Well, as Sasq mentioned, I'm over due for a long blog post. I would have posted sooner, but we stayed with friends of family on Wed & then had zero battery life last night. But, now my phone is fully charged and my fingers are ready for some smart phone typing!
The past few days have been pretty wet & just in time to start camping again too. Before I get into the details, we have some big thank you's to send out to all our friends & family who have fed us, housed us, & entertained us!
- Denise & Steve Brown (ME)
- Bill Tynion (NH)
- Sarah Arnold (ice cream!)
- Brian Keefe (CT)
- Craig & Karen Carita (LI)
- Julie Carita (lunch)
- Eileen Tynion (NY)
- Jocelyn Rothstein (ride to NJ)
- Jenna E. & Jordan S. (PA)
- Brett Guralnick (DE)
- Lindsay J. & Andrew T. (MD)
- Missy & John (VA)
Thanks again for helping to make our first few weeks of the journey a little easier & memorable! Also thanks to everyone else who has been supporting & following us along the way. It is definitely appreciated :)
So to fill you all in on the past couple days… after spending an extra day in NY due to rain, we hit the road & biked to Philly. From Philly, we went to Delaware, and then on to Maryland. For everything that DE was not, MD certainly made up for. To quote sasq, several minutes after crossing the DE/MD line, she states, "finally a nice part of DE. Oh wait, we're in MD now." haha. So big thumbs up for beautiful MD & we can say very little about DE… except visit Brett. So biking through the beautiful country side of MD was a welcomed respite & we enjoyed lovely weather as well. It was a fairly short riding day & we made in to Baltimore around 4. We stayed with Lindsay & Andrew, who showed us a little of what Baltimore has to offer (I will be back to see more). Thanks again guys! If you've never been, I highly recommend you check it out.
On Wed morning, we headed out expecting to make our way into DC & find a hostel to hunker down in for the eve & hopefully catch the Stanley Cup game. But as luck would have it, we were helped out again by Missy & John (friends of Sasq's brother Jerry) who offered up a place to crash with them in Falls Church, VA. So we detoured around DC & rode up… scratch that, walked up, the steepest hill. It was a long, hot day of riding & and we didn't arrive until after 8. But we were greeted with a smile & a beer & were able to catch most of the game!
Thursday morning was gloomy. Rain is not the best way to start the day, especially with a forecast of rain, rain, & more rain. It's hard to get excited about cycling in the rain, followed up by camping in, you guessed it, more rain. So given the uncertainty of the weather, we said our goodbyes & set off into the rain. It only sprinkled a bit & eventually cleared up for awhile, but with impending thunderstorms we decided to make it a shorter day & hopefully set up camp before any major storms. It had been awhile since we had a proper meal, so we stopped in the largest town to get a pizza & stock up on supplies. The pizza was terrible! It was more like pizza soup, but being the calorie burning machines that we are, we ate it not too grudgingly. As if one cue, the moment we got back on our bicycles it started to rain. With only about 8 miles left, we booked it towards the campground. The rain let up for about half an hour, which was just enough time for little foot to get a flat tire (her first of the trip) & change it. And then it poured! What luck haha. In the pouring rain we biked the last mile to the campground & waited for the rain to pass before pitching our tent. We were able to set up camp, shower, do laundry (ie wash our clothes in the shower & attempt to dry them under the hand dryer), and do some planning. We went to bed early, hoping for an early AM departure, but it was a LONG night. In case you've never had the luxury of sleeping outside during a thunderstorm--they're loud. Very, very loud. And wet of course. We didn't get any sleep at all, and when the alarm went off, it was still pouring. So much for the early start. When the rain finally subsided, we made a break for it & packed up camp & headed out. And we headed straight for the nearest electrical outlet we could find. So it was good morning dunkin donuts! We sure do like our phones! And you should to because w/o them we wouldn't be able to keep you updated on all the deets of our trip! Of course they're very useful tools, and with them we are able to keep track of all our riding stats & routes and more or less turn-by-turn navigation.
With our fully charged phones at the ready, we finally set off again. The clouds broke and we had another beautiful day of biking. But with impending thunderstorms in the forecast and bags full of dirty clothes, we decided to make another short day of it and camped out in Fredericksburg, VA.
Tomorrow were hoping to actually get an early start, so fingers crossed for quiet thunder! It'll be a long day of potentially 80+ miles and also marks the end of one route & the start of another. We'll be finishing up our last leg on ACA's Atlantic Coast Route & starting the TransAmerica Trail. Finally we start heading across the country!
We should have more coming your way soon, including a gear update, so stay tuned!
g'night.
litte foot.
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