Suddenly The End Is In Sight

You know, I just realized a few days ago that I should have been adding my start and stop locations for each day. There’s so much more than just the mileage I do. If you’re super interested in location data you can look everything up through my Strava. I’m at 2,466.63 miles at the end of this week! The amount of photos I took this week on my DSLR are even fewer than last week, and that is because I have all of this 35mm sitting in my bag. I’ve been thinking about how I want to share my 35mm and I think I will upload the highlights on my Photos page here, and on my Instagram, where I am most active. This will most likely be my final update from the road, as I only have one more week of riding left. Don’t forget to check out the Donate page to read about why I’m out here biking up the East Coast. I’m running out of miles, but the disjointed thoughts from the road aren’t going anywhere.

May 20, 2021 61.51mi

Man did it feel great to be in the City as it was reawakening. I spent all of 2020 riding “empty” streets in NYC. Of course empty is in quotes because what I might think of “empty” in the City might mean full on rush hour for someone not used to the large volume of vehicles that pass through every day. I was able to ride through midtown with only a few cars during the height of the pandemic, something I’ll never forget. It was invigorating seeing people out and enjoying the beautiful spring weather. I rode up the Hudson, past my old neighborhood, and up to the edge of Van Cortlandt Park, which was all stuff I’ve ridden dozens of times… it felt nice biking this section that I know so well. Then I was able to ride through parks I hadn’t been to such as Bronx Park and Pelham Bay Park. I passed in to Connecticut (state 10) at Greenwich which instantly provided me with terrible road conditions and never ending micro hills. Of course the body wasn’t stoked after taking a few days off but it just feels so good to ride my bike that I can’t complain.

May 21, 2021 35.84mi

Slow rolled it through Bridgeport which was full of rough roads and impatient drivers. Thankfully the road conditions started to get a bit better as the day progressed. One of those days that got unbearably hot in the afternoon, which slowed me down quite a bit, but it was no bother because I didn’t have far to bike today, only to New Haven. I made it to town in the early afternoon in search of some pizza. Turns out none of the good places serve by the slice so… New Haven Pizza gets a 0 out of 10. Sorry, that’s just how it goes. I am staying just out of town at a friends house that I had been to several times before. Big difference is that this time I arrived on my bike and they live at the top of a real good sized hill. One of those fun ones that have a slight turn in them half way up. My legs were cement when I finally stumbled off my bike in their driveway.

May 22, 2021 59.56mi

This morning I finally connected with the Connecticut Rail Trail system and spent most of my day on it. A manageable cloudy morning suddenly peaked around 100 degrees the minute the sun burned off the clouds in the early afternoon. I have been eating a lot of ice cream on this tour but when it gets that hot so fast, ice cream is an immediate need. You can learn about whatever town you are in by eating a Snickers ice cream sitting in the shade of a Walgreens. I hopped off the rail trail system when I got close to Hartford and instantly started climbing hills and even a nice ridgeline. I descended in to yet another Walgreens parking lot to hide in the shade for a bit. As I was doing so a cyclist approached me and said he had been following my tour! Super nice guy that shared some local knowledge about the roads heading in to Hartford. At a Warmshowers host tonight. We met up at the bike shop he runs, which is community driven and promotes biking opportunities for the local community. Tony is quite knowledgeable about Hartford and CT as a whole. After dinner we went and watered his plots and trees in the community garden across the street. Yet again, another incredible experience provided via Warmshowers.

May 23, 2021 61.49mi

Tony decided to pack his panniers and head out with me this morning. He was constantly pointing out interesting buildings in Hartford as we biked out of town. I’ve spent so much of this tour riding alone so I soak up every moment I can when I’m lucky enough to bike with someone else. Spent all day riding stone dust rail trails. As we were getting off the trail to grab lunch in Willimantic, my front right pannier snapped off its top mounting point. The bolt sheared off half way along the threads. This was nothing 3 zip ties, electrical tape, duct tape and 5 minutes couldn’t fix. I’ll be picking up some more tape and zips in case this fails but this thing feel SOLID now. For lunch I ate a cheeseburger omelet which I am pretty sure contained 12 eggs and… it slowed me down hard in the afternoon. After lunch Tony and I split ways and he headed back towards Hartford to camp closer to the city so he could make it to work tomorrow morning.

May 24, 2021 50.78mi

Got on the saddle an hour later than I wanted to, but hey what was I going to do considering my legs felt like actual rocks. Turns out I slept next to a Frito’s factory and I could smell them riding by. Had a good stretch of miserable roads and bad drivers to finish out Connecticut. I was able to test my rigging on my pannier rack on rough roads, and I hit 30+mph so I’m confident this thing will hold up until I’m done with the tour and I can get a screw extractor to pull the rest of the bolt out. Right after I made it to Rhode Island I hopped on the Trestle Trail Greenway where I met two women who rode the entire East Coast Greenway one week at a time. It took them 9 years! I got off the rail trail to find more zips and tape and somehow the Home Depot was uphill both ways? Anyway, made it to Providence where I am staying at the Corliss-Carrington House for the evening, which is a National Historic Landmark! Warmshowers provides again!

May 25, 2021 63.13mi

Made it to Massachusetts by early afternoon. What a bummer of a day it was. Heavy headwinds no matter what direction I was going in. Rode the Blackstone River Trail, the Quequechan River Rail Trail, and the Phoenix Bike Trail today. So many trails, and it never gets old riding them. Today was one of those days where I was consistently hungry all day. I should keep track of how much I eat on days like today, it’s pretty wild. At this point in the route I pretty much just head East until I can’t anymore, turn left and head North until I hit the Canadian border!

May 26, 2021 57.80mi

It was so nice waking up to the smell of a pine forest. Slow rolled it out of camp and made my way towards Borne, where it got shockingly cold and a thick fog rolled in, creating a real nice environmental mood as I rode along the Cape Cod Canal. I spent a bit of time reading up on the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, which now only serves one purpose and that is to carry trash off of Cape Cod 6 days a week. So many micro hills, they never end around here. Finally made it to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, where the hills tapered off. Tomorrow I’ll be stopping in Provincetown, where I will take my last 0 day of the tour.

May 27, 2021 37.51mi

Woke up to rain! First time it’s rained while I was in my tent! I got a text from Adam (he’s the gent I spent a week with out on the Outer Banks) asking if I enjoyed the hills outside of Truro. Well, I hadn’t hit Truro yet so that was a bummer of a spoiler. We laughed it off though because guess what? No matter what I have to ride those things, so it was good I was given a heads up! Thankfully it’s quite beautiful out here on the Cape. I wanted a shop to take a look at my bike before I started this last week of the tour, and thankfully PTown Bikes were kind enough to squeeze me in tomorrow morning! It’s looking like I’ll be riding through some proper cold and rain when I get back on my bike on Saturday.