I made it!

Today I rolled up to the Canadian border at Calais, ME ....
And found that Peter was being detained at the security office and needed me to corroborate his story.  He had inadvertently walked over the border into Canada without his passport...

But the main thing is - I finished the East Coast!  2600 miles in 47 days.  I'm tired and ready to be done.

And Maine is beautiful!

Strange sights, part 3

Wild Blueberry Land

The watch repair mascot is a dinosaur?

More interesting people

We've found some interesting folks to talk to in the North, too.

A three-year-old chased her puppy into our campsite in Bangor and asked, "What's your name?"  I told her and she said "Well, what's his name?" I said Peter, and she said, "Oh! Like Peter Rabbit?"  I said, "No, like Peter Wolfe."  She stopped talking.

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I stopped at an intersection when I was riding a bike trail in New Jersey and another cyclist asked which way I was going.  When I pointed to the trail, he said, "You should go this way.  It's much nicer. It's a really great trail."  I said, "Too bad.  That path won't take me where I want to go."  He said, "That's the trouble today.  People don't take the time to try a new path.  Everyone's always in a hurry."

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Peter tells everyone about my trip. Not everyone seems appreciative, though.  A campground clerk in New Hampshire listened and then said, "I knew a gal who rode a bike from somewhere in California to New York.  Yeah, there was something wrong with her."

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I found a kiosk on the Greenway Trail when I got to Maine, and was looking for a map to the next section.  There was a woman there looking at the map with her son.  I pointed to the sign that said "Connecting Maine to Key West" and said, "I just rode here from Key West." She smiled and said, "Well, you sure picked a nice day for it!"

Just a few days from the end

Yesterday I rolled into Maine!

So we are in Maine and I have about 250 miles to Calais, which we found out they pronounce "kal-us".

I can't believe there are only a few days of riding left.

Today we ate the famous New England lobster roll and shrimp cocktail at a lobster shack.  It was great!

Then we had Maine blueberry pie.  Also great.

Just when it couldn't get worse....

Well, the good news is that we got to stay in the dorms at the Coast Guard Academy last night, and today I rode into Rhode Island.

The interesting news is that I evidently have the Stephen King version of Google Maps.  The Google lady directed me to a bike trail that is actually a creek bed.

Oh, it starts out sort of looking like a bike trail.  And there is a quaint custom we've discovered in the North Eastern states - street signs are an unnecessary luxury reserved for tourist areas.

So.  Google Lady says to take something called "New London Turnpike" -  and I think, "well, that sounds fancy."  I had come to a fork in the road with a dirt path between the two road options.  No signs anywhere and she says "Continue on New London Turnpike."

I tried each of the roads and each time she said "Make a u-turn and continue on New London Turnpike."  So I went down what I thought must be a bike trail.

The path was in the middle of a dense forest and seemed flat at first.  Pretty soon I came to a wide boggy spot.  It was too wide to ride around.  I thought, "well, if it doesn't get any worse than this...."

After carrying the bike around two more black, stinky ponds in the road, I was committed.  Or maybe I should have gotten committed.

The trail became a dry creek bed featuring deep sand in the center and large rocks on the edges.  I thought about turning back and remembered the black ponds I'd have to get around.

And- huge mosquitos were buzzing in my face.  There were biting flies and these weird moths kept landing on me.  But I had slathered on the insect repellant.
So I carried and pushed the bike over the impassable terrain.

Then it started to get steep.  I listened for banjo music and tried to get Google lady to tell me how much farther to a road.  It showed a crossing at a quarter mile.  Ok I can do anything for a quarter of a mile.

So I sweated on as the dry creek bed became an active creek.  The "road "  Google showed I was coming to turned out to be another path crossing the creek. Like a deer path.  There weren't any bike tire marks anywhere. The map showed I had to push on for two more miles. Uh, ok I can do anything for TWO miles.

The only sounds I could hear were furtive rustlings in the bushes.  And, of course the mosquitos buzzing in my face. Each time I came to a flatter spot I tried to ride to move faster.  I slipped and felt the front sprocket hit the back of my leg.  I noticed my sock felt wet.  But I didn't stop. I wanted photos, but was afraid I was about to happen upon Clem and Homer's secret spot.  I kept moving.

I started thinking about how to escape toothless hillbillies.  I had a swiss army knife.  Go for the groin.  I was reviewing Sandra Bullock's self defense advice from Miss Congeniality.  I was not going to wake up in the morning chained to a rusty still in the woods.

And I came out on a paved path!  I pulled the bike over the last berm and saw stenciled signs at the opening to the forest that said "Enter at own risk".

I jumped on and started riding, feeling relieved, as a mangy old dog came racing out of nowhere. It snarled and barked and jumped on me while I yelled for it to go home.  It seemed like it was right at home alright.

