Today was 91 miles and two new states. The careful observer will notice from the shadows that I’m facing east in the New Hampshire picture and west in the Massachusetts picture. New Hampshire didn’t bother with a sign at the Vermont state line (where they’re building a new bridge) so both of these pictures were taken at the New Hampshire/Massachusetts state line 2 minutes apart. It’s all I could do.

Once again we had beautiful weather, foggy as we left Vermont but rapidly clearing as the day warmed.

Southern New Hampshire and rural Massachusetts look a lot alike. My previous experience in New Hampshire was 50 years ago, driving through with my mother. I mostly remember being “a good sport”, waiting patiently as she stopped at every antique and junk store on the way. Today was much more pleasant.

Once we got into the hotel this evening we had our reception followed by the end-of-the-tour dinner. Prizes were awarded and the certificates were granted, including mine with the coveted “Every Fantastic Inch” designation for riding every inch of the route without ever getting in the van. It will go proudly on my office wall near my elf school diploma.

Tonight’s hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn in Burlington, Massachusetts, is undergoing major renovations. At least 1/3 of our hotels have been under renovation, most of them pretty major. Maybe there was a delay because of Covid, but it seems the hotel companies are putting a lot of money into these lower end roadside hotels.

Tomorrow is a 16 mile ride to Revere Beach. We’ll leave as a group and ride the last 3 miles in a peleton before dipping our wheels in the Atlantic Ocean to finish the trip. Then the bikes get packed up for shipping home and we all go our separate ways. It promises to be an emotional event, one that I wish all my readers could share in person.

When we started I had several fears. First was the fear of getting hurt, which is always a risk on a bicycle. So far, so good except for my repeatedly scraped left knee. My second fear was that I would do the Forrest Gump thing. In the movie, as you will recall, Forrest takes off running from Alabama to the Pacific coast. When he gets there he turns around and runs to the Atlantic. I thought I might have a similar response, and I was right. I could easily keep riding from here to Nova Scotia, or Florida, or back to Oregon. For now I’m just going to fly home on Saturday, but I’ve got the bug. My third fear was boredom. That never happened, despite the rather monotonous days across the corn fields of Kansas. While Chad listened to history podcasts for much of the trip I was happy just cruising along to the sounds around me and enjoying the relaxing rhythm of pedaling. I never was bored. I was also worried about the food, much of it being mass market fast food. That fear was unfortunately realized. People across this country don’t eat very well, even though it’s so easy to do so much better.

So tomorrow it’s over. Another trip of a lifetime.