Kilometer 98
Port Jefferson Station, NY
It wasn't the auspicious beginning I would have hoped for.
I set my alarm for seven, but didn't wake up till eight. By the time I pulled my heavy, luggage-laden bike out the door, it was after 8:30, and then the minute wheel touched pavement, the zip-tie contraption connecting my bag rack to my bicycle that I'd jury-rigged the night before snapped. Six blocks to Rite-Aid for duct tape, six blocks back. I didn't leave the neighborhood until 9:30, and even then got lost a few times in the maze of paths that is Flushing Meadows. But all is good. Smooth sailing for hours past the strip malls and chain stores of Nassau County. Until I lost my keys.
I checked and double-checked the pocket where I usually keep them. Then another pocket, and another, and another. Shit. And now that I think of it, hadn't I heard a little clink of something falling a few miles back? I'm sure I did. In retrospect, though, it might have been smart to triple-check that first pocket before I wasted seven kilometers retracing my steps to find the keys, given that the second I reached into my backpack to retrieve my phone is when, instead, I put my hand upon my keys. Hmph.
I'm in Dunkin Donuts in Stony Brook, NY now. I got my dinner at the Domino's next door, and came in here to use the bathroom and the wifi. But the part of the day I'm most nervous for is still ahead of me. That's the part where I pitch my tent somewhere and go to sleep. Now, the "pitch my tent" and "go to sleep" parts of that are not what concerns me. What concerns me is "somewhere." I don't have a campsite. I'm just looking for a nice patch of trees where hopefully no one will find me before I wake up. I read online that other people do this. I think it's called, like, "stealth camping" or something. But it's one thing to read it somewhere, and it's another to attempt it myself. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.
Day 2
Kilometer 208
Stonington, CT
I survived. A clearing in the woods just off the bike path. And somehow, even though I was convinced that every squirrel's footstep and every leaf's rustle was some angry security guard going to throw me out, I woke up feeling well-rested at five in the morning. Not sure that's ever happened before.
Lucky, though, because I had to make up some time from yesterday. Which, it turns out, was no easy task. I'm more weighed down with luggage and exhausted from the previous day than I ever have been before. But I managed. I reached Orient Point, the end of Long Island, at three, after nearly ten hours, on and off, of biking. I hopped on the ferry to Connecticut, Land of Nutmeg and Constitutions, and biked as much as I could before I collapsed and found somewhere to sleep. I imagine that last phrase is going to become a familiar sentiment these next two months.
Day 3
Kilometer 334
Freetown, MA
There's three things you should know. First: if, for some reason, you are reading this despite not being my mother, then you may not know what I'm writing about, though I suppose you'd have to be pretty oblivious not to notice that I've been biking for the past three days. That's because I left my job and my apartment in New York City and I got on a bike two days ago, Tuesday, May 31, and left. I'm going north first, to Quebec, then east, along the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Maritime Provinces, then back down the coast of New England to Cape Cod. But wait, responds the astute reader, consulting his road atlas, you've been going east, but Canada is north of you. Well, yes. The short term goal is two cousins' graduations in Massachusetts this weekend. A pit stop of sorts.
Second, the odometer on my bike is in kilometers, and I can't change it to miles without reseting it and losing my progress, which means I now spend roughly 80% of my time mentally converting between the two.
Third, I biked across an entire state today. Smallest state in the union, but still. I woke up in Connecticut, crossed Rhode Island, and am sleeping in Massachusetts.
Bonus fourth thing: Every part of my body is sore.
Day 4
Kilometer 390
Falmouth, MA
I made it to Cape Cod! Now to sleep for twenty hours.
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