A Wrap up - In Retrospect

As Paul C's post says, we made it!  Now that we're safely back in Idaho, it's fun to think back on what we saw, what we accomplished, and what we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

Here's some of our favorites.  First, the people we met,

Jim & Carol, apple orchard owners from Williamson, NY....

Kiere & Mark, tandem cyclists from Canada......

Art & Pam, part-time residents of Gilmanten, NH and France, avid cyclists.....

and lastly, Gayle's family in Spooner, WI.

Second, the beautiful sights we saw,

All of the passes in the North Cascades...

Glacier Park, from Going to the Sun Highway.....

The open prairies and abandoned houses of eastern Montana....

The floating island near Vergas, MN....

The rail trails we found and rode on....

Niagara Falls....

The Erie Canal....

The amazing New England fall colors...

and lastly, the Atlantic Ocean.

Third, the machines and structures we saw...

trains....

wind turbines...

the old barns...

the old cars...

the bridges...

and lastly, the wacky things we happened upon.

Overall, it was a really fun trip.  We all got along well and had similar interests.  From a rain standpoint, we did really well, only having a few days with drenching rain.  The winds were a different story.  From central Montana all the way to New England, it seemed like we were fighting headwinds every day.  We ended up finding all sorts of stuff, perhaps the most interesting being the tools category.

The total included, a chalk line, several pairs of gloves, a roll of tape, a window scraper, ten box wrenches, three screwdrivers, ten sockets, four sets of pliers, a nut driver, a paintbrush, two snips, and a hose squirter.   We lost count of the money we found, probably close to $20 in coins.
Mechanically we did very well.  Paul C. had several flats at the beginning, but things improved when he replaced the rear tire in Medora, ND.  I didn't have any flats at all, but I did wear out two tires.  Probably the most serious incident was when Paul C. broke his chain, running the rear deraillier into his spokes and bending the dropout.  Fortunately, Gayle had her bike and offered to let Paul finish the ride with it.  The sag method worked nicely, except when we lost cell phone contact.  Gayle did a great job keeping up with us, packing up the gear, finding accommodations, and generally encouraging us as the trip proceeded.  The latest smart phone bike computer apps were useful, providing us detailed maps both during the ride and then at the end of the day.  For the most part, the Adventure Cycling routes worked for us.  We did take a few shortcuts from the route which mostly worked out for us.  The nicest thing about the A-C guides were the lists of motels, campgrounds, restaurants, and grocery stores, although many of the businesses listed were no longer in business.
So we now go back to our normal retired life, with lots of fun memories, discussions, and pictures to reflect on.  Thanks to each of you who have read this and participated in our adventure.  We hope you've enjoyed reading our blog as much as we have enjoyed writing it.

Megaloads!

So, on the way home I am thinking about some of the topics we were rummaging around and this is one we have gone over many, many times.  The HUGE RVs older couples drive around are amazing in many way, not all good by the way.  We have therefore done some observational research and we are sorry to report that it appears HUGE RVs are actually Alien research vehicles driven by hypnotized older Americans.  We have spent a fair amount of time looking at this because we could not figure out why these devices are usually trying to clear the roads of bicycles.  I also add that while we have survived this effort, small cars and deer have not.  Here is an example of Paul P. being attacked by a megaload

While they clearly are trying to remove any and all road-using bicycles, they often do have bicycles strapped to the back of the megaload.  As we have never seen any of these bicycles removed or physically operating, it appears they function to fool observers into thinking the human operators of the megaload to be "environmentally" focused and perhaps to work as long range antennae.  Further research is needed with this proposal.
So, in the beginning the aliens conservatively started having human agents start building small self-propelled fuel drive electrical outfitted vehicles like this.

These were successful enough that they decided to move ahead with further development.  To test how large they could build these without being discovered they moved to multiple section devices.

As they improved their sensing technology and made smaller units to install they then moved to what we now recognize as the "classic" megaload.

