don't completely agree, lol.  It was over before we knew it, however, amazing how we can knock out 13 miles, even with hills, these days and it doesn't feel like much.  Just how long will that last I wonder. 

I want to say I am happy to be done, and though I am happy to be done with hotel bathrooms, motel bathrooms, public bathrooms (do you see a pattern here), other people's bathrooms, other people's showers, bathtubs instead of showers, the woods on the side of the road in Maine, even though I am happy to be done with eating whatever whenever and I do look forward to more regulation to my day, up at a regular time, eat at a regular time, have food available as needed so I can eat at a regular time, even though I am looking forward to a wider selection of clothing to chose from on any given day, and the option of always having something clean to put on, even though I am definately looking forward to not reading another cue sheet for a long time, not being lost, not asking someone at the other end of the phone for directions to their place and they can't help us, even though I am looking forward to not blowing through money at an alarming rate, I will miss the destinations, I will miss the people, the scenery, the feeling of accomplishment each day that I arrived someplace and I got there by my own power, I will miss the feeling of being part of some larger magnificent thing though I don't know what that thing is, I only know I have felt a part of it over and over again when people have been caring and generous and supportive.  I won't miss having to wash my hair every single day.  I won't miss not being able to get out of the sun on hot days.  I won't miss the many nights we slept in accomodations without a.c., and I will miss all the nights we had accomodations with a.c.  Most of all, I will miss the adventure of it.  I now know a little bit of what it must have felt like to be an explorer, to venture into unknown lands and marvel at unexpected sites.  I now know a little bit of what it is to live full out.  What a wondrous time it has been.  I leave you with a little Grateful Dead:

You’re sick of hangin’ around and you’d like to travel;
Get tired of travelin’ and you want to settle down.
I guess they can’t revoke your soul for tryin’,
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Truckin’, I’m a goin’ home. whoa whoa baby, back where I belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin’ on.
Hey now get back truckin’ home.

See you on the road.....

Comments

[Mary]

CONGRATS! Well done. Amazing. Way to go!WOWZA!

"The Proof is in the Peddling"

"Being Part of Some Larger Magnificent Thing"

"My Life is Like A Grateful Dead Song"

[anne-marie]

you guys are great!! i can't wait to read the last blog. you should be proud of yourselves!!

[Anne Stuart]

Woo-hooooooooo! Congratulations! Never doubted for a single minute that you'd make it -- but I never dreamed you'd make it with days to spare! Looking forward to hearing much more about all of it when I see you in September!