FINAL REFLECTIONS

Every tour is a little different. Of course, most of the key elements of touring don't change except for where you are touring. However, it was the small things and misjudgments on my part that I really noticed after not touring for 9 years. 

Going into this tour, I knew that I was 9 years older and that I had more physical changes from injuries and surgeries during that time. I would be lying if I told you I didn't have any concerns about my abilities to do this tour. While 9 years isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, it is much longer when you are over the age of 50! I worked and trained hard to get ready for the tour, but the key thing I neglected was the importance of good hill training.  

I have no valid excuse other than there are no decent hills to train on closer than an hour (or more) away, and I just didn't want to make the additional time commitment with so many other things needing attention and time. Hills are something that additional riding on the flats cannot overcome. Only riding more hills will help you in the hills! This lack of training came back to bite me in the ass when we hit the hills of the Adirondacks the most, although I suffered in the hills along Lake Michigan during the first week as well.

Fortunately, I am stubborn and suffering on the bike is something I can do. I won't tell you it was fun (it definitely wasn't!) but I did enjoy the downhills after the hard climbs! I also wasn't under the illusion that every part of the tour would be great. That's something that doesn't always get written about when I'm trying to share snippets of the day here. There are some days that everything goes right and it is a great day. There are other days that have some dark moments but the overall day is a good day and that is mostly what comes through. Then there are days that are just hard where everything feels off. Fortunately, these are very few or else I wouldn't enjoy touring so much. I tried to be honest here when I had a bad day (I only remember one day that was just not a good day), but the majority of the days had something  not great (hills!) that was offset by meeting good people, beautiful scenery and the free feeling of riding my bike.

I was a bit ambitious with the estimates of the mileage I would be comfortable with during the first week. I obviously channeled my younger self when I was planning as I tend to forget that time keeps marching on. I knew that days 3 and 4 are usually the hardest and compensated a bit for those, but I should have planned for lower mileage days (a max of 50 miles or even a little less) for that first week to allow my body to adjust to the rigors of riding every day. I wasn't smart enough to do that so I had some longer days that first week. The upside is that I probably "rode myself into shape" a little quicker than I otherwise would have. Again, being stubborn is an asset in these situations. 😁

I feel like I savored the time on my bike and out of the rat race of normal life more this time than in the past. That may just be wishful thinking, since we are more connected to everything in the world now through technology than the last time I did a tour. I do know that I didn't spend much time on my phone other than for finding and booking places to stay, or seeing what food and convenience stores were available in the next little town. From that aspect, the technology was a welcome and necessary part of logistics during the trip.

The one thing that was the same is the struggle to re-enter my life after the tour is over. It seems like it should be easy to just pick up where I left off when the tour began. But it is hard to get back into the routine of waking to an alarm, and it took a few days until I was able to focus for periods of time as I resumed my regular work schedule. Even harder is the lack of activity that naturally occurred as I transitioned back to my "regular" routine. My knees became creaky after a couple of days without riding and it took my back about a week to adjust to my sedentary job. It is amazing how much better my body feels when the majority of my day is spent physically moving instead of only my brain working.

Overall, it was an amazing trip and I'm happy to know I can still handle the rigors of touring. My love of touring is alive and well - and I'm now thinking of my next trip. I have some ideas rattling around in my brain and now I need to see which ones I can convince Dave to do with me...

Here are the best quotes from the trip:

    "Anyone can do this when the sun is shining." - Jon

    "I don't have to ever ride that hill again!" - Rhonda

POST-TOUR DAY 1 - PACKING

Total Trip Mileage: 1,560.3

Margarita Count - 43

Plus 1 Fireball shot!

This would have seemed to be a day with not much to do. But here I am having dinner and I never even managed a nap today!

I was packed up for the last time and left camp this morning about 8:30am. It was a slow, easy 2 miles into town to the Friendly Toast for breakfast. I had time to kill until the bike shop opened at 10am. I chatted with the gal sitting next to me at the counter and she made a recommendation for a place for dinner and margaritas tonight. It's a college town (UVM) and so there are lots of restaurants and bars here in the downtown area. 

After a good breakfast I walked back to the bike shop, Skirack, through the city park. It was a pretty morning and not hot yet. I got to Skirack right after opening knowing I had a lot to do. The first order of business was to unload all my gear and take off the racks. Here is a picture of my bike sitting naked before packing. They let me put all my bags and racks back in a little room out of the way since it would take me time to get everything else together. The entire day as I was running errands and re-packing, they let me come and go from the back area. They also did a great job of packing my bike for shipping. If you ever need anything bike-related in Burlington, VT, go to Skirack. 

