We are still enjoying ourselves and our “recovery” here in Maine and are now at the Spruce Point Inn in Boothbay Harbor. This morning was spent kayaking and the afternoon on a whale watch boat trip so we are certainly not stressed! Some questions we’d like to answer about our ride and if you have any of your own, please post them in the “comment” tab and we’ll answer them.

How many miles a day did we ride?

We were on our bikes 71 of the 79 days for a total of 4230 miles which works out to 59.57 miles per day and averaged between 11 and 12 miles per hour. Our longest mileage was the wind-aided day in Montana, 104 miles, and the shortest was probably on July 4th, around 34 miles. There were some 70 and 80 mile days in there as well. We had 8 rest days where we did nothing at all but recharge our engines, laundry, bike repair etc.

Did we have any major bike breakdowns?

None. The Surley Disc Truckers are amazingly sturdy and reliable bikes and Vanessa at Landis Cyclery in Tempe set them up and fitted them perfectly for us. On a side note, our friend Vanessa is moving with her family to California before we get back to Phoenix so we won’t be able to share our road stories with her in person but we’ll stay in touch. We did have 5 flat tubes, one in Montana and 4 in two days of riding on the Interstate in North Dakota. We replaced both front and rear tires on both bikes due to the plain old wear and tear of the road. In Minneapolis we had the bikes checked out, cables and brakes tightened and both chains replaced, again normal wear and tear.

How many hours a day did we ride and where did we spend the nights?

In general, we tried to get on the road by 7 o’clock each day. The early start was to avoid the heat of the day and to get some miles in before the winds picked up. Also on most days we were able to dodge going-to-work traffic. We would pedal for 25 miles or so (about 2 hours) and take a snack break, bananas and protein bars and then resume biking until lunch, usually around 11:30 and then plan on stopping between 1:00 and 2:00. So it wasn’t that we were on the bikes every waking minute but probably 5 to 7 hours daily.

At the beginning we camped a bit but with the noise of the campgrounds and RV parks (dogs, trains, other campers – one woman next to us in Washington was on the phone to her friend at 3:00 am … loudly chattering away) we we weren’t getting enough “good” sleep to help us keep going day after day. We then shipped most of our camping gear back to Phoenix and utilized Warm Showers and hotels after that. We also shipped back our cold weather gear once we crossed the Continental Divide and later shipped some things we didn’t need anymore which emptied out our front panniers that we shipped back, too. So we were definitely lighter by the end of the trip.

What were your favorite and least favorite parts of the ride?

The most beautiful scenery along the route was in the mountains but also the hardest biking. Going through the Cascades and then Glacier NP were, I think, our favorite segments. Every day had its own challenge and beauty so there was never a terrible, horrible day but some of the hardest to get through were the rides into Browning, Montana, because of the endless hills and added mileage; after Wolf Point, Montana, because of the strong headwind; and some of the days in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine caused by the numerous steep climbs. On the whole, we would both agree that the adventure was fun and enjoyable. We really enjoyed the long rail to trail paths in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the ride in the UP of Michigan, the Erie Canal and many others.

Be sure to post any questions you’d like us to answer. We’ll try to break ourselves away from activities like the below to answer them!!!!

Day 81 – Recovery

A deserved champagne toast

This is day 2 of no bikes and yes, we are feeling a little nostalgic for the routine and the enforced exercise of riding everyday. Both yesterday and today we have explored a little bit of Acadia and today we drove to Campobello to visit FDR’s summer cottage there. We pulled out our passports again to get there since (I didn’t know this) Campobello is in New Brunswick and it is in a joint US-Canadian international park. There were docents stationed at strategic places to educate us.

US – Canadian park at Campobello

The island used to be a retreat for wealthy New York and Boston families in the 1900s and had several hotels including one with 400 rooms. The hotels are gone as are most of the houses but the Roosevelt cottage and two others have been preserved.

The Roosevelts’ cottage

FDR, his mother, Eleanor and kids

Just before the bridge back to the US we stopped at the Mulholland Point Lighthouse and since the tide was running out, seals were feasting on the smaller fish caught in the rip. A guide at the lighthouse explained the resident sea mammal life including a recent dramatic rescue of a baleine whale that was dangerously tangled in fishing lines to the point that they were cutting into his body and restricting his ability to feed. A team of naturalists labored for hours to slowly cut away the lines and freed the whale from the entanglement.

Mulholland Point Lighthouse, New Brunswick

After crossing the bridge we passed through Lubec, the eastern most town in the US and drove to the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, the easternmost point in the US.

Now we are sitting on the rocks at Schoodic Point reading, writing and awaiting the sundown. Tomorrow we drive to Bob and Rebecca’s place in Sebasco, ME.

Looking toward Mt. Desert from Schoodic Point

Random thoughts and observations about our 79 day journey:

* As we observed early on in our blog, we found people to be without fail eager to help and willing to open themselves up to strangers. I can only remember one driver who seemed to try to drive as close to us as possible then gunned his extra loud Diesel engine. Not sure why he chose to do that but in the end all it did was startle us.

* Americans are very patriotic. It’s a generalization but the flags, buntings and bumper stickers show that no political party or region has a monopoly on pride in our country or in supporting our troops.

* We saw many older than middle age men and women riding brand new Harleys and I’m sure the Harley-Davidson company is very glad for the market niche. Many folks were on three wheel motorcycles and some pulled small trailers.

* There is a love affair with the RV lifestyle. We saw them on the roads, in campgrounds, for sale used in front yards and lined up new in dealers’ lots. They truly are mobile homes complete with every amenity we have in our houses including some with Jacuzzis and multiple bedroom/bath suites.

* One could easily build and furnish a house with the various materials, furniture and appliances either for sale or for free in front of houses.

* The most common small business we saw was auto repair and body work. Every town had at least one of each and sometimes more. The most frequently seen chain stores we saw belonged to Family Dollar. They seemed to spring up everywhere. Until we reached some of the cities in the Midwest and east we hardly saw any Starbucks. There are, on the other hand, many Subways.

* I forgot to mention that when we came through Brunswick, Maine, we passed the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A few weeks previous to that In Ontario, we had passed the house that was the inspiration for her book.

While we feel we have accomplished a wonderful and long journey, we both feel that by taking one day at a time and even one mile at a time, this trip is not “epic” at all. There is something about establishing a daily routine and daily expectation of what is to be accomplished that reduces the 4200 mile into manageable distances. It’s the old “every journey begins with one step” phenomenon.

I’m absolutely certain we will remember other vignettes of the trip and we will continue to blog them in case anyone out there is still watching!