NEW York and back to NEW Jersey that is. What a great ride today! Skies were more clear, we crossed the George Washington Bridge on bikes without a hitch, scored some tasty street meat while waiting for the ferry and cruised the Jersey Shore for the first time.
The bike trail into New York down to Battery Park is bike friendly, scenic and a unique way to see some of the city.
Although we didn’t get into the meat of New York it truly is a great American city. The buildings, the people, the energy – amazing!
The SeaStreak ferry shuttled us back over to Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey and we cycled along the shore through Sea Bright, Sea Girt, Asbury Park and ended our day in Point Pleasant with dinner on the water recapping our day and planning for tomorrow.
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Smoked. That’s the word for today while riding to Fort Lee, NJ which is just 10 miles away from New York City, the city presently considered to have the second worst air quality in the world due to raging wild fires in Canada.
Although ”sunny” with considerable wind, the haze and smoke worsened as the day went on and we got closer to Fort Lee.
Early in the day we explored an old cemetery just off the rail trail.
Later we rode though some of the most beautiful scenery yet in Sterling Forest and Harriman State Parks.
There were just enough rollers to keep our attention and the descents pushed us forward at wicked fast speed.
It was just after we had lunch at a neighborhood deli that we noticed more smoke and less people out and about.
We cycled right along the Hudson River through Piermont yet the nearby Hudson River was nearly invisible due to the increasing smoke. It’s a good thing Captain Sullivan didn’t have to land his plane on the Hudson River on a day like today.
Bicycle Route 9 paralleled Palisades Parkway and took us into New Jersey, another new cycling state for us! And we weren’t the only cyclists out. Apparently this is a well traveled cycling route, even on days when the AQI is high.
So tomorrow we jump out of the frying pan and into the fire so to speak when we cross the George Washington Bridge, ride through NYC to Battery Park and then to Pier 11 to jump on a ferry and start heading to Philly and the Delmarva Peninsula for the next leg of our journey.
We plan on getting an early start to get the heck outta here!
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Singing birds woke us up at 5:20 this morning and when we got out of our tent, we found our long distance touring buddy Marianne had already packed up and gone making nary a sound. We saw later on her Strava account she stopped in and toured the Eleanor Roosevelt museum and put in more miles than we did.😂
Surprisingly just outside of Gardiner, NY the trail turned to single track and it unexpectedly began raining.
And then it started thunderstorming so we ducked into Kacey’s for some breaky burritos, wifi and a new game plan for the day.
We had a 70 miler planned with 10 miles already in. As I was trying to decide what kind of peppers were in the burrito so I could replicate the recipe at home Tom looked up after checking his phone and said, “You know, Goshen is actually only 20 miles away.” I immediately stopped thinking about the recipe and how much time riding in the rain that shortcut would save us. Using Google bike routes and Ride With GPS he’d found a 40 mile shortcut (that’s right a 40 mile shortcut) on semi bike-friendly roads.
Sometimes ya change the game plan. I think they call it a pivot. 😂
So bad news is we missed some of the Hudson Valley scenery we were looking forward to seeing. Good news is we finished early at our intended destination, got laundry done for the first time in a week and ate a couple of Angus hamburgers that were some of the best we’ve ever tasted.
When we were walking into town we kept noticing the haze. Surely this wasn’t pollution from NYC. It reminded Tom of when we cycled through the forest fires out in Montana when riding the Great Divide. It’s a peculiar blanket over the sun. Sure enough our friend Dan enlightened us… forest fires in Canada are throwing smoke our way.
More good news is without camping options the next few days, we won’t be exposed to poor air quality at night as we cycle through NYC, Philly and the Delmarva Peninsula during the day.
Seems like there is always some good news if ya look for it! Hope your day is full of good news. 😊
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Ok normally I don’t drink Bourbon slushies out of Smart water bottles but today was that day.
It was the end of a warm, 70 mile day, some of the body parts are starting to feel the grind (and I don’t mean the legs). The slushy was cold and the distillery was right across the street from our campground so… #nobrainer
The food truck drew us into the parking lot yet once we went inside the 200 year old Grist Mill and met Jasmine, we were more intrigued with the story of the distillery and the mill than the taco truck outside.
Oh back to cycling… it was an Oreo cookie kind of day with ten plus miles of rail trails on both ends of our ride today. Rail trails mean less climb so we weren’t mad about that. There were however, a couple big ones where I told myself there would be reward at the top if I reached the top without stopping.
