Robert's Ride 2010, Day 11, Tuesday, September 1, 2010, Halifax to Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

The weather in Nova Scotia continues to be intensely sunny and very hot--very much warmer than the cooler weather that we had hoped for during our three days in Nova Scotia.

Philip and I cycled together today for the first time, to Peggy's Cove, the nearest land mass to the site where SwissAir 111 crashed into St. Margaret's Bay on September 2, 1998.  We left the hotel at 9:30AM, and rode the 25 miles to Peggy's Cove in 1 hour 40 minutes.  It's a very hilly route with a few short but challenging (for me) climbs, which winds past beautiful forested bays and fishing villages.  Philip's sister Pam drove our car to Peggy's Cove and met us there. 

 

From there we doubled back a few kilometers for lunch at Shaw's Landing, which sits on the bay in West Dover.  The restaurant was purchased in 1990 by Ian Shaw, a very interesting and chatty Scotsman who was then living in Switzerland.  His daughter was a passenger on SwissAir 111.  We first met Ian at his restaurant in September 1990, and have eaten there every year since then that we have visited Peggy's Cove.   Ian sold the restaurant about three years ago and moved back to Switzerland.  We miss him.

Pam's son Matthew and his girlfriend Amber, with her two cherubic 8 month old twin boys in tow, drove in from New Glasgow to join us for lunch.  After, we drove back towards Peggy's Cove to visit the SwissAir memorial, which was dedicated to the people of the St. Margaret's Bay community who rushed in their fishing boats to the crash site in the late hour of September 2, 1998 after hearing the boom of the plane hitting the water, and to the many who helped and comforted the family members of the crash victims who came to Halifax during the recovery operations.

In the evening Philip, Pam and I drove to the home of our friends Anne Martell and her husband Harry Cook, who live about a 45-minutes' drive from Halifax.  During the year after the plane crash, Anne volunteered through one of the organizations that assisted family members, to place flowers for us at the Bayswater Memorial, where the names of the 229 passengers are inscribed on a large granite sculpture.  We met Anne and Harry in 1999, and we visit with them whenever we come to Halifax.  Anne has recently taken up cycling, and has promised that she and Harry will visit us in Baton Rouge on an auto-cycling trip, taking the reverse route that Philip and I just finished. 

Robert's Ride 2010 has ended.  It was a lot of fun.  I love road trips that meander on country roads through beautiful scenery and local landscapes.  There is always something interesting around the next bend.

Tomorrow, September 2, we will visit the memorial at Bayswater.  There will be other family members of crash victims there for a memorial service at 11AM.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 11, Monday, August 31, 2020, Sussex, NB to Halifax, NS

Breakfast at the B&B where we stayed last night, Jonah Place in Sussex, NB, was at 8:00 AM, so we were late getting on the road, again.  It is a very well-appointed B&B, newly renovated, with all the mod cons.  The couple who own and run the B&B, Deb and Phil, purchased the property a couple of years ago after retiring from careers in the financial field, and have done a very professional job of upgrading the building and rooms, doing most of the work themselves.

After a light breakfast, we finally got on the road at 9:10 AM and drove to Moncton, New Brunswick, a real French-speaking area.  Philip wanted to stop at his favorite coffee shop in Moncton, Timothy's World Coffee, which he discovered on his first Baton Rouge to Peggy's Cove cycling trip, and visited again on his later rides.  We called my Dad to wish him Happy Birthday, and he and mom told us about Hurricane Earl  moving up the east coast towards Nova Scotia.  Hummmm.

I got set up to ride in Moncton, and rode from downtown Moncton to Dorchester, finishing with 22.33 miles.  The temperature was in the upper 80s.  The first couple of miles were on a four lane city street with no shoulder and busy traffic, but after the first turn off that road, there was a less busy two-lane road with a nice bike lane for the next 5 miles or so.  The rest of the ride was on crappy road surface and no shoulder, but still the traffic was light.  The terrain was like a washboard--continuous rolling hills, which were progressively uphill for the first half or the ride, and progressively down hill from there.  None of the uphill climbs or down hill glides were too long or too steep, but I clocked 35 mph on the longest downhill stretch, which felt really good.  At 22.33 miles I was at the base of a really long, steep uphill, and decided to call it quits.  All-in-all, I think that today's ride was the best of the trip for me.  

After I finished my ride, we found the Trans Canada Highway and headed for Nova Scotia, and exited at the Visitor Center.  Philip wanted to hear the bagpiper who plays on the outside of the Visitor Center, and to buy an ice cream cone, as he had done of his previous trips.  To his disappointment, the bagpiper was not playing because she had already gone back to school, and the Visitor Center no longer sells ice cream. 