Growling and scrabbling, it actually bit my shoe!   I poured it on and noticed I was going 20 mph!  I didn't stop till I came to a marked street about a mile farther.

Peter miraculously navigated his way to my uncharted position in "Butcher Holler" and tended to my bleeding leg and hugged me. And gave me a cookie.

I set off again to get the last 20 miles to Providence, RI before dark.  Just as Peter drove away, it started sprinkling and I got a flat tire.

So I quit for the day.
And that's the most drama for the entire trip.

Urban ratmaze

New Jersey was a fright.  Upon crossing the Delaware River from Pennsylvania, I was in the Trenton area and it was dismal.

I didn't stop to take pictures until I reached Princeton.  Luckily it was Fathers Day, so it seemed like the zombies were in a good mood. I was anxious the whole time.

Trenton was rundown and boarded up and dirty.  There were thugs roaming the streets with rap music blaring.

With my skin-tight biking underwear and dorky helmet, I fit right in.

It was also pouring rain.  So, after 30 miles of that, Peter picked me up in Elizabeth, NJ and we drove to his sister Gayle's.

After a too-short visit, we left in the morning, back to Elizabeth and I rode to Newark and then to Staten Island and to the ferry terminal, where we found out that cars can't go on the ferry any more.


We jumped back in the van and drove around to Battery Park ferry terminal where I started riding the Hudson river greenway trail.  It was beautiful and surprising.

Pennsylvania, Baby!

Too many hills!  I'm climbing and climbing and there are too many ups and downs.  It's too much.

It's big time farm land and Amish horse carts.  And no, they don't clean up after them.

There are woodchucks busy doing things on the side of the road.  I didn't know what they were but I looked up wildlife of Northern Maryland the first time I saw one. They look like gophers, but three times as big.  I was worried about radiation.

The roads are narrow and I have to pull over to let cars go by.  Luckily, there isn't a lot of traffic.  Like, ever.

Yesterday I came through a little town that was hosting the Budweiser Clydesdales.  I thought it was a parade for me.  But it wasn't.

Another day, another state

It was overwhelming to come off the bike trail and onto the Washington Mall.

Peter took my picture and we dodged 8th graders on their school trips.   We visited the Vietnam memorial and got a chili dog from a street vendor.  Peter was bragging about me to anyone who stood still next to us long enough to make eye contact.

We watched the sunset over the park and drove off to our campsite.  It was glorious.

We took Wednesday off to go to the National Art Gallery and saw a very moving Portrait Gallery exhibit on soldiers in the war on terror.

I rode yesterday 60 miles from the Lincoln Memorial, through Rock Creek Park and into the bowels of Maryland.  It was hilly.

Wise wisdom

I was thinking that I have learned some biking guidelines that might be worth sharing.  They aren't in any particular order.

- When about to pass a stopped car on your left, make sure it isn't stopped to let another car turn into a driveway you're passing on your right.

- As you zoom down a hill, look ahead to avoid any dead, bloated skunks in the road.

- If you don't take a few pictures on the way, you won't remember much about what you saw.

- Don't be a jerk.

- When somebody flips you the bird, smile and wave.  It's all you have time for anyway.

Virginia Capital Trail

We spent a little time in Jamestown and Richmond.  We toured the Berkeley Plantation and I rode along the Canal walk in Richmond.  Peter walked through the church where Robert E Lee was a parishioner.

I loved the Virginia Capital Trail. It's over 40 miles of dedicated bike path connecting the two cities.  I rode along fields of wheat, corn, soybeans, potatoes and hay.  There were sections through forest and through swamp.  There are at least a dozen historic plantations and markers commemorating Revolutionary War battles, Civil War encampments and even Pocahontas' birthplace along the route.

This was the first terrain on the trip with rolling hills.  It's all been completely flat until yesterday. Today I actually had a few short but steep climbs.

Saw lots of cardinals, squirrels and rabbits.  It was charming.

The map was wrong in Richmond and I had to navigate by my wits. Meaning that I got lost so Peter drove ahead and waited for me at each turn.

Strange sights part 2

I crossed into Virginia yesterday!
So go to the Menu and check out my photos from North Carolina and the other states (whose names I've already forgotten) that I've ridden through.

Here are a few interesting things I noticed.


Lots of rural homes have graves or small cemeteries in their front yards.  In some neighborhoods, every house has a little cemetery of its own.

A gift store had cow tail sprinklers!  They swish back and forth.

Saw how Trump got elected.  It was by the Southern poverty sector.  Saw many Confederate flags in front of homes and businesses.  Because of poll taxes and voter exams, in NC Blacks have only had the vote since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Good news-  everybody has Help Wanted signs up.  No Name Pizza in Beaufort, NC, for example, needs somebody who knows how to deal with experience.

