L.A. to Boston - May 10 to June 28 - 3415 Miles

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Day 50 - Saturday, June 28 - Boston, MA, to Grinnell, IA - 1250 miles by airplane

I shared a taxi with three other people to Boston Logan Airport. We drove through the "Big Dig" tunnel - an extensive freeway system under downtown Boston. It, greatly, relieved the congestion on the above ground streets and made it much faster to pass through the city - especially much faster to reach the airport. The Big Dig was in the news in recent years because of construction disasters and extravagant cost overruns.


I had a connecting flight in Milwaukee, WI, so the route out of Boston took my flight on a path over Syracuse, NY, where we had stayed six nights ago and also where my sister, Janet, lives. As I watched our progress over the terrain, I tried to visualize riding the distance on a bicycle. I'm not able, yet, to comprehend what we have done the last seven weeks. During the tour, one would hear rider after rider saying that they couldn't think of doing the overall trip as it seemed unattainable. We found that we had to only think of one day at a time. Each day, after riding a distance to the next overnight, most of us could not name the town that we had stayed in the night before. We were only focused on the day's destination. One day I was riding alone and a highway patrolman stopped to ask if I was lost. He asked where I was coming from and where I was going. I had to look at our route sheet to remind me. While riding, we get so lost in our thoughts that we lose track of everything else. We just make the turns called for on our route sheets and that gets us to our destination.

A typical "route sheet" that we used for our daily guidance. Left-click on the sheet for a larger view. We folded them in quarters and attached them to our handlebars - usually in a waterproof see-through pouch.



The Milwaukee, WI, airport.

Thanks for reading my blog during the tour and I have really appreciated your encouraging comments.

Bob

Day 49 - Friday, June 27 - Burlington, MA, to Boston, MA - 18 miles - 700 climbing feet

We had a beautiful 18 mile ride from Burlington, MA, to Revere Beach in Boston, MA, this morning. The temperature was very comfortable, around 70F, and the sky was clear. We did encounter the typical Massachusetts roads - mostly no bike-lane shoulders, lots of traffic, and lots of rough surfaces with holes. Our procession sounded like Santa Claus on his route as we called out "hole" (ho ho ho) dozens of times to warn the following riders of holes in the road.


We are preparing to leave the motel at our normal starting time of 7am. Although we are going to ride only 18 miles, our starting procedure was unchanged except for not loading our bags - as we will return to this same motel for our last night. The photo is of Warren (TX) and myself.



Damien (Ireland) and myself.



Our final pep talk from Tracy, our tour leader, before signing out for our last day's ride.



Signing out for the last time.


We rode on our own for 13 miles to this parking lot where we regrouped for the last 5 miles to the beach.


Some photos were taken while we waited to regroup. Here are most of the women on the tour.


Most of the men. A few riders took wrong turns on the way to the regrouping area and had not arrived. I am fourth from the left in the second row.


Police escort to Revere Beach.


Arriving at Revere Beach.


Regrouping at the end of the ride to Revere Beach.


I am dipping my front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean, completing my journey across the U.S.


Alex dipping the wheel of his and his dad's (Achim) recumbent-tandem bicycle. Alex and Achim are from Germany and peddled their 60 lb bike every inch of the way. They went extremely slow up hills but went very fast down hills and on the flats. They generally finished each day's ride ahead of most of us.


Damien (Ireland) and Warren (TX) dipping their wheels. Damien and Warren rode together most days.



Damien with his bike on the beach.


Damien (Ireland), Randy (CA), and myself on the beach. Randy and I rode together on most days of the tour.


Our entire group at Revere Beach in Boston. Thirty-five riders arrived at the Atlantic Ocean. Some riders only rode part of the route as some take two or more years to complete the entire tour. Laura (CA), the woman in jeans in the front row, did only the first two weeks of the tour but came out to Boston to join the ending celebration. She plans to complete the entire route in future years. I am first on the right of the front row.

After the festivities at the beach, we all were hauled back the 18 miles to our motel in Burlington, as by late morning the Boston traffic was quite heavy. Since we had completed our journey, there was no need to take any more last minute risks in the traffic.


Our completed journey. This map was displayed in the hotel lobbies each day.


Back at the motel in Burlington, we began the tasks of washing our bikes and packing them for shipping home. Some would take them in personal vehicles, others by plane, but most would ship them by UPS or FedEx. The other Bob, Boston Bob, lives only 4 minutes by bike from the motel so will ride his home. Here Rich (IL) is packing his bike.


Mike (England) packing his bike.


Clark, one of the CrossRoads staff, packing a bike. Riders could have their bikes packed by CrossRoads for a fee - which many did. I boxed my own bike and it should arrive home by UPS later next week.

Friday evening we had our final banquet during which our completion certificates were presented. Riders said their final goodbyes to each other. We became a family after spending seven weeks together sharing the hardships and joys of struggling across the varied terrain of the U.S. We have made many friends and will stay in touch for many years.

Most riders and their guests will spend this last night in the motel and then leave at various times over the weekend. I will be flying out of Boston late tomorrow morning.

Bye for now and thanks for the comments,
Bob