July 24, 2013

Our last day. We will have pedaled across the country. It doesn't seem like a big deal to us, but the people we meet each day seem impressed. Oh well.

Roger knows how to start out such a big day with a good breakfast.

July 23, 2013

We could not find lodging in Bar Harbor, so we decided to stop short of it and ride into the harbor and Acadia National Park the next morning when Dee would be there with the truck. Then we could spend the day seeing the park and not worry about finding a safe place to leave our bikes and gear for the day. Plus, then Dee could tour the park with us.

We woke up after a good nights sleep by everyone (except Rog, the rest of us thought it was a great nights sleep). The girls packed up their spider tent, after we all slept in quite a bit for the first time in a while.

July 20, 2013.

We woke up after a pretty warm and sticky night at the Naples Campground. The campground has breakfast at 7, so we were all packed and ready to roll when breakfast opened up. The breakfast is very reasonably priced and pretty darn good. This campground is 8 years old, and is going to have a great future if they keep being so awesome.

Laura wants me to put down a special note that the blueberry muffin was awesome.

July 19, 2013

"Isn't it too hot for biking today?"

We were asked this many times today. The answer is probably "Yes". Anyway, back to chronological order, because that is the order that I took my pictures....

We got to bed a bit late for a crazy early start, so we slept in until 5:45. Mistake number one. It didn't take long until making it to the Maine border.

I remember crossing Andy Rd, otherwise today was too hot to commit things to memory.

Going to keep this short. We got up early from our great stay with Barb and Wally (Wally was not home) Smith. We could have stayed and talked with Barb for a week or more!

Short post placeholder. Will post more later.

Got up at 4:45 and hit the road early to beat the heat. Middlebury gap starts out crazy steep. Over 15%. Our stranger friend from yesterday gave us an alternate route to spread out the first steep section but we went for it head on.

After the first half mile, the road leveled off a bit to a 5 percent climb. A few miles later and we were almost to the top. One last steep 15% grade to go. Laura and Katie say they have never sweat like that before. Indeed I have not seen it. they were soaked. This really was the steepest climb on nt.

I added more information, and added the pictures to day 21. Looking back, that was when we learned that we were in for some major climbing. Even the flat days were starting to become hard! It sure was a beautiful area. I wish we could have stayed and played in the water.

Well, tomorrow it begins. The Green Mountains. Today we did the planning of our route through the mountains. Yikes. To top it off, record breaking heat is gripping Vermont. We decided that the smart plan would be to take an easy day today, and set ourselves up for an early morning mountain climb tomorrow rather than a late day climb today.

We left our cushy air-conditioned hotel room and hit the road. The temperature outside was already in the 80's. That's okay, we planned only a 25 mile day. After pausing at the entrance to Fort Ticonderoga, we decided to take the tour. The weather was already approaching 90, so it wasn't like we were going to miss the cool morning riding.

Pictures later, sorry.

Today we are taking half of a rest day. We need to do some Laundry and our legs need some time to recharge.

So, we left our awesome campsite at Blue Ridge, but not until after taking a quick hike to see the waterfalls. Before leaving, Rob, Sheri, and Leah dropped off some fruit for us to have with our breakfast. Apples, Bananas, and Kiwi. The Apples were huge!

We continued going downhill quite a bit today for the first stretch. The traffic was pretty heavy because it is Sunday and people are heading home for the week, hauling their campers and boats. Even still, most of the roads were very safe due to the nice shoulders. Only on Highway 74 did we lose our shoulders and have to ride defensively. It went pretty well.