Day 72
Kilometer 6182
Brewster, MA
I can't decide if it feels more like I'm waking up from a dream that I was finally home, or if it feels like I've fallen back into the dream where I pedal and pedal and pedal and occasionally take a break to eat an obscene amount of food. A little of both.
Kingston, Plymouth, Bourne. What's weird is that I'm not counting down the miles—er, kilometers—anymore. Now I'm counting down with towns whose names I recognize.
Sagamore Bridge, Sandwich. I'm summing it all up in my head: 3841 miles, seven states, four provinces, eight national parks, ten flat tires.
Barnstable, Yarmouth. And I'm also composing this blog post in my head as I ride, as I do nearly every day, but I'm stuck. How do I sum up more than two months in a few pithy words?
Dennis, Harwich. "Exhausting," "exhilarating," and "wet" are the only ones that come to mind. I guess I've got to go with those.
And finally, Brewster. Home again, home again, jiggity jig.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Days 65 to 70: New England Coast
Day 65
Kilometer 5645
Belfast, ME
Acadia: beautiful. Mountains. Ocean. Countless gorgeous views of both. Can't go wrong.
Day 66
Kilometer 5760
West Bath, ME
Home stretch now. I'm counting down the days. Four, hopefully.
God, it better only be four. I'm tired.
Day 67
Kilometer 5852
Wells, ME
Portland, Maine, is the first place since Halifax, Nova Scotia worthy of being called a "city." Which means: there's more than one highway here. Which means: I got lost.
Day 68
Kilometer 5950
Rowley, MA
Three important things: One. Last night in the tent. Woot.
Two. I crossed the bridge ("Hey! No bicycles!" "Oops.") from Maine to New Hampshire, and then, having sufficiently Lived Free and/or Died, left New Hampshire for the State of Codfish and/or Baked Beans.
Three. My bike is a piece of crap.
Day 69
Kilometer 6050
Norwell, MA
Update re:bike problems. My unfailing steed has, yet again, failed me. Its newly rediscovered chain/tire/brakes/essentially-everything problems have blossomed anew, giving me the fun task of navigating Boston streets and traffic on a bike, while also pulling over every ten to twenty seconds to take the chain that has mysteriously fallen off the bike and wind it back on (I've gotten pretty good at this!), and every 30 minutes to re-inflate the back tire.
Upside: a shower and a bed. And only one more day.
Day 70
Kilometer 6081
Pembroke, MA
I failed. I flunked. I folded, flopped, foundered, fell flat (pun somewhat intended), and forwent the finale. I phoned my family, forsaking the finish line, and they ferried me home. The bicycle's fussiness had, uh,—okay, I'm giving up the F thing. Everything on the bike got worse—the chain, the tire—and at 11 in the morning, I gave up and got a ride home.
Not exactly the dramatic finale I was hoping for.
Kilometer 5645
Belfast, ME
Acadia: beautiful. Mountains. Ocean. Countless gorgeous views of both. Can't go wrong.
Day 66
Kilometer 5760
West Bath, ME
Home stretch now. I'm counting down the days. Four, hopefully.
God, it better only be four. I'm tired.
Day 67
Kilometer 5852
Wells, ME
Portland, Maine, is the first place since Halifax, Nova Scotia worthy of being called a "city." Which means: there's more than one highway here. Which means: I got lost.
Day 68
Kilometer 5950
Rowley, MA
Three important things: One. Last night in the tent. Woot.
Two. I crossed the bridge ("Hey! No bicycles!" "Oops.") from Maine to New Hampshire, and then, having sufficiently Lived Free and/or Died, left New Hampshire for the State of Codfish and/or Baked Beans.
Three. My bike is a piece of crap.
