Here is a link to the video of our East Coast Greenway trip

East Coast Greenway Video link-Click Here

Yay!!! We made it.

Today all we had to do is ride 16 miles to a bike shop in Philadelphia where I had made arrangements with the manager to save us a couple of bike boxes to pack our bikes in for shipment home. The bike shop did not open until 11 AM so we had breakfast at the hotel and leisurely rode our way into Philadelphia. We arrived in downtown Philly to find the traffic horrendous and our route was taking us down 1 way streets so for about the last 3/4 of a mile we walked with all the other pedestrians on the sidewalk. We got to the bike shop around 9:30 AM so we had time to kill. I went hunting for a restroom and as I was out looking I received a text from the airline that our flight home was cancelled. The text told me to rebook so I booked an earlier flight and that one was cancelled as well. I then decided I should call the airline and after a long phone call it looks like we are coming home tomorrow. Bummer! Anyway, it gave us plenty of time to disassemble the bikes and get them boxed up with all our stuff. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to accomplish the task. The bikes will be spending the night in Philly as well at Breakaway Bikes in downtown Philly and will be picked up by BikeFlights tomorrow for the long trip home (they are going home on a truck). We had a wonderful time and probably saw things you would not see if travelling by car. Lots of trails, highways, backroads, crossing lots of bridges, cutting through residential areas and sometimes just off the beaten path. We went through high end neighborhoods and other neighborhoods that made us glad we were not travelling at night.  It was hot at times, humid at times, some days rainy but we enjoyed every minute of it. The East Coast Greenway which is what we were on for most of this trip starts in Maine and goes all the way to Key West Florida. Next time we both can get two weeks off from work we will start in Philly and head south……Until then

 

Day started off great with cool weather from the recent rains. We rode a busy highway after we left our Airbnb but soon was put on a river trail which we were happy for. Our Garmins told us we were going to be on the trail for at least 10 miles and we were thrilled. As we progressed further and further the trail got worse with mudholes, rocks, etc.. It would have been great fun on a mountain bike but on a fully loaded touring bike not so much. I (Ron) took a minor fall trying to cross a rocky spillway and tore off some skin from the back of my leg. At that point I was hoping for roads with pavement. Also, there was nowhere close to the trail to get breakfast. We met some ladies on the trail and they said the closet thing would be WaWa’s at Princeton so we jumped off the trail and headed there. If you don’t know what WaWa’s is it’s sort of a convenience store food place with all kinds of stuff. We started the day around 6 Am and it was almost 11 and I was starved and cranky so when we got to WaWa’s I loaded up with a Ham and cheese bagel sandwich, Hash browns, Iced mocha coffee, a chocolate covered long john donut, a TastyCake French apple pie, Lays salt and vinegar potato chips. Don’t know what Tina had but I was set. After brunch we headed back to the dreaded trail which we rode for a very long way before finally getting back on Pavement around Trenton, NJ. The final jaunt into Bensalem, PA was on busy streets but there was a good shoulder for a good part of the way. Arrived at hotel around 3 PM, got showered and went to eat at a local pub that was very good. Tomorrow is our final day and we only have about 15 miles to a bike shop where we will disassemble and pack up bikes to ship home before boarding our flight tomorrow night.

Left our hotel a bit later than usual, around 7 AM. Ride was not particular interesting from the get go except when it started to rain and we couldn’t figure out how to cross one of the bridges out of Jersey City. After stopping several times and looking at our mapping software we finally figured it out, as we always do. Rode through some pretty rundown areas and was amazed at the trash along the highways. We are both pretty tired at this point and feel a day of rest would do us good but the trip is winding down so rest will come later. We made our usual stops today including Dunkin Donuts again! I never visit the Dunkin Donuts at home but here it seems they are everywhere and I am eating everything in site. I even grabbed a pack of Ho Ho’s at Walgreens just because. I don’t think I have eaten those since I was 12. Again not many photo ops as we rode streets for a good part of the day. It was a good cool day because of the rain and we have a very nice AIRBNB for the night and our host Gus is very nice and accommodating. Tomorrow we ride into our final destination, Philly!

