August 14th, 2014 Last Day!

Well, this is it! It's our last day of the trip. We have mixed emotions. We're excited and looking forward to getting home and back to our lives.  But, at the same time, we're a little sad that our journey will be over.

We don't have very far to go today, so we're not really set on getting an early start. (We haven't been set on getting an early start for the whole trip really.)  It is rainy and doesn't look like a good day to ride. Finally we quit stalling and just started riding.  It wasn't raining very hard, just kind of misting actually, so we didn't get wet while we were riding.

Once we got on Mount Desert Island where Bar Harbor is located I wasn't watching the road signs very well and got on the wrong road. It would have taken us to Bar Harbor alright, but the traffic was horrendous and the shoulder was non-existent. So, we had to backtrack a little bit and found a shortcut to the road we should have been on.  We took the shortcut and it turned out OK.  It was a nice ride and the traffic was slight so we had a really good ride.

When we got into Bar Harbor I couldn't find the right roads again so I asked a mailman which way to go to get to the City Pier.  He gave us good directions and told us where to find a bike shop to ship our bikes home when we were done. If you ever need local directions a mailman is usually your best bet, he'll know the roads and where everything is better than anyone else.

We got on Main Street which lead us to the City Pier and, as we rode down the hill, our friends Bev and Manuel were there taking pictures of us as we approached.  I wanted to dip our front wheels so we turned right to go down a ramp (as the mailman had told me) and the tide was up enough so we went down and made it official.  Before we actually dipped our wheels Joy started crying. I thought "What in the heck is she crying about, now?" I'm just a man, what do I know?  She was overcome with emotion from actually finishing this epic journey.  I was, too. But, I was smiling and laughing. I decided that women are different from men. (As if I didn't already know that).

We dipped our wheels, but Manuel didn't get a good picture so he had us go back to do it again. Except this time a big wave came in just at the right time (wrong time?) and completely doused me from had to foot.  We all got a good laugh about that.

We had a nice dinner on the pier with Bev and Manuel and then went up to the bike shop and shipped our bikes home. It seemed strange to not have our bikes with us.

August 13, 2014

This is the day before the last day of our ride. We rode from Lincolnville to Ellsworth, Maine. 5 hours 2 minutes, 55.04 miles, 3501 feet of climbing. It was drizzling rain all day. We are tired and have sore muscles and sore knees.  We could have finished today, but decided we would be too tired and it would be too late in the day by the time we finished to enjoy the celebration, so we opted to finish tomorrow.

Manny and Bev got a nice motel for us. They gave us the name of the motel and we found it on our phone/gps and were in Ellsworth going in that direction when I realized I had a flat tire! DANG!!! We had been doing so well for so long, but I guess it was just meant to be.

I was able to pump it up enough to ride and started going again. But, pretty soon it was flat again.  I pumped it up again and started riding again. Went flat again, so I decided to change the tube. Changed it and rode the rest of the way to the Motel. Whew!  I repaired the tube and we went out to dinner with Bev and Manuel and had a really nice time.

Tomorrow is supposed to be thundershowery in the morning and then nice the rest of the day.  We only have about 22 miles to go and we will be done with this journey.

The Maine coast is just beautiful! We didn't take very many pictures, so you'll just have to take our word for it.  Or, better yet, come and see for yourself. The picture to the right is one of the bridges that we rode across. It is really cool looking. It is the Penobscot Narrows bridge which crosses part of the Penobscot River to an island, then a less spectacular bridge goes to the mainland.. Belfast was a tourist town. Many of the tourist towns here used to be fishing villages and boat building goes on in some of them as well. Belfast has a boat building factory. They build some fairly large yachts. The other two pictures are looking toward Belfast from a walking bridge.

This is the map of where we went that day and underneath that is the elevation profile. In other words it shows all the ups and downs.  As you can see, Maine is not flat. It is very hilly. This was not the worse day in Maine, but it was a lot of work. Some of the climbs were as much as a 14% grade which is steep enough to make most cars shift down into low gear.

Thursday Aug 7th- Monday Aug. 11th

Thursday Aug 7th
 We did some killer hills! -Mom
 We did a very tough climb today- Dad

Friday Aug. 8th
 We rode from Sharon Vermont to North Haverhill New Hampshire today. Only 43 miles, But we climbed 4616 feet! W e are making good progress even though we didn't get as many miles in as we had hoped. We have 285 miles to go, with three pretty steep hills yet but we should get over them tomorrow!!

This is how I feel about our bicycle traveling

Joy and a covered bridge.

This is on the River Road which follows the Connecticut River in Vermont for a few miles. 

Another covered bridge. This is on the River Road.

Wild turkeys next to the River Road.

Saturday Aug. 9th

This is our ride for the day. Right now we're in Lincoln. We have the big climb to do.

The last 3 1/2 miles were tough, but we conquered it. 

Sunday Aug. 10th

 The mountains in the east aren't as tall but many of the roads are steeper, so harder. We're sure looking forward to seeing you guys. And sleeping in our own beds. And a lot of other things we're missing.

 We rode more miles this past week than any other, 414.32.

My speed got up to 46.06 mph yesterday! Scary!! The rad was so steep, 9% grade for 3 1/2 miles. We had a stretch that was 12% for 2 miles.  These grades were going up as well as going down the other side.  We are out of the mountains now! Just a few hills ahead, I'm so happy!

 We are in Maine! 210 miles to Bar Harbor.

I think we will be home for the Andreason family reunion. 

I need a pedicure.

Ryan will be in Bar Harbor on Friday.  I'm thinking we may fly home Monday or Tuesday next week, that's the 18th or 19th and that's not for sure yet. We will be flying stand by.

Wednesday August 6th

We rode 65 miles today, we are at Ticonderoga New York.  We will Ferry across Lake Champlain tomorrow into Vermont.  We will start our last map tomorrow! 401 miles to go.  -Mom

If you can see those hills through the haze they are in Vermont.  We're still in New York, But will be in Vermont soon. -Dad

July 26-Aug 5 Niagara falls

July 26th
We are in Geneva on the Lake Ohio.  It's a tourist trap town.  We are trapped here doing our laundry! When we leave we will go to Erie Pennsylvania! We will lay over there until Monday.  We will have ridden about 3360 miles by days end.  I don't care for Cleveland much, it made me nervous.  It wasn't the same feeling as the Amish communities I enjoyed so much!  We are moving right along.
Last week was the most miles we had ridden up to that point with 362.72 miles.  This week we rode 385.23! with a grand total of 3273.38 miles.  We're getting there!
  The East Lake, Ohio city complex has a display of 500 US flags, it's breath taking.














Ohio Farmland

Wild flowers on the side of the road.

Our first look at Lake Erie.

A bike trail by the lake just east of Cleveland.

Joy and the sunset.  Beautiful!!! Joy, that is.

It looks like we'll be in Niagara Falls on Tuesday.

Laying in the tent waiting out a rainstorm.  We had a tornado watch today.

Tuesday July 29th
We have gone 3,338 miles with 848 to go. Yay! see you soon. We love you.
We have gone 80% of the way.
First drive by shot of the falls.

One can see the mist from the falls from miles away.  In Ontario.
We are in Ontario Canada! Can you believe it? We will ride our bikes by Niagara Falls tomorrow.  We have 792.93 miles to go! love you

Joy by the Niagara River.

The scow is that black thing on the right.  The mist is where the fall is, so you can see how close
those guys were to go over.

The scow which has been there since 1918.

The falls up close.  It's just amazing.

Joy and Bev

Looking towards the US side of the falls.  I think that bridge is the rainbow bridge.  Its the one we crossed to go back to New York.

Under the Rainbow Bridge

A great few of the Canadian side of the falls.  I think it's called horseshoe falls

Here we are at the falls.

We are back in the US of A again, It's good to be home!! We are under the awning of a convenience store waiting out a rain storm.  It doesn't want to clear tho! Niagara Falls was Spectacular.  Love you.
This is the rainy season here so I think we're going to see more of this!
We are in a laundromat now, awaiting out this stinker rain! It's warm in here.  We are soaked to the bone! Bev and Manny are looking for a motel.

We stopped to check the air pressure in my front tire and this came from around a bush to great us!

Bailey in Michigan!


Thursday July 31st
Rained again today had to get shelter for a while then it seemed like we were following the rain after that.  Dad said "everything is wet but us!"  We got a late start today so Dad was hungry before we got out of Lockport.  We stopped to eat then rode on.  It was nice and cool. We got to Albion where there is a Wal-mart.  I went in for something while Dad watched the bikes.  When I came out he told me he had lost his phone!
Long story short, we got hold of Manny and the two of them spent 4 hours retracing, while Bev and I sat on a bench in Wal-mart.  We had a great visit! They found the phone where we had eaten earlier! what a relief.  Not much time left for riding after that but we headed out again and I got a flat tire!! Such is life on a bike! We are still having a great time. Love you


We got a cottage with 2 bedrooms for the Weekend.  Bev and Manny are sharing it with us.  Cool, Huh? Budget Inn "Cottage" Cicero, NY

Monday August 4th
We are in Boonville New York.  We rode 81 miles. It was a good day, NO RAIN! We have only about 520 miles to go! Ryan got us a good deal on airline tickets.  He's going to meet us in Maine on August 15th.



We made a wrong turn.  We turned onto 104 instead of 104B and went to Mexico instead of Texas.

July 11-July 24th

July 11th

We had dinner here for our anniversary. I can't remember the name of it, but they had good food and ice-cream.  Ludington, Mi. Isn't she cute?

Sunset on Gun Lake Mi. There are a lot of fireflies, not sure if you can see any.

A tom came out to greet us when we stopped to check Joys tires. Michigan July 16th

Here we are in Prairieville, Mi. I don't know whey they call it Prairieville, its a forest all around. 

A Mennonite girl driving by July 14th

We ride with Beautiful scenery all around us. 

Langley covered bridge near Centerville, Mi. That's Dad. 

Mom inside the covered bridge.

Another shot of the bridge.  So much of the scenery in Michigan looks the same, it was nice to see this beautiful bridge.

We're right in the heart of Amish country.  They don't like us taking pictures go them, but we have, they're so picturesque.  We'll send some.  Mom probably already has.

Mom(Joy): We are almost to Ohio! Over 2900 miles.  So homesick decided to change our bike tour to four weeks, starting today. I think that's doable! Thanks for all the love and support.  Love you all.

Can you see the buggies in the shed? Special parking for Amish buggies by the store.

I guess they're shopping.

Same buggy waiting for a train with us.

A pretty Amish farm.  They all look nice like this.

The sun reflecting on the Maumee River from our campground.

We followed this family for a while.  They were gawking at us gawking at them.  I'm not sure whether we or they were the most unusual.

Our camp near Grand Rapids, Ohio.

We were in Payne today. But we endured it well and rode through it.  We are now out of Payne. Ohio that is. 

This was the smoothest fresh chip seal road I have ever been on.  Ohio knows how to do roads! Very nice ride today.

This was our campsite last night.  It is a city park in Monroeville, Indiana.  They just let bicyclists stay here for free (donations accepted). It has a shower a kitchen, AC. Very nice.

Mom keeps getting sunburned lips, so she wears a mask for protection.  It's also handy for robbing banks and stage coaches.  Notice the corn in the background? We've been watching corn since Oregon.

Carter in Ohio.

Keith by lake Erie.

Me (Robyn): I'm missing you guys so much!!! Can't wait for you to be home!!

Dad (Keith):It won't be long now. 18 riding days including today. (July 24)