We crossed the Hudson River today cycling over the second longest pedestrian bridge in the world. Originally a double track railroad track, it was completed in 1889, which to me is an incredible engineering accomplishment for the times. It was converted to a 1.25 rail trail in 2009 and is a small part of the Empire State Trail.
Pictured below is one amazing woman. Meet 72 year old Marianne. She rode her bike from Los Angeles, hopped on Route 66 and cycled to Chicago. From there she followed the Adventure Cycling Map to Washington, DC via parts of the C&O and GAP trails and now she is heading to Maine on the Atlantic Coast Trail where she will attend a fiddler’s conference.
No, she doesn’t carry her fiddle but does carry a bear cannister for her food on her recumbent bike. As a matter of fact a little black bear loped across the street in front of her just yesterday. But I digress… She will return home to Portland not by plane, train or automobile, but by riding through Canada. And she’s a solo rider, averaging about 45 miles a day.
She said she comes by her love of travel and the outdoors honestly. Her mother, who has now passed but lived well past 100 years of age, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail before it was even called the PCT. What a fascinating woman.
Tonight we camp by the Wallkill River and tomorrow’s route guides us through more of the scenic Hudson River Valley. We should be peddling through the Big Apple on Wednesday. 🏙️
Thanks so much for the follow, the questions, comments and of course the prayers that we count on.
Oh, and someone was asking about the what, where and why’s of this ride. You can find the quick answer to that here.
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If we had a nickel for every empty mini liquor bottle we’ve seen on the side of the road we could help pay off the national debt. 😂 Ok so we might need a quarter for each one; the debt is getting up there. 💸. Some peeps call them shotskis; up here they are called nips. We call them trash and they are all over.
It’s not the first thing we noticed here in Connecticut. The bicycle friendly roads have wide shoulders and the drivers are uber courteous. The trees, waterways and rural towns we cycle through make for a solid ride.
And the elevation is no joke for these Indy legs. We cycled up and down 4,754 feet of hills yesterday, some of that due to an impassable bridge detour that added five miles to our day. Check the video to see how that all played out.
We crossed the Appalachian Trail just outside of Salisbury which was pretty cool and finally saw the sun when we got to our campsite at Taconic State Park.
So long Connecticut. 👋🏻 Hello New York! After our push-ups, planks, prayers and packing up we have a nearby coffee shop and 10 miles of a rail trail to kick off the day. Yay!
And PS: If you flew on a plane in the 60’s and 70’s it’s likely you received a shotski for free. 😉
Getting to Cambridge, a smallish town outside of Boston went off without a hitch in our rented mini van. After a six hour drive from Rochester, NY we dropped off the mini van and took to our Salsas. Everything we need (at least what we THINK we’ll need) for the next 1,000 miles we’ll carry on our bike, well except food and water. We’ll buy that along the way.
We figured out on our 15 hour drive it was exactly five years ago when we took off from Anacortes, Washington, and cycled 4,200 miles to Maine on our very first long distance bike tour. Wow! So much has happened since then. Weddings, more grandkids, two more cross country bike tours, our last state marathon in Hawaii, Tom’s retirement and well let’s just say pickeball!
Once loaded, we began our journey on the Minuteman Rail Trail. It was over 90 degrees but the shade made for a nice ride.
One of the best parts of seeing our beautiful country from a bicycle seat is we get a good look at it from a different perspective. Slower than a car and faster than walking, bikes work for us.
What we’ve noticed so far here in Massachusetts are there are lots of rocks, stone fences and wild turkeys. Who knew? 🤷🏼♀️ The rhodos are in full bloom and there’s an abundance of colonial history which apparently includes some “thickly settled” areas. Lol never saw this sign before. I had to Google it.
We found a sweet campsite in Littleton at the Minuteman Campground where we spent our first night on the tour.
Our second day brought LOTS of hills, more 90+ degree heat and an afternoon thunderstorm. I’m tellin’ ya folks, Texas “Hill” Country’s got nothing on these rollers in the northeast.
And who doesn’t love to listen to a New Englander talk about the Fish N Chips they had for lunch? Allll good! That’s exactly what we enjoyed at Peg’s Diner in Whitensville which is a dining car from a retired train.