I got to ride through the Marine base at Camp LeJeune because I brought my own Lt Commander with me.  They saluted him.

In NC there are signs on the highway that tell you how to go the other way.  At every exit. There are also U-Turn circles every 10 miles or so.

This is where the daily activities are

Every town should have a claim to fame

Cape Hatteras Views

Sights I've seen while riding on the islands have been amazing.  I've crossed lots of bridges and 2 ferries so far.  We've stayed at campgrounds on the beach and went to see the Wright brothers' memorial.  

Hatteras Lighthouse

Brother and sister playing in front of our tent on the beach

Riding the 2nd ferry of the day

Interesting People

It struck me today that we've had some great conversations with folks almost every time we stop.

In Key West, we chatted with the server at the Six-Toed Cat Cafe.  We had to try key lime pie, and she told us she wasn't sure why it's called that, except that it's made out of key limes, which, she said, are not the same as your regular limes.

We ordered breakfast one morning farther up the coast in Florida, and I asked the young waitress if there was anything we should be sure to see before we left the area.  She said, "Nah, it's really boring here.  But y'all should go to Orlando.  They got this place there called Cheesecake Factory and it's amazing!"

One night we were talking to a waiter at a pizza place somewhere in Georgia.  I asked him if he knew if it was legal to park overnight at the beach access parking areas near there. We had been unsuccessfully looking for a campground.  This kid, who was 19 or 20 said, "You'll get rousted out by the cops if you sleep in your van there.  It's not like the 'old days'."  (Like when he was in middle school?)

At our campsite on the beach this morning, we were visited by a guy named Murph.  He was a frail old guy, about 85, who was camping in a giant RV with his wife.  He wanted to know how we like our tent.  He said he used to have a tent but his wife liked to cook, so now he has a 35 foot RV.
He said he likes to come to Cape Hatteras for the wind surfing.

I wanted to see that.  He said he didn't feel like it today.
So I rode off.

Entertainment along the way

Sometimes there are long stretches of road that don't offer much variety in scenery.  There has been a lot of straight, flat road with tall, dark forest on both sides.

I ride along in the heat trying to break up the monotony by watching my speed, watching for traffic, and always looking for changes in scenery.  When I'm continuously in the sun I stop every hour and get in the shade for ten minutes or so.

Yesterday I was plodding along and out of the grass came a funny little grey squirrel-raccoon looking animal.  It reminded me of a cartoon character.  Too big for a squirrel, it acted like a raccoon, but had no stripes or mask - and a long, bushy, grey tail.  It stood on hind legs and looked for cars and then proceeded across the street.

I looked up wildlife of the Carolinas and the nearest match was a grey long-tail weasel.

That same afternoon, a long skinny black snake came out of the roadside and curled around and slithered away when I reached it.

Also two dogs chased me.

Can't keep me down

Van repairs at Charleston Toyota created a minor delay.  But, it was a good time to stay at the KOA in Charleston, do some laundry and see some historic sights.  The good people at the Toyota service loaned us a nice new car so we could tour leisurely.

We saw the Magnolia Plantation, which is a little too commercialized, but we were impressed with the presentation at the slave quarters.  It's easy to forget the price that was paid to create the grand society.

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Got back on the road yesterday and easily made 70 miles after my two day break.

This is the family of geese who live at the campground.

There's no swimming in the lake because of alligators.  We didn't see one, though.

Strange Sights

While biking in South Carolina, not sure if it's the 90 degree-plus temperatures with high humidity, but there have been a couple of sights that struck me as a little strange.

 

 

A fireworks gas station

 

A peacock begging for treats at a minimart in the middle of nowhere....

A PVC pipe mailbox man.  Kinda cool...

A guy having a picnic with his wife in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot on Memorial Day

 



Not sure why this place would be closed Saturday.

Van Guy gets Disgruntled

So...Peter is grumpy when it's 90 degrees and 80% humidity and the van air conditioning is blowing hot.  Found that out Friday when we scrambled into Savannah and had the Toyota dealer recharge the a/c.

Unfortunately, today after we walked around an old plantation and then I got started at 9:30 in the morning, the a/c was blowing hot again.  Sunday morning of Memorial weekend.  No fun.


Not like the fun I had!

I rode and found out that baby armadillos are not afraid of people!  I was riding along and saw little footballs in the grass sort of walking around by themselves.  It was baby armadillos!  I stopped and took pictures and they walked right up and started sniffing the bike!

After I got some great pics and they still weren't spooked by me, I decided to see what they feel like.  They absolutely did not care that I touched them.  I think they're a little disconnected.  Oh, and they feel like vinyl upholstery.

 

It was the best!