These last couple of weeks or so, as we’ve been cycling through New England, have been some of the best of our trip for me, first and foremost and not surprisingly, because of the people we’ve met up with. In New York, my sister, her husband and two of their three daughters drove from Ithaca to Fair Haven, NY–over an hour’s drive–to meet us for dinner. It was great to see them all and be able to catch up, which we hope to do more of in September when we all get together in CA for a nephew’s wedding. Also, they had arranged for a dinner at a gorgeous water-front restaurant. It was definitely one of the best meals of our trip. We were doubly lucky since our motel was miles from a place to eat and I’m not sure if the town had any taxis to drive us to dinner had we not been dining with my sister. And the last thing we want to do after a hard day’s ride is bike to and from dinner. My brother-in-law had also decided that, since there seemed to be no breakfast place in town, he would organize a boxed breakfast. The sandwiches were incredibly yummy and so big that the leftovers became our lunch.

My sister, Anke, her husband Ric and two of their daughters Marin and Rory at the beautiful lake location where we had dinner.

A few days later, we rode to Buffalo where a college classmate had reached out to us when she read in the alumni magazine that we were biking cross-country to benefit the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and invited us to spend a night in her home, just around the corner from the Darwin Martin House. Jennifer and I couldn’t quite put a finger on how we had known each other at Dartmouth, but after spending a day with her and her kids, I wished that we had spent more time together in college. But there’s always time to make up for that now and I hope we have more opportunities to get together in the future.

A few days later, we cycled into East Thetford, VT where we were met by one of our oldest and dearest friends, Camilla, with whom we just spent two nights and a rest day in Hanover, NH. We squeezed our bikes into her mini-van and she drove us to and from her place and our route. We had such a wonderful time with her–catching up, talking politics, watching the Olympics and eating and drinking to our hearts content including an incredible home made peach/blueberry pie and homemade chocolate malts. Camilla knows us way too well and had all our favorite foods and drinks. And she treated us to a wonderful massage. We have found that periodic massages really make all the difference! My shoulder has been SOOOO much better. While in Hanover we had drinks with an old college roommate, Deb. It was so much fun to talk about old times and great to realize that my difficulty in remembering exactly who I had roomed with at Dartmouth was not unique to me. Deb also gave us great tips on places to travel to, so our travel “to do” list as just grown by leaps and bounds. Earlier that day Camilla drove us to Manchester where we met up with another old college roommate, Judy, for lunch and a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Zimmerman House. Again, it was great to see Judy and I just wish that we all lived much closer together so we could see each other more often.

We tried to convince Camilla to join us on our ride, but this was as close as we got her to come–dropping us off on our route after a wonderful stay with her.

We then stayed with another old housemate from my SAIS days just outside Lincoln, VT, the next night. Larry drove over 2 hours from Boston, had organized for the local bike shop to store our bikes overnight, and drove us to his vacation condo 30 minutes away where we had a wonderful dinner, watched the Olympics and spent the night. We hadn’t seen Larry in about 7 years so had a lot of catching up to do. We really appreciate that he drove almost 5 hours back and forth to spend a little time with us.

Getting together to with friends over the course of this trip has been a highlight and has made me realize how lucky we are to know such wonderful people. We will definitely make more of an effort to meet up with them more frequently.

A second highlight of the last 10 days or so has been riding through New England where I spent my junior high, high school and college years. It’s been wonderful for me to ride through this beautiful area of the US and to remember trips and activities of my youth: picking blueberries and apples, swimming in pristine lakes, visiting the Niagara Falls, and hiking through gorgeous landscapes. I definitely miss the water that is all around us here–just in case you haven’t noticed from the fact that so many of my photos are water centric. I am looking forward to riding into Acadia National Park where we spent huge chunks of our summers and weekends over the course of the years we lived in Maine.

Another aquatic photo from yesterday in New Hampshire.

We haven’t seen any moose yet, but seeing this sign reminded me of the time a moose peered into my classroom window in 5th grade. What a shocker that was!

And finally, watching the Olympics has been so inspiring. I’ve stayed up until midnight on many nights watching the swimmers and gymnasts win so many golds and have been in tears most nights as I listen to their stories. I am awed by how hard they have worked to get where they are and happy that all of their hard work has paid off. Another of my college roommates won a silver medal in rowing (single scull) so I am well aware of the sacrifices each one of these Olympians has made to get to where they are today, making winning look so easy. I admit that during the course of the day, when I may be struggling on a particularly difficult climb, I think of how hard these athletes have worked and that encouraged me to keep going. I’m sorry that the swimming is over now, but happy that I can get back to a normal sleep routine. 😉

Only four more days until we ride into Bar Harbor. Hard to believe. The weeks have flown by.