We crossed two new states off of our 50 state bike chase today adding Rhode Island and Connecticut to the “done” list. ✅
We kept Day 3 short and stopped at Windsor Locks to dry out our clothes and tent, take a proper shower and enjoy a hot meal. A cold front moved in today and it was 40 degrees colder than yesterday. No guest laundry meant laundry done in the sink and hung dry. That works too!
For the first time ever on a bike tour we stayed at a hotel property at an airport. The window in our room overlooks the runway. ✈️ It cost just a few bucks more than our campsite two nights ago. Thanks Anne for the friends and fam rate!
Back to the tent tomorrow and on to New York!
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Well this was a fun way to spend a Tuesday afternoon! Tom and I were invited to the second grade classroom for a Q & A session, or show and tell if you’re a second grader. So we loaded our bikes up with exactly the same gear, wore the same clothes and rode 2.5 miles to school to answer more questions about our ride, our bikes and how to eat crawfish like a Cajun.
The most entertaining part was what each second grader got out of the blog posts as they followed our journey as evidenced by the prepared questions they asked and questions prompted by our answers. The questions came from all different perspectives depending on their interests and curiosities.
And if the time spent with these eight-year-olds wasn’t enough, we received a packet of of handwritten, illustrated thank you cards that brought big smiles to our faces. Below are just a few.
Thanks to the second grade students and their teachers for the follow. In a little less than three weeks, we’re heading out again on a thousand mile Scramble. Check it out here.
Tom and I wrapped up our San Diego to Key West bike ride a little over a week ago and have some data, final thoughts, lessons learned and finally one last video we’d like to share. Thanks so much to family, friends, neighbors and followers for the prayers, comments and encouragement along the way.
Tailwinds, Tom and Deb
For day-to-day mileage, where we stayed and songs in the videos, click here.
From Tom:
I had expectations that riding Southern Tier was going to be easy peasy after riding the Great Divide a couple of years ago. I thought riding on asphalt and mostly flat we would average at least 70 miles per day. Right off the bat coming out of San Diego on our first set of climbs I realized that we might be out of bike shape and touring with traffic all around us was a bit more mentally challenging watching out for drivers. The first few weeks we also rode at higher elevation which came with cold temperatures when waking up and packing up the tent, etc. It got lighter in the morning later and darker earlier in the evenings (5pm), which limited our hours of riding as well.
As the days moved on we started feeling good with our riding and only took one day off the entire trip because of a High Wind Advisory.
As the days ticked off, I think I mentioned to Deb that this is my favorite touring ride compared to the rest. Not sure why. Probably because we ate like kings/queens. :)
As a whole I am very happy with our trip. It just sounds amazing in my mind to think I rode my bike from San Diego to Key West. What a great accomplishment with my honey!
From Deb:
Each time I come home from an extended bike tour there is less friction in the transition to home life. I think it’s because the bike tours have changed me in small ways and many of those changes have stuck with me to some extent. For example, minimizing clothing, reducing food waste, understanding I need less “things” and attempting to keep life simple. I still get edgy on wheels that go more than 12 miles per hour (like automobile travel) but that will wear off soon.
As Tom mentioned above, this ride was an unexpected toughie, not based on the miles and terrain but the cold temps and wind at the beginning. It was a particularly cold season for Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas and I don’t do cold. This was an “Escape the Cold” bike tour remember?
But it all works out! One of my favorite “mommyisms” (and I have a few) is “Life is seldom what I expect but it IS what I make it.” There were so many surprises and variables out of our control and it was a blessing to experience those and make adjustments with Tom. I have the utmost trust and confidence in him and it was a joy to experience the 3,600 mile ride together. We dug in during the tough times, expanded our comfort zones and learned we can still do some hard things. Heck I barely remember the black rats and leaky sleeping pad anymore! Problem solving together was fun. I mean… we were on vacation!
I’m going to miss the extended time for daily reflection and prayer on the bike and all of the self directed learning. I’ll miss meeting new people and learning more about them and their culture. And I’ll miss the looks on the locals’ faces when they ask, “where you ridin’?” and we reply “San Diego to Key West”. Lots of people do it but it sure does get some raised eyebrows when we answer. I can’t think of a better way to experience our great country than slowly and from a bicycle seat. I’ll even miss riding my bike from point to point every single day. It’s not the same when you just “go out for a ride”.
However, I’m so grateful to return home with Tom to our family, friends, neighbors and home and am already asking myself, “what’s next” and “for what purpose”.