As we were packing up this morning to hit the road Tina reminded me we needed to check the air in our tires since we did not do that yesterday. As I was doing it we noticed a good size sidewall bulge in her rear tire. It did not look good and we were afraid it would blow when we were in the middle of nowhere and we did not have another tire with us. You can tell Tina and I do not think alike as she started googling rental car agencies and I started googling bike shops. What I found was most bike shops in the area did not open until 10 or 11 and that was not going to work as we felt this could be a long day since we had a lot of climbing for the day and we would be going through parts of New York City. Our decision was to move forward and she would take it slow on the downhills to be safe in case it blew while travelling fast. We had a list of bike shops in each town we passed so we would keep going until one was open as we passed through. All the time we had our fingers crossed. We stopped at a deli in Byram, Ct and had a great breakfast and met the owner Tony and his son Anthony. Tony told us his grandson also worked there and his name was Anthony and his grandson’s son is named Anthony (we must be getting close to New York!) They were very gracious and made us feel like we have known them for years. Before we left I googled the next towns bike shop and it showed they opened at 9 AM so by the time we got there they would be open. I knew we were going to make it on the bum tire and was thankful we have been having good luck. We only had about another 3 miles to go when Tina said “It just blew!”. I looked over and her rear tire was completely flat, Damn!. Me being the optimistic person I am told her “maybe you just have a flat and the tire is still holding up”, yeah, fat chance. I dismounted my bike and took a look and lo and behold the tire was still intact. I changed the tube and we were back on the road again in short order. Now if only the bike shop will have a tire in stock. We made it to 10538 Bicycles in Larchmont, NY. I entered, asked if they had a tire and who I believed to be the owner (later found out his name was Andrew) said he thought he did. He went in the backroom and came out with 3 to choose from. We got our tire and he replaced it for us. He also noticed Tina’s headset was a bit loose so repaired that as well. Ben, his assistant made us popcorn and they gave us water. These guys also made us feel right at home and were super friendly. The people we are meeting and their kindness is just overwhelming. Speaking of kindness we made a wrong turn as I was looking at my map a guy stopped on his bike and asked where we were headed. I told him and he pointed us in the right direction. Miles later as we were looking at our maps again to try and figure out the way to get on the George Washington Bridge this guy appeared again (where did he come from because when we met the 1st time it appeared he was heading in the opposite direction!) I asked him jokingly, “what have you been doing, following us?” He replied yes, I have been circling you all day to make sure you made it through the city OK. He then escorted us through the busy streets to the entrance of the bridge. That is where he left us and wished us safe travels. His name was Jack, we have named him New York Jack and if he is reading this we want to say “Thanks”.  Entering Jersey City after crossing the George Washington Bridge (that was cool) the traffic was really bad and there were areas with no bike lanes. You just rode as fast as possible and hoped you made it out the other side. Arrived at our hotel around 6 PM. It was another long day (about 12 hours). Tomorrow we are off to somewhere……..

After about 45 minutes into our ride we had made it down by the waters edge of Long Island sound. The rest of the days ride skirted the sound but most of it was on roadways with not many trails to speak of. Not a lot of photo opportunities so not much to post. We did stop at the waters edge a flew the drone out over the water and down the beachfront so got some decent aerial video. Made it to our AIRBNB around 3:30 and have a very nice place for the evening. Our host Gloria, her sister Adriana and uncle Remberto are very nice people and we are glad to be here. Snoopy, their cat is adorable! As I’m writing this a thunderstorm has rolled in with lightning but it is supposed to be gone by tomorrow morning. I hope so because we will not ride with lightning around us. We head for Jersey City tomorrow and will be rolling through New York and down the Hudson. 40% chance of rain for tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the roads will be good to us.

 

It’s the little things that count. Mostly I’m talking about kindness. I have been blogging about our ride the past 8 days but haven’t mentioned how nice the people have been that we have encountered. Everyone we talk to has taken a real interest in what we are doing and all have wished us safe travels. Two days ago another cyclist offered to buy us lunch. Today put an exclamation point on that. Our highlight of the day was when we stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get Ron’s staple food (a donut of course). As we were sitting there we noticed a couple of gentlemen looking at our bikes very curiously and then came in and started asking us about our travels. It was great to talk with them and tell them about our experience. When we were leaving I went and grabbed 3 large bottles of water and 2 Gatorades and one of the men ( I’m sorry I forgot your names) said he was going to buy them for us. When I said that was not necessary he said he insisted and told me to remember that the people from Plainville, CT are good friendly people. I certainly must agree. We will definitely pay it forward and thank you men from Plainville! Stopped for lunch at a small pizza joint in Hamden, CT and the man behind the counter chatted us up while we ate. When we left there I grabbed a soda from the cooler and went to pay for it and he said “you are all paid up, have a safe ride”. If you are reading this do something kind for your fellow human, it will make both of you feel good.

Our ride today was pretty much a 180 from yesterday. We had trails for most of the ride with gentle rolling hills. We made it to our end point in good time. The only hairy part and it was the worst part of our trip so far was Simsbury road out of Hartford. It was a long uphill climb with tons of traffic speeding by at stupid speeds and no bike lane to speak of. We knew it was to dangerous to even attempt to ride it so we walked with our bodies between the bike and guardrail. Even that was scary! I stopped to take a photo of the traffic and when I stepped over the guardrail the earth below my foot gave way and the rest of my body went flying over the guardrail. I landed hard but in grass and was not injured. On a positive note Tina’s riding skills are improving as she did not fall today. We arrived so early today that we were able to take a Lyft to a laundromat and get our stinky clothes washed, and when I say stinky I mean stinky! We are using all kinds of cool technology as we ordered dinner from DoorDash and they delivered Chipotle to our AIRBNB. Tomorrow we head along the coast to Stamford, CT. Looking forward to it…

 

Total miles today was 60.7 for Tina and 66.4 for Ron, I will explain later. One thing I know for sure, if I ever make the trip again from Putnam, Ct to Hartford, Ct it will be in a car or motorcycle. Today was a tough day with lots of gnarly hills and to make it worse we had some blunders. First off we left Putnam and within a very short distance we came across our river crossing so we crossed the bridge and on the other side was a farm field with a no trespassing sign so we turned around to find what we thought might be a different way. Couldn’t find it after riding up and down the river. So, I told Tina our map shows us going that way so lets go and just ignore the sign. So we tried again and then came to a gate that was locked and impassable. We turned around again. I remapped our destination and found another crossing up river so we decided on that route and eventually got around. Next was a stop for snacks and water at a mini mart in the town of Pomfret. We fueled up and I checked air in our tires. Then we went down the street and had breakfast at the Vanilla bean cafe. Good breakfast and we were on our way. About 3 miles down the road my bike felt like the brakes were rubbing so I stopped to check them out and had a big surprise….when i checked the air in our tire at the mini mart I had removed one of my front panniers and did not put it back on. Panick set in as I carry my GoPro and my drone in one of those bags. I quickly checked the other bag to find my GoPro and Drone safely tucked away but I still had to gao back to try and retrieve the bag so while Tina waited I made a 6 mile detour which was full of hills, Ugh. Arrived at the store and the bag was not where I placed it but the proprietor had it tucked away behind the counter so I was good to go. Tina took her 3rd fall when she hit a patch of sand. Shes getting better at falling because this time she was able to get out off her pedals and seperate herself from the bike, I guess practice makes perfect! Today we were on the road from 5:30 AM to 5:30 PM, 12 hours with actual ride time of 7 hours 30 minutes for Tina and 7 hours 53 minutes for Ron because of my little detour. In summary today was a very long and we knew it would probably be our toughest so hopefully the rest of the trip will be easier.

Today started on very sad note as our good friend and neighbor Bryan Bagwell lost his long battle with cancer. As we said in an earlier blog he was an avid cyclist and all day we were thinking of him and his family. Rest in peace friend….

Up early but spent the 1st hour replacing my front brakes and oiling our chains. I have lived in Arizona all my life and have never had a rusty bicycle chain, I’m here for a week and its rusty, making noise and driving me crazy. Wet weather. We figured we would have a big uphill day and it was not as bad as we thought. The 1st 21+ miles were all pretty much paved bike river trails with a steady incline. Although we were climbing most of the time it wasn’t bad at all. The 2nd half was a bit worse with the rolling hills here and there but we made good time. Tina said it was her favorite day until she took her 2nd fall of the trip. This one was not as bad as the 1st. She was navigating around a trail gate and encountered a rock and could not get her cleat out from her pedal and down she went. I was out front and didn’t see it happen but it didn’t sound good, when I heard her laughing I knew all was well. The sun was shining most of the day with just a few rain drops here and there. It was warmer however and tomorrow the forecast calls for much of the same so we are planning to awaken at 4:00 AM and get an early start to what will be our longest day of the trip. Destination, Hartford, CT

Crossed another state line today. Morning was foggy and the weather cool as it stayed in the high 60’s and low 70’s all day. Got hit with rain for a good part of the day and it was worse the closer we got to Providence. Traffic was light and the terrain was to our liking with mild uphill climbs and some good downhills. River trails were beautiful and we had lots of them. Staying at another AIRBNB and our host is really gracious and nice. Was able to find a bike shop in Providence so we stopped and got my bike some new front pads and some lube for our rusty chains (Our chains are not liking this weather).  Upon arriving at our home for the night I realized I left my helmet at the bike shop, ugh. So we got Tina settled in the house and I rode back to retrieve it. Thank god it was only about 1.5 miles round trip. After that we showered and went to a really cool neighborhood and had dinner. A ton of restaurants all up and down one street. As I write this it is 8:15 PM and we have a uphill day tomorrow to Putnam, Connecticut so off to bed we go.