Lighthouse boat tour Portland Day 82

Lighthouse boat tour
Portland head light two views
Ram's Island Ledge Lighthouse
Channel marker with a rider
Lobster trap floats

Day 82: Old Orchard Beach

Sylvia and Kamla seaside
Sylvia and her mom
Kamla's feet cause a turbulent design

Peeble casts sand shadows
Reflections Kamla and me in bubbles

some stoney beach near Ferry State Park

Beach near Ferry State Park

Tom Sylvia Kamla and Kevin

Waves approach

Mermaid revisits home

Portland Head Lighthouse on day 81

Bill sportin' Pistol Pete

Portland Head Light

Sylvia sees the light

Workin' Bee

Portland Head Light

Day 79: Fun Videos and Lobster Pics

Kevin and Sylvia go Cruisin' with Tom and Jerry in Chamberlain SD.




Day 68 Playground fun on "Safe" see-saws

Day 78: WE MADE IT! Cornish, ME, to Portland, ME, 37 miles

Total mileage: 4130.7

Pictures: Kevin tries on a pair of D&G sunglasses that he found
Kamla smiles after making it to Portland
The crew in Portland

Video of my bikes front wheel.

A beautiful day to end our ride on. We cruised into Portland and at the visitor center stopped for pictures and to dip wheels. We wish to thank everyone who made it possible: people who can and sagged for us; people who went out of their way to help us along the way; and friends we met along the way. If you’ve followed the blog from the start you probably know that of the original 6 people that started the C2C we lost 3 to crashes along the way. As you saw from the posts last week Susan Walker has bounced back quite well from her broken collarbone. Bill spoke with Rick a couple days ago he’s in therapy for his broken arm still. Diane is having a difficult time recovering from her head injury. I thank you for all your prayers for the group and wish you to continue praying for those injured along the way.

Day 77: Conway, NH, to Cornish, Maine 35 miles

Pictures: Covered bridge over Saco River in Conway
Kamla’s favorite view from the covered bridge
Maine state line with Bill showing off Pistol Pete on the back of his jersey
Riding in the first sprinkle of the day
Taking shelter at the ice cream/hot dog stand
Uppy shows us how its done in the livestock barn

Video of the shower from inside the livestock barn

We left our hotel and got to ride across a covered bridge. Then after 7.7 miles we crossed into Maine. We stopped at the visitor center and got directions on how to make it to Portland using the back roads. After riding 20 or so miles on the back roads we got to a junction with a ice cream/hot dog stand and found out from the owner we had been on the wrong road for quite some time. But it was a blessing in disguise. Before we finished eating our hot dogs the sky let loose with a pounding Hurricane Bill rain. We got to shelter under the awning and umbrella for about an hour till it let up enough for us to continue. We had learned that there was a motel in the town of Cornish about 4 miles away. After riding almost 2 miles the rain picked up. We spotted the fairgrounds and headed to one of the livestock barns for sanctuary. The rain waxed and waned several times while we hung out in the barns ankle deep saw dust. Then all the sudden the rain quit and the sun came out. We left our sanctuary to head toward Cornish. Of course it rained on us while we rode the last two miles into town. It didn’t take long to nix the plans for making it to Portland and find accommodations in the Midway Country Lodge. The blessing is if I hadn’t have missed the turn earlier in the day we wouldn’t have been near a town with a motel.

Day 76: Conway, NH Rest Day

It was still raining this morning so without much argument we decided to take a rest day. The river is running too high for us to take a float trip so we’ve been hanging out around the hotel. Woody the guy that runs the hotel is nice and he let us borrow his car to drive to Staples so Kamla could ship stuff home. We got some marble slab ice cream then I dropped the Kamla and Sylvia off at a nail salon to get pedicures. This evening we plan on cooking out on a grill at the hotel then riding around 60 miles tomorrow. We’re only 5 miles from Maine and can be in Portland in two days of biking. We’re nearing the end of the ride its gonna be hard heading back to the real world.

Day 75: North Woodstock NH to Conway NH 35 miles over Kancamagus Pass

Pictures:
A New Hampshire sign
Low hanging clouds
Posing on a suspension bridge on the way up the pass
The top of Kancamagus Pass
A quick foot soaking

This morning we loaded our gear in the Prius. Susan was taking our gear and Bill to the White Deer Hotel in Conway where we’ll stay the night. Bill had to go to help unload and also to go to a bike shop and get a broken spoke replaced. Kevin, Kamla, Sylvia and I enjoyed the nice 12 mile climb up Kancamagus Pass. Overcast conditions kept us from getting a clear view of the mountains but we stopped at several scenic overlooks to rest and read about the impact glaciers had had on the mountains during the last ice age. About 10 miles from Conway we stopped to dip our feet in the river and take some pictures. That’s when we heard the first clap of thunder. We managed to ride another 5 miles before being overtaken by a rain shower. As we waited for the rain to let up under a tree in the woods a pack of cyclists went by. We mounted up and a couple miles down the road we found the pack of Canadian cyclists finishing changing a flat. We made it to the hotel in Conway just in time. Not two minutes passed before all hell broke lose; a deluge of hard rain with lightening striking all around the hotel. That’s the second time this trip that we out ran a massive rain storm by seconds (Buffalo, NY, was the other time). We had a blast all evening hanging out with fishermen, harley riders, a couple from NJ and others sitting on the patio in front of the rooms sharing stories.

Day 74b: Arrival in North Woodstock

Pictures: The big arrival

Kevin and Uppy in the front with Susan driving

Kamla sitting on Sylvia in half the back seat

Kamla tries to wake up her leg

Bill trys to revive a sleeping arm

4 disassembled bikes fill the cargo area


While I blogged in the afternoon at the hotel, Susan Walker returned to pickup more cyclists. They were about 20 miles short of town when Susan spotted them. Susan was tired and wished to fit all of them in in one trip. This is what a Prius looks like with 4 bicycles and 5 people crammed in for more than half an hour on the back roads of New Hampshire.

Day 74: Rochester VT to North Woodstock NH

Pictures: on the road outside of Rochester
by barn
we scream for ice cream
crossing the bridge over the Connecticut River into New Hampshire
a covered bridge on River street in NH
NH mountains ahead

What a great night in the Pumpkin Patch B&B. I slept like a baby on the king sized Sealy Posturpedic Euro style pillow top. The owners Debbie and Rich Mathiesen served us a great french toast breakfast with plenty of sausage, bacon and fruit salad bracing us for today’s long ride. Here is the thing about Vermont, they don’t take that good of care of their roads (or maybe its just the hard winters) so they are riddled with cracks. Also there are few shoulders and many roads have too much traffic to enjoy while bicycling. Then you get to a 15 or 20 mile tertiary road that has no traffic and is in beautiful shape and it makes the ride all worth while. So one minute your taking a break stressed and cursing VT then ten minutes later you’re effervescent with joy in spectacular scenery and having the ride of your life. Also you assume that everyone up here is a granola eating easy going free will type. Well that ain’t so, they are some of the most callous lest bicycle friendly drivers I’ve experienced. One guy in a pickup truck heading the opposite direction from we yesterday stopped while I climbed a 12% grade he said, “People like you get killed awful easy.” Maybe the granolas have pushed the rednecks a little too far up here. On a more possitive note my odometer rolled over 4000 miles today. I only did 40 miles then sagged in to the motel with Susan Walker to catch up on the blog.