Day 69
Kilometer 6050
Norwell, MA
Update re:bike problems. My unfailing steed has, yet again, failed me. Its newly rediscovered chain/tire/brakes/essentially-everything problems have blossomed anew, giving me the fun task of navigating Boston streets and traffic on a bike, while also pulling over every ten to twenty seconds to take the chain that has mysteriously fallen off the bike and wind it back on (I've gotten pretty good at this!), and every 30 minutes to re-inflate the back tire.
Upside: a shower and a bed. And only one more day.
Day 70
Kilometer 6081
Pembroke, MA
I failed. I flunked. I folded, flopped, foundered, fell flat (pun somewhat intended), and forwent the finale. I phoned my family, forsaking the finish line, and they ferried me home. The bicycle's fussiness had, uh,—okay, I'm giving up the F thing. Everything on the bike got worse—the chain, the tire—and at 11 in the morning, I gave up and got a ride home.
Not exactly the dramatic finale I was hoping for.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Days 60 to 64: New Brunswick and Maine's Downeast
Day 60
Kilometer 5079
Pleasant Villa, NB
After two days around the Bay of Fundy with Mom (in a car more functional than my bike, I'm happy to say), I'm back for the last portion of the trip. I'm near the end now.
A lot of bike mending was required today. I took the head of a screw and jammed it in between the bike frame and the back wheel to keep them in place. Virtually everything else was fixed with duct tape. (How could I live without it?)
Day 61
Kilometer 5199
Harvey, NB
This is, barring more bike malfunctions or inclement weather (and I won't count on either of those passing me by), my last full day in Canada. I stopped in Fredericton, New Brunswick and celebrated like a true Canadian—er, I went to McDonald's at the mall downtown. For all the times I worried about someone finding me at night and telling me off for being where I shouldn't be, I didn't expect it at a fast food chain in the daytime, but sure enough, the mall security guard came over and told me that I'd "been sitting there for way too long charging your phone. You ate your meal. Now you need to leave." I looked at my watch. Not quite thirty minutes had passed since I walked in. Oh, please, Mr. Mall Cop, thirty minutes is nothing. You don't know the meaning of sitting-at-a-McDonald's-for-way-to-long-so-you-can-charge-your-phone. (But, of course, this polite Minnesotan gave no more sass than an exaggerated eye roll when his back was turned.)
The two new punctured tires today bring the trip total up to eight. And the screw head I jammed between the wheel and the frame is, it turns out, not quite large enough. I wrapped some tape around it for extra width, (I guess I was wrong about the solution not involving duct tape!), and wedged it back in. It seems to have held. For now.
Day 62
Kilometer 5317
Perry, ME
Back in the US—back in the US—back in the US of A. I met first other long-distance bike rider of the trip. Prince Edward Island to Mexico, he said, which sounds a lot more impressive than when I told him my route—just a list of states and provinces—but I checked later, and 5317 kilometers would have gotten me a little ways into Mexico if I'd started in PEI.
I'm sleeping on the 45th parallel north tonight. I pulled over behind a sign on the side of the road telling me I was "halfway from from the Equator to the North Pole."
Day 63
Kilometer 5438
Milbridge, ME
My mom has decided, ever since a particularly long stretch of Québec, that names of cities and provinces up here don't mean anything to her, so she now updates me every few days on where I would be if I hadn't done this weird Canada thing and just gone straight west from Cape Cod, across the US. In Québec, when I'd gone 2000-some kilometers, that was Iowa. For weeks I've been getting texts telling me "Kearney, Nebraska!" or "Almost to Denver!" Well, at Kilometer 5425 this evening, I reached San Francisco and finished my trans-continental voyage. Alas, Milbridge, ME is not San Francisco, so I've got a few more days to go.
Day 64
Kilometer 5530
Bar Harbor, ME
I veered off the route to Mount Desert Island to visit the last major stop of the trip: Acadia National Park. I'm technically inside the park boundaries, which is probably against lots of rules. Don't tell.