You will notice that they early on added the ability to tow a car or truck.  This allowed the human operator and maintainer to travel to get supplies for the megaload while keeping the megaload stationed and connected to electricity, water and most importantly the toilet connection.

They then appeared to add side expansions to allow further evident alien communication and human element night storage. It appears those human operators have been gaining significant weight clearly to further gravitationally stabilize the megaload - hence the name megaload.

The most advanced megaload we have seen is shown below.  It has side expansion, tows a large truck, has a platform to hold an ATV,, and an upper back rack to support the required attached but non-removable bicycles with the under-racks to hold the tables and gas grill.  Here is an example.

 We had the opportunity to see and chat with one of the human operators of a large megaload while she was driving her ATV 250 feet to the RV site restaurant clearly designed to feel and support the RV-enslaved human supporters for the alien-RV devices.  Without the ATV she would have had to (gasp!) physically walk to the food source and thus would have lost some of the weight gain.  That would have cut the load the megaload needs to stay gravitationally oriented.  These "RV-Aliens" are managing the human element well.
Yes, it is clearly an evolutionary process we are observing and Paul P. will make more observational comments including more evidence of the alien road markings they use for communication.  Very interesting.  More to come.

Day 53 We made it! Gilmanton, New Hampshire to Ogunquit, Maine and the Altlantic Ocean!!

Day 53.  We made it!  The last day and we went 54.4 miles with a climb of 1,411 feet to Ogunquit, Maine and put our front wheels in the Atlantic Ocean!!  What a ride. We averaged just over 71 miles per day, and went just over 3800 miles.  Here are the pictures at the ocean shore!

Along this last day we saw some beautiful sights, again, like wonderful fall colors.  Here are some more trees with beautiful leaves.

The second picture shows how when the trees start to loose their leaves chlorophyll they seem to do so in parts.  In this tree there are fully green parts and fall-colored parts.  It is very interesting and beautiful indeed!
We saw lots of other fall changes along the way, like these.

After we dunked the front wheels in the ocean, we headed for the closest lobster shack and got our reward for the trip - fresh lobster!!  We also got a quick course in lobster preparation/consumption - but nothing to do with being neat!  Gladly they had a sink outside so we could clean up!

It was a super way to enjoy the ambiance!!  The lobsters were superb and I ended up filled up and filthy, but happy to be that way!!
We also saw some interesting sights on this last day going east.  It seems some of my distant (VERY distant) relatives are trying to run government - good luck!

We also saw where ET did his bike trips!  He was gone at the time.

Finally, we saw how much they love Halloween around here.

Trips like this are really never over, considering all the new people we met and so on.  Paul P. and I are planning to fly this route next year and photograph the route from the air - a very different perspective but a fun one to see from.  We will be adding a few more things before we put things on hold until next year, so don't give up yet!

Covered Bridges

Vermont and New Hampshire are covered bridge country and we saw several yesterday and today.  In Vermont we saw the Shoreham railroad bridge, a classic Howe truss design.

It's free span of over 100' is quite remarkable, considering that the main structural members are just wood timbers.
Today we rode about 15 miles on the Grafton county, NH rail trail and beside the trail was this covered bridge.

It's the Packard bridge and while this one was built in 1991, the original bridge dates from the late 1700's.  The main reason that the bridges are covered is to protect the heavy structural members from sun, rain, moisture, and rot damage.
Near Andover, NH we found the Keniston bridge, built in 1882.

Back here the bridges are considered historical gems and any damage is quickly repaired so as to keep the structures in tip-top shape.
I mentioned the Grafton County, NH trail earlier.  This is a rail conversion that was done in 1996.  We began riding it in Lebanon, NH and the first 15 miles of it were quite do-able with our road bikes.  But after Canaan, the trail base turned to a course gravel that was quite uncomfortable and rough.  Needing to make the miles today, our next to last day, we abandoned the old railroad bed for the hillier, but smoother asphalt surface.  Here's a couple of pictures from today's ride on the trail.

I'll close with this image of a mushroom we came across at our stopping point of Gilmanton, NH.