May God bless you with peace, abundant joy and a thirst for learning.
Click on the image below to view our San Diego to Key West Recap Video – some of our most memorable moments (sound on for music):
We have finished our San Diego to Key West bike ride of over 3,600 miles and are celebrating with family. Look for our final recap post in a few days. For now, just one more video of our last day. Oh what a ride it’s been!
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We had a couple unexpected visitors last night as we slept beachfront sans tent fly under the stars. Raindrops came and went about 3am, however just a sprinkling so we just pulled the fly up.
The other visitor? Black rats. They are, according to the ranger, an invasive species that live in the marshes and are a huge nuisance. No kidding. At one point we peaked out with our headlamps and saw four scampering around on our bikes. One of Tom’s bike bags was chewed through. Finally after moving the bikes and taking almost all the bags off and hanging them, they left us alone. Whew! Black rats. Who knew? 🤷🏼♀️
When we awoke we walked to the beach which we had it all to ourselves and spent time watching the sea and shore birds find breakfast. Grateful to take our time, as we just had a short ride today and we had a few miles “in the bank” so to speak, we were soon on the hunt for a cup of coffee as well. Plus our family Uber was making better than expected progress.
We stopped for coffee after packing up, then split a grouper sammies for lunch. Post lunch we teed up for The Seven Mile Bridge.
We were enjoying quite the tail wind fiesta, the scenery and cruising right along about 15-16 mph (even on our mountain bike tires 🤣) on the two lane bridge that actually IS seven miles long when all of a sudden we noticed a bright red semi truck hauling a tanker trailer was approaching. In our lane. 😳
Was he really passing a Mustang on a two lane bridge at 55 miles an hour in a no passing zone? We were riding on a wide shoulder but didn’t know how far he was coming our way or how his rate of speed, the surface wind and the fact that he was approaching close in front of us instead of behind us would affect the handling of our bicycles. Or worse, did he even see us?
I held onto my handlebars as tightly as possible while Tom loudly asked him where he got his CDL. Tom also noticed the driver wasn’t looking at us and instead in his side mirror to ensure he had clearance to pass the Mustang. The truck zoomed close by as we hugged the side of bridge wall. The incident lasted less than 15 seconds but I’ll never forget it. Aside from that, Seven Mile Bridge was a piece of cake and we are looking forward to crossing it again on Monday. In a car.😊
Way back in Marathon, Texas we told ourselves we’d take a pic in Marathon, Florida in the Keys. It seemed so far off but today we passed that milestone.
From Marathon to Marathon, and more, with just 50 miles left to the Southernmost Point.
Baha’i Honda State Park was our camping destination. When we checked in, the Ranger put us in “overflow” camping (on the rocks, no shade, next to the highway and to expect “visitors”, meaning black rats AND raccoons) but it actually worked out so perfectly.
We had a beautiful view of the cove after sunset and hung out at a picnic table in the shade at the beach for almost three hours where we ate a Snack Shak dinner, popcorn and rehashed the last couple months.
When the sun finally set we hustled back to the “hill” and set up our tent.
Our family Uber (Anne, Gordon and John) came within 100 yards of passing us tonight, they on US1 and us camping on “the hill” by the highway. We were FaceTiming each other from our tent using our headlamps as a beacon in hopes they would see us and honk. Not sure if we connected but we loved the thought. We cannot WAIT to see them tomorrow.
Loose ends: If you look closely at the pic of Tom riding on Seven Mile Bridge above you’ll notice something is missing. Yep he made an accidental donation of his Bentonville Brewery hat to Miami Dade County as we cycled through Miami. Looks like we will need to go back, Dan and Christie! 🍻
Tom also has the trip record for best Wordle solve at two guesses and I have a streak of 65 days going. Gin scores are 8-5; Greg, Tom is going to need more lessons.
My sleeping pad has a hole in it and needs to be blown up throughout the night and Tom’s back bike tire has had a nail rolling around inside of it since Tallahassee.
Finally I’m going to need a new crown since my 40 year old one finally popped off on the first day we saw the Gulf of Mexico. I saved it for a souvey. These are just quirky things that one thinks about while riding for hours on a bicycle.
Just 36 miles to the Southernmost Point tomorrow. We’re going to take in every mile. Thank you for the prayers, encouragement and follows.
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Keep Calm and Pedal On 