Here is all the stuff that had to come off the bike! 

The next order of business was to get to Wal-Mart and buy a couple suitcases to put everything in to get it all home on the plane tomorrow. The Wal-Mart is about 6 miles out of town. So I signed up on the Uber app and had my first experience with Uber today. It didn't take long for me to get a ride out to Wal-Mart. I spent more time in Wal-Mart trying to find the suitcases! After asking 3 different people I was finally sent to the right aisle. There wasn't a lot of choices to be had, but I got a 3-piece set for $35. It doesn't have to last but this one trip!

Getting an Uber back was a little more of a wait. The driver basically came from downtown Burlington out to the Wal-Mart and then took me back to the bike shop. It was still the same price as the first ride so that was good. Both drivers were very courteous and I had no issues. 

Once back at the bike shop, i went through all my bags and pulled out all the dirty clothes for a trip to the laundromat. No way was I packing up those stinky clothes in a suitcase, even for a day! Luckily the laundromat was only a block down from the bike shop. By the time the laundry was done, it was 1:30pm. Now I needed to figure out how to pack everything in the suitcases I had. 

With several tries and lots of rearranging, I managed to get most everything in the suitcases. The remaining items were able to be packed in the box with my bike. 

I am staying in a B&B tonight, but it was still too early to check in. It was warm here today - 92 with heat index of 97 - so I waited in the cool of the bike shop for a little longer. I called for another Uber to take me and my luggage to the B&B. I just wasn't up to lugging all the bags uphill for 10 blocks! It kind of sounds silly writing that after all the hard hills I rode during the trip - but that was just how I felt today!

This is the move-in weekend for UVM students so the town is packed with parents dropping kids off at college. It was almost impossible to find a room for tonight, and I lucked into this room at the B&B for an exorbitant price. At least it is a really nice place in an old historic house!

My flight home is 7am tomorrow morning so it will be an early night tonight. I took the recommendation I got at breakfast for dinner tonight. It is a small Mexican place downtown and the bartender makes a great margarita! It is a fitting end to this trip. 

I'll do one more post in a couple days about what worked and what didn't for this tour. It was an amazing experience and I am fortunate I was able to make it work with my husband and job. Many thanks to my boss for allowing me this time to escape. And even more thanks to my husband for understanding and supporting me taking this trip. I am indeed lucky!

DAY 31 - ADDISON, VT TO BURLINGTON, VT - END OF THE ROAD FOR ME

Mileage: 39.5 - Total Mileage: 1,560.3

Margarita Count - 40

Plus 1 Fireball shot!

Today has been a day of conflicting emotions. Sadness at leaving Rhonda and Jon to continue their journey, elation and a great sense of accomplishment on completing my goal, longing to be home, and also wanting a few more days on the road. A huge thanks to Rhonda and Jon for letting me join them on part of their trip! It felt weird to pack up and ride off, while they stayed in camp for a rest day. 

The ride today was nice. Google said it was mostly flat with only moderate hills. Google also lies! Okay - those hills are probably considered only moderate for here, but they were still strep for me! My legs were tired since this was my 8th straight day of riding. It seemed silly to take a rest day and then have only 1 or 2 days of riding left. 

Here is a picture of the Adirondacks we came through to get to Vermont. They are kind of hazy but you can see them. Burlington is down in a valley along Lake Champlain. 

I stopped in Vergennes, VT for my second breakfast this morning. I had french toast, again, and it was very good. This little cafe, 3 Squares Cafe, was very good! Vergennes was a cute little town. I saw several groups of cyclists come through. The waitress told me several bicycle touring companies come through there all through the touring season. 

I knew today was going to be a shorter day on the bike so I wasn't in any rush. I made several stops for pictures and to chat with people. I rolled through downtown Burlington on my way to the campground north of town. I stopped at Splash for lunch. I sits right on Lake Champlain by the community boat docks. I had a great view of the water as I ate lunch and had a couple celebratory margaritas to mark the end of the trip. 

When I was leaving Splash, I saw two cyclists on loaded bikes as I was getting on the Island Rail Trail. Debra and Ken were just finishing a 4-day trip around Lake Champlain. We chatted for a little bit and then it was time to head to camp, which was only another mile up the trail. Once I was settled in camp, I went for a swim in Lake Champlain. It was a fitting end to a great trip! North Beach is a popular swim spot for the locals and the campground is situated right off North Beach. What a great location! Bonus that there is a tiki bar at the beach and they sell margaritas, even margaritas to go! 