Kilometer 5079
Pleasant Villa, NB
After two days around the Bay of Fundy with Mom (in a car more functional than my bike, I'm happy to say), I'm back for the last portion of the trip. I'm near the end now.
A lot of bike mending was required today. I took the head of a screw and jammed it in between the bike frame and the back wheel to keep them in place. Virtually everything else was fixed with duct tape. (How could I live without it?)
Day 61
Kilometer 5199
Harvey, NB
This is, barring more bike malfunctions or inclement weather (and I won't count on either of those passing me by), my last full day in Canada. I stopped in Fredericton, New Brunswick and celebrated like a true Canadian—er, I went to McDonald's at the mall downtown. For all the times I worried about someone finding me at night and telling me off for being where I shouldn't be, I didn't expect it at a fast food chain in the daytime, but sure enough, the mall security guard came over and told me that I'd "been sitting there for way too long charging your phone. You ate your meal. Now you need to leave." I looked at my watch. Not quite thirty minutes had passed since I walked in. Oh, please, Mr. Mall Cop, thirty minutes is nothing. You don't know the meaning of sitting-at-a-McDonald's-for-way-to-long-so-you-can-charge-your-phone. (But, of course, this polite Minnesotan gave no more sass than an exaggerated eye roll when his back was turned.)
The two new punctured tires today bring the trip total up to eight. And the screw head I jammed between the wheel and the frame is, it turns out, not quite large enough. I wrapped some tape around it for extra width, (I guess I was wrong about the solution not involving duct tape!), and wedged it back in. It seems to have held. For now.
Day 62
Kilometer 5317
Perry, ME
Back in the US—back in the US—back in the US of A. I met first other long-distance bike rider of the trip. Prince Edward Island to Mexico, he said, which sounds a lot more impressive than when I told him my route—just a list of states and provinces—but I checked later, and 5317 kilometers would have gotten me a little ways into Mexico if I'd started in PEI.
I'm sleeping on the 45th parallel north tonight. I pulled over behind a sign on the side of the road telling me I was "halfway from from the Equator to the North Pole."
Day 63
Kilometer 5438
Milbridge, ME
My mom has decided, ever since a particularly long stretch of Québec, that names of cities and provinces up here don't mean anything to her, so she now updates me every few days on where I would be if I hadn't done this weird Canada thing and just gone straight west from Cape Cod, across the US. In Québec, when I'd gone 2000-some kilometers, that was Iowa. For weeks I've been getting texts telling me "Kearney, Nebraska!" or "Almost to Denver!" Well, at Kilometer 5425 this evening, I reached San Francisco and finished my trans-continental voyage. Alas, Milbridge, ME is not San Francisco, so I've got a few more days to go.
Day 64
Kilometer 5530
Bar Harbor, ME
I veered off the route to Mount Desert Island to visit the last major stop of the trip: Acadia National Park. I'm technically inside the park boundaries, which is probably against lots of rules. Don't tell.
Days 51 to 57: Southwest Nova Scotia
Day 51
Kilometer 4450
Goodwood, NS
Most of the day in Halifax today, and most of the time in Halifax typing up several weeks of blog entries. City was nice though, what little I saw.
Day 52
Kilometer 4600
Lunenburg, NS
The most notable village I passed through today was Peggy's Cove, which must be listed as a "must-see" spot in all the guidebooks. Certainly a pretty little village (triple-digit population might be a high estimate) set on the moor above the rocky coastline (disclaimer: I don't actually know what a moor is; I'm just going to call it one because that sounds cool), but absolutely swarming with tourists. I pushed and shoved my way into the bathroom in one of many gift shops, took a picture of the lighthouse, and left. I suppose it's lucky for me, actually, that all the visitors to the coast of Nova Scotia have decided to squeeze into one little village; they've left the rest for me!
I stopped for the night just outside what I know is another guidebook-recommended spot, Lunenburg. Hope it doesn't disappoint.