Philip decided to ride the last 14 or so miles into Halifax, across the McDonald Bridge on the bridge bike lane, through central Halifax, to the Chocolate Lake Best Western, where we're staying for the next 3 nights.  Philip's sister Pam, who lives about 5  hours from Halifax, in Marion Bridge, NS, was planning to meet us at the hotel.  Philip started his ride on Waverly Road, which is a beautiful but very narrow two-lane road that twists and rises and falls along a beautiful river.  There is a lot of fast moving traffic on that road.  Philip was nearly driven off the road and into the river by a bus that was moving too fast, the driver of which saw Philip but appeared to have no regard for his safety.  Just after that incident Philip saw a police car parked off the road, and reported the incident.  The police officer want to know the bus number and exact location where the incident occurred,  but Philip could not provide that information.  Nonetheless, the police office drove away in search of the offending bus driver.  

In the meantime, I needed to find my way from where I dropped off, Philip, back to the highway, across the McDonald Bridge, and to the hotel, which should have taken me maybe 30-40 minutes.  I am the first to admit that I am directionally challenged.  I often say "left" when I mean "right", and vice versa, and I invariably choose to go north when I should go south, etc. etc...Today was a great example of my "disability."  I missed the McDonald Bridge totally (I didn't see any signs for it), and took the McKay Bridge, which directs traffic to a different part of Halifax.  It was rush hour, and traffic was miserably heavy.  It didn't help that I couldn't find a street sign for many of the streets that I crossed.  After driving for a short time, I did find a street that was familiar from my previous visits to Halifax, and I finally saw a directional sign for the street that would have taken me to the motel, but I made a soft left turn onto the wrong street instead of a sharp left onto the street that I needed.  At least an hour later I was still searching for the street that I needed.  Philip had already made his way to the hotel, and called to find out where I was.  After driving past familiar landmarks 2 and 3 times, and after asking for directions twice, I finally, finally found the right street, and arrived at the hotel shortly after.  I was tired and grumpy, but after getting cleaned up, I had a very relaxing evening with Philip and Pam. 

Incidentally, Pam mentioned that Nova Scotia is experiencing its warmest ever temperature for this time of the year.  Luck us...we were hoping for chilly weather.

Well, our total mileage today, 251, is a bit inflated because of the grand tour of Halifax that I unexpectedly took today.  Total cycling mileage was 48.3 miles.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 10, Monday, August 30, 2010, Kingfield, MA to Sussex, NB

We were up for a 7:30 AM breakfast at our evening's lodging, Mountain View Farm B&B Inn, in Kingfield, MA, with our host Lisa Standish serving scrambled organic eggs from her farm.  (BTW, they were the most delicious scrambled eggs I've ever eaten....)  Lisa has a super farm house with a very large barn, on 17 acres.  She has 3 dogs, and from time to time has had all sorts of farm animals, but currently has only chickens and geese.  It was obvious to us that she works very hard at both her farm and B&B. 

Last night and this morning Philip and I chatted and shared stories with the B&B's other guests, Mary and her husband Jeff who live near Atlanta.  They're probably in their mid-to-late 50s, and apparently are avid hikers.  They were in the area for a hiking trip organized by REI to hike a part of the Appalachian Trail that goes to Mount Washington, which is the highest peak in the northeastern U.S.  Their 3-day hike sounded more rigorous than I could have survived. 

The B&B building itself is sprawling and neat....and complete with spiders, which are just about my least favorite thing.  One not-so-small one dropped out of nowhere near my head while I was in the bathroom last night, and could be the same one that I felt crawling on my neck this morning!  Philip completely ignored my momentary hysteria, but not knowing the whereabouts of the spider after I flicked it off me hastened my packing and departure.  The night before I dreamed about a big snake.  I'd love to know what that means....

We left the B&B at 9 AM, and headed to Bangor, ME, and ME Rte. 9, via a Starbucks.  On the road to Rte. 9, on U.S. Hwy 2, is Philip''s favorite thing to photograph on the trip between Baton Rouge and Peggy's Cove, which is the window on a small dilapidated shed on the side of the road. The window is like a mirror, so from the road it looks a bit like a framed picture. We have at least one photograph of that window from 2 or 3 of Philip's previous cycling trips to Nova Scotia, and today is no exception.

Philip has ridden Rte. 9 on 3 of his previous cycling trips to Peggy's Cove, and really likes this road. I could tell from our map that Rte. 9 is very hilly, and I remember this hilly part of the Robert's Ride route from 2000 when I supported Philip from Virginia to Halifax. The map also showed another series of roads to the Canadian border, which were marked as scenic routes, and appeared on the map to be less hilly, but would have added 1-2 hours to our trip. I tried to convince Philip to take the other route instead of Rte. 9, but he really wanted to ride Rte. 9.

I was supposed to ride first today, but after driving the first few miles of Rte. 9, which had very long and steep ups and downs, I told Philip that he should ride first, and I would think about riding later. Rte. 9 runs about 95 miles between Bangor and Calais, ME, and Philip had planned for both of us to ride sections of Rte. 9 for today's cycling mileage.
 