Here is a random scenery pic I took as I was rolling through the farms in the valley on my way to Burlington. 

Tomorrow the adventure of getting my bike packed and figuring out how to get all the other gear home starts. I'll let you know how it goes. 

DAY 30 - NEWCOMB, NY TO ADDISON, VT

Mileage: 51.7 - Total Mileage: 1,520.8

Margarita Count - 36

Plus 1 Fireball shot!

I crossed over into Vermont today - my 6th state this trip! 

We rolled out of camp a little before 9am after a first breakfast of oatmeal and bananas. It rained twice overnight, but both showers were short and light. It just meant our tent flys were wet when we packed up this morning. 

We had to improvise our route for today. Normally, the route would take us to Ticonderoga, NY where we would cross Lake Champlain by ferry into Vermont. However, the ferry is not open right now and so we changed our route to go further north so we could cross over the Lake Champlain Bridge at Chimney Point, VT. We only had two places to stop for food and snacks today, and did not have a restaurant for dinner close to camp. 

The riding was again beautiful, and felt like deja vu from the last two days. Lots of climbing, some steep, some long and some rolling. We did get some payoff today for all the climbing we've done over the last few days. We had two long, steep descents that brought us out of the Adirondacks and back to a lower elevation. 

As I was slowly climbing, I noticed these walls of rocks next to the road with water seeping out of them. 

Fun signs from today. Yes, it really is a warning to watch for moose! I looked but didn't see any. You know it is a seriously steep hill when they warn the trucks to use low gear. You only want to see this sign showing you are going down!

Right before I rolled into our first stop of the day at North Hudson, I came across a pasture of bison. I counted three calves among the herd so that is a good sign. The house across the road from the pasture had two large stained glass windows. 

Here are the views of Lake Champlain from the bridge as we crossed into Vermont. The first picture shows you the historic lighthouse. 

Now it's time to set up camp, get a shower, and eat some dinner. 

DAY 29 - INLET, NY TO NEWCOMB, NY

Mileage: 51.1 - Total Mileage: 1,469.1

Margarita Count - 36

Plus 1 Fireball shot!

We were ready to roll this morning about our normal time of 8:30am. We had some breakfast provided by the motel, said goodbye to the neighbors and rolled out. There was a lip from the gravel parking lot up to the pavement. Jon must have hit it at an odd angle because his tire rolled off the rim and went flat. We headed back into the motel and Jon took a look at the tire.

The local bike shop didn't open until 10am. Jon wanted to get it fixed right while we had a bike shop as it will be several more days before they have a bike shop available again. Cherie (owner of the motel) offered to drive us the 2.5 miles back into town to the bike shop and then pick us up when it was fixed. The owner got it fixed quickly and by 11am we had the bikes loaded and were ready to depart again.

There was some rain last night from Henri, but we were dry in the motel. We anticipated rain today, and had our rain covers on our panniers and rain jackets close at hand when we finally got on the road. The sky this morning was very cloudy and looked like rain. All of our preparations were for naught - we only got a little drizzle for a few minutes and then the sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds.

The ride today was similar to the last two days. Lots of steep hills, rolling hills and beautiful scenery. There are lots of little towns with cabins, lodges and small motels catering to the tourists coming to the various lakes in the region. 

Some of the lakes we went by today were Seventh Lake, Eighth Lake, Raquette (pronounced "racquet") Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Long Lake and Lake Harris where we are staying tonight. I got pictures of some of the lakes, but many were obscured from view by trees. Here are pictures of the lakes I got: Raquette Lake and Blue Mountain Lake.

I saw this sign for a hiking trail in the mountains as I was just getting to the top of one of the many climbs for the day. I was feeling like this could describe me after another climb or two! I imagine there is a great story about how the trail got its name. 

With the late start this morning and 50 miles to cover, I didn't roll into camp until about 5:30pm. There wasn't anywhere to eat in Newcomb so we bought food in Long Lake to eat in camp. Our gourmet meal tonight consisted of Dinty Moore beef stew, along with cookies and other snacks we had. Boy was that beef stew good! Everything tastes better when you are hungry from a long ride!

Our campsite tonight is on Lake Harris. On my way to camp I crossed the Hudson River. It isn't as big this far north. 

I have two more riding days on my trip. It seems like I've been on the road a long time, but it has only been a month. It is easy to slip into the routine on the road. I have to check my phone or watch to even know what day it is! I will miss that....

DAY 28 - BOONVILLE, NY TO INLET, NY

Mileage: 38.7 - Total Mileage: 1,418.0

Margarita Count - 36

Plus 1 Fireball shot!

Today was a short day on the bike but that doesn't mean it was an easy day!

Here are a couple pictures from our campground I captured this morning of Moose River, which provided wonderful noise for sleeping last night. I also captured a picture of the Brown Barn where cyclists can stay if the weather is bad. 

Rolling out of camp this morning was a rude awakening. Within the first 2 miles, we had three steep climbs. I saw 14% on one of the climbs, and a speed of 2.3 mph. To add insult to injury, my Garmin auto-paused because it thought I wasn't moving! Once we got past those first hills, it leveled off some to more rolling hills with only a few steeper sections. We were in the Adirondack Park for most of the day. It was a beautiful ride, even though there was more traffic than I expected. Since it is Sunday, probably a lot of people were headed home after a week or weekend in the mountains. 

We only had two places to stop today for food, so we made the most of both of them! We stopped in Old Forge around 11:30am and had some great turkey club sandwiches from the market. They did not skimp on the meat! We had oatmeal in camp but didn't have an opportunity for second breakfast, so we were hungry. We were already over half way for the day since it was a short mileage day. 

With Hurricane Henri making landfall this afternoon, we scrapped our plans to camp tonight in case the storm was bad here. We are in a little motel near Seventh Lake tonight. It is a cute place and has adirondack chairs out front of the rooms to sit in. We had a few showers earlier when I was napping, but we haven't gotten much rain from the storm so far. We'll see what it looks like in the morning and go from there. 

Here are some random scenery pics from today. The Adirondack Scenic Railway train in Old Forge. A large rock with tree roots growing around it. The golf course view from the Double Eagle Bar and Grill where we had second lunch/early dinner today. 

DAY 27 - PULASKI, NY TO BOONVILLE, NY

Mileage: 51.6 - Total Mileage: 1,379.3

Margarita Count - 35

Plus 1 Fireball shot!

Today was a good day on the bike - even though we had a lot of climbing today. My Garmin showed 2,652 ft of climbing. We climbed the same couple hundred feet multiple times throughout the day. Most of the hills were a reasonable grade (7% or 8%) but there were a few that were very steep. I saw 13% on one hill, with my slowest speed of the day of 2.9 mph. Yes, it's possible to stay upright going that slow! 

After a slow breakfast at the same place we ate dinner last night, we finally hit the road about 8:30am. We only got a couple miles down the road before the hills started and Rhonda and Jon were out of sight. I got this picture rolling out of Pulaski. 

Today's scenery was different than yesterday. There were lots of trees with scattered houses between towns. But instead of fields of crops or orchards, there were just meadows with native grasses and wildflowers. Since we were in the hills, there were some pretty vistas looking off in the distance. 

This is definitely an area used for outdoor recreation. There were a lot of ATVs on the road today (they're allowed to use the road to get to and from the trails) and signs for all the various trails. I didn't get any pictures of those signs because they always seemed to be partway up a hill, or near the bottom of a downhill with another climb coming up. This area is also used for snowmobiling in the winter. There were lots of signs for those trails as well. That is something you'll never see in Texas!

There was also an Amish community in the hills. The first sign was the horse "evidence" on the road. I then came upon this sign to watch for horse and buggy along the road (along with snowmobiles! ). 

As I rolled ever so slowly to the top of a climb, I saw this Amish barn/shed on the side of the road. Most of the time we never actually see the homes/farms as they are on side roads. You can see they have several wagons and a buggy inside the shed. 

I took short breaks at a couple of convenience stores today but there really wasn't anywhere for a meal until we got to Boonville. I had plenty of snacks for stops on the side of the road when I found a nice shady spot that was at the top of a climb. 

I snapped this picture a couple of miles outside of Boonville. Most of the day was beautiful and sunny with only a few threatening clouds this afternoon. I was wondering if I was going to get wet. Since I am a slower climber than Rhonda and Jon, I missed the downpour that drenched them as they rode into Boonville. I  guess it's not so bad to be slow!

Tonight we are camping a couple miles outside of Boonville. The owner has special rates for cyclists and provides laundry facilities as well. He warned us that he had a band scheduled for tonight, but told us he would find us a quiet place somewhere. He delivered on his promise. We are camped above a flowing river at the back of the campground and can't even hear the band playing. Perfect - we'll be able to sleep as early as we want. We're all tired tonight!

Tomorrow could be dicey in the afternoon depending on what Hurricane Henri does. We were supposed to be camping again tomorrow but made a hotel reservation instead. We will watch the weather and adjust our plans accordingly once we see where the storm hits and the forecast for our area.