Day 53
Kilometer 4695
Port Mouton, NS
Lunenburg didn't disappoint. Adorable town on the bay. It's the kind of white-steeple, sleepy-wharf, coffeshops-and-bookstores kind of town that an actual travel writer (as opposed to Some Guy With A Blog) would write flowing paeans to. I'm not the flowing-paeans type, though.
Port Mouton's town slogan is "Sheep Overboard." I thought that was just good enough to include here.
Day 54
Kilometer 4761
Shelburne, NS
Sadly, I used all my good what-the-heck-is-this-name jokes on Kouchibouguac National Park, during the Lost Days of New Brunswick, and now I can't remember them now that I've reached Kejimkujik National Park. I leave you to come up with your own.
I made what I thought was a lucky find today: the Queens County Rail Trail runs to the end of the county, where it connects with the Shelburne County Rail Trail, followed by the Yarmouth Country Rail Trail and the Digby County Rail Trail. I'm set for days! But alas, it would not be so easy. The rails may have been removed, but I made about as much progress through the mud and sand as a train would have. I eventually escaped the trail, after an hour of slower-than-walking-speed biking.
I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to be done with the trip. I would be perfectly happy to arrive back at Cape Cod tomorrow. And my bike, I can assure you, agrees. In fact, it's made this desire pretty clear. On one particularly rough patch of road, the metal U-lock holder that's attached to the front of the bike frame abruptly cam loose and started swinging around, hitting the spokes on the front wheel. I taped it, but it wasn't until about a mile later that I noticed my odometer wasn't working. In fact, the magnet that sits on one of the spokes of the wheel to count rotations was missing. It took me nearly an hour of backtracking, but, by some great miracle, I happened to see it: the tiny black magnet, now missing the piece that attaches it to the spoke. The fixes for my two problems, respectively: duct tape and duct tape. Some walk on water. Some feed nations with bread and fish. I find small magnets in the gravel.
Day 55
Kilometer 4878
Yarmouth, NS
Rounded the southwest corner of Nova Scotia today, which puts me on the western end, headed north to the Bay of Fundy. I'm getting a second visitor this trip: my mom. Guess she got jealous. I'm skipping the Bay of Fundy and taking the ferry straight to New Brunswick and meeting her, then we'll drive the Bay together. Bike problem of the day: my chain has just fallen off the gears twice today and I don't know what the problem is. I don't know if I can fix this one with duct tape.
Day 56
Kilometer 4987
Digby, NS
Okay, so the problem with the bike chain is that the back wheel is out of place, which makes the chain too loose. The problem with that: the back wheel refuses to stay in place, no matter how often I fix it. Side effect of the back wheel being constantly out of place: the back brakes have gone from barely functional to actively impeding forward motion. Yet another problem on the bike where nothing works: the luggage rack holding the panniers is now missing two screws, making "wobbly" a bit of an understatement.
Sigh. After a long day of things breaking, it's finally time to pitch a tent, get in, and—rrrrrip. The pin in one of the corners that holds up the poles rips off the tent fabric.
I may end up walking home, carrying a box of nothing but broken things.
Day 57
Kilometer 5004
Saint John, NB
Somehow I survived Nova Scotia. I made it to the ferry that took me to Saint John, New Brunswick, and I made it to the hotel where Mom and I are staying tonight. Bike problem of the day (in addition to all of the other ones that still haven't been fixed, that it): odometer not working again. I didn't even try to figure out what was wrong with it.
Kilometer 4450
Goodwood, NS
Most of the day in Halifax today, and most of the time in Halifax typing up several weeks of blog entries. City was nice though, what little I saw.
Day 52
Kilometer 4600
Lunenburg, NS
The most notable village I passed through today was Peggy's Cove, which must be listed as a "must-see" spot in all the guidebooks. Certainly a pretty little village (triple-digit population might be a high estimate) set on the moor above the rocky coastline (disclaimer: I don't actually know what a moor is; I'm just going to call it one because that sounds cool), but absolutely swarming with tourists. I pushed and shoved my way into the bathroom in one of many gift shops, took a picture of the lighthouse, and left. I suppose it's lucky for me, actually, that all the visitors to the coast of Nova Scotia have decided to squeeze into one little village; they've left the rest for me!
I stopped for the night just outside what I know is another guidebook-recommended spot, Lunenburg. Hope it doesn't disappoint.
Day 53
Kilometer 4695
Port Mouton, NS
Lunenburg didn't disappoint. Adorable town on the bay. It's the kind of white-steeple, sleepy-wharf, coffeshops-and-bookstores kind of town that an actual travel writer (as opposed to Some Guy With A Blog) would write flowing paeans to. I'm not the flowing-paeans type, though.
Port Mouton's town slogan is "Sheep Overboard." I thought that was just good enough to include here.
Day 54
Kilometer 4761
Shelburne, NS
Sadly, I used all my good what-the-heck-is-this-name jokes on Kouchibouguac National Park, during the Lost Days of New Brunswick, and now I can't remember them now that I've reached Kejimkujik National Park. I leave you to come up with your own.
I made what I thought was a lucky find today: the Queens County Rail Trail runs to the end of the county, where it connects with the Shelburne County Rail Trail, followed by the Yarmouth Country Rail Trail and the Digby County Rail Trail. I'm set for days! But alas, it would not be so easy. The rails may have been removed, but I made about as much progress through the mud and sand as a train would have. I eventually escaped the trail, after an hour of slower-than-walking-speed biking.
I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to be done with the trip. I would be perfectly happy to arrive back at Cape Cod tomorrow. And my bike, I can assure you, agrees. In fact, it's made this desire pretty clear. On one particularly rough patch of road, the metal U-lock holder that's attached to the front of the bike frame abruptly cam loose and started swinging around, hitting the spokes on the front wheel. I taped it, but it wasn't until about a mile later that I noticed my odometer wasn't working. In fact, the magnet that sits on one of the spokes of the wheel to count rotations was missing. It took me nearly an hour of backtracking, but, by some great miracle, I happened to see it: the tiny black magnet, now missing the piece that attaches it to the spoke. The fixes for my two problems, respectively: duct tape and duct tape. Some walk on water. Some feed nations with bread and fish. I find small magnets in the gravel.
Day 55
Kilometer 4878
Yarmouth, NS
Rounded the southwest corner of Nova Scotia today, which puts me on the western end, headed north to the Bay of Fundy. I'm getting a second visitor this trip: my mom. Guess she got jealous. I'm skipping the Bay of Fundy and taking the ferry straight to New Brunswick and meeting her, then we'll drive the Bay together. Bike problem of the day: my chain has just fallen off the gears twice today and I don't know what the problem is. I don't know if I can fix this one with duct tape.
Day 56
Kilometer 4987
Digby, NS
Okay, so the problem with the bike chain is that the back wheel is out of place, which makes the chain too loose. The problem with that: the back wheel refuses to stay in place, no matter how often I fix it. Side effect of the back wheel being constantly out of place: the back brakes have gone from barely functional to actively impeding forward motion. Yet another problem on the bike where nothing works: the luggage rack holding the panniers is now missing two screws, making "wobbly" a bit of an understatement.
Sigh. After a long day of things breaking, it's finally time to pitch a tent, get in, and—rrrrrip. The pin in one of the corners that holds up the poles rips off the tent fabric.
I may end up walking home, carrying a box of nothing but broken things.
Day 57
Kilometer 5004
Saint John, NB
Somehow I survived Nova Scotia. I made it to the ferry that took me to Saint John, New Brunswick, and I made it to the hotel where Mom and I are staying tonight. Bike problem of the day (in addition to all of the other ones that still haven't been fixed, that it): odometer not working again. I didn't even try to figure out what was wrong with it.
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