Philip started his ride at about 12:45 in the afternoon. The sky was clear, and the temperature was a scorching 91 degrees, which rose to 95 degrees before Philip finished his ride. The hills on Rte. 9 are big and long, and well beyond what I felt I could handle, especially on a really hot day. Philip completed 40 miles of Rte. 9 (he's got mojo back!!) just short of the apex of the route. If he had climbed those last ugly double hill he would have sailed mostly downhill for quite a few more miles, but still with some more less-challenging hills to climb. I never felt comfortable enough with the terrain to get on my bike today, so I fell back to my old role as ace aide-to-cyclist.

We crossed the border into Canada at about 4:30 PM.  The roadway between the border and Sussex had been nicely built-up since Philip's last trip to Canada in 2005, so our drive to Sussex was a lot more efficient than it would have been 5 years ago.  We crossed into another time-zone on the drive, and arrived at our night's lodging at Jonah Place B&B in Sussex at about 7:45 PM.  After freshening up we walked to dinner at a locally-run restaurant one block away.

Today we drove 312 miles, and Philip rode 41.3 miles.  We were on the road for almost 11 hours.

Robert’s Ride 2010, Day 9, Sunday, August 29, 2010, Amherst, MA to Kingfield, ME

We left John Sprague’s at 8:20 AM, hoping to make good time to get in our cycling mileage goals, but progress was slow as usual. Our route to Kingfield was all country roads except for 7 miles on the interstate, so progress was very slow, but really tranquil and beautiful. It was going to be a long drive to the B&B where we booked a room for tonight, so we knew that we could not make our mileage goals today.

I finally got on my bike in Hanover, NH, the home of Dartmouth College, at about 12:40 in the afternoon. The day was sunny. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but it was pretty hot – 86 degrees – with low humidity. We arrived in Hanover at the tail in of a half marathon/5K/1 mile fun run. The race started at 10 AM, which is pretty late for a race start, and the remaining runners on the course were running is unsuitably hot conditions.

Philip and I chatted with a woman in the parking lot of the town’s food co-op, where I prepared to start my ride. She described the route that I was going to ride as having one big hill and then mostly downhill for the rest of the route that I was planning to ride. Sure enough, there was one big hill, and then mostly downhill from there with moderate downhill slopes and lots of smaller hills mixed in. And there was a constant head wind. The first 5.5 miles were really tough for me…still a wanna-be climber, but the road was really smooth with a huge shoulder for the first 10 miles or so. I met up with Philip again in Lyme, NH, after about 10 miles, and then carried on for another 6 miles, most of which was on the absolute worse road surface on which I’ve ever cycled, and probably the worse on which I’d ever driven….and, there was no shoulder, but thankfully there was very little traffic.

When I got off the bike in Orford, NH, Philip was ready to begin his ride. His ride was really hilly, once again, and into the wind, but early in his ride he met up with a cyclist named Tom, who had just started is 39 mile Sunday afternoon ride. Philip rode with Tom for about 9 miles on a stretch of road with no shoulder. Philip complained later that few to none of the vehicles that passed them moved over to accommodate them. Tom told Philip that there are no safety laws in NH that benefit cyclists, so you really have to ride with your wits about you. Philip has cycled these roads in NH on his early Robert’s Ride trips up to Nova Scotia, so he knows this to be true.

Philip finished his ride with 30.73 miles. It was blazing hot. He was very happy to get off the bike and into the car.

The scenery in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, through which we drove today, is beautiful – green mountains cut by rivers and creeks, covered bridges, and very old towns, many established before 1800. It’s hard to stop on country roads to take photos; there’s not always a place to pull over, and we don’t have much leisure time while trying to complete cycling mileage and drive from one night’s resting place to another.

We reached the Mountain Valley B&B in Kingfield, ME well after dark, at about 8:30 PM. We had picked up a big chicken cobb salad to-go a couple of hours back, anticipating that by the time we reached the B&B in little Kingfield there wouldn’t be any restaurants still open, and we were right.

Today we drove 315 miles, and cycled a total of 47.4. It was a 12+ hour day on the road.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 8, Saturday, August 28, 2010, Hyde Park, NY to Amherst, MA

Today is Philip's 69th birthday.  I promised myself that I would roll with whatever he wanted to do today, and be totally agreeable for the day... 

The morning was crisp (50 degrees) and sunny. We were both looking forward to the relatively short drive between Hyde Park and Amherst (126 miles or so), and hoping to accomplish our daily cycling mileage goals (20-30 for me and 40-50 for Philip), which we have managed only 1 day so far.

But we let the day slip by.  We spent far too much time at breakfast at the B&B chatting with a young couple from NJ, Rena and Gus, both of whom work in NYC. We were enjoying the conversation, and time just slipped away. We finally hit the road around 10:30, after saying goodbye to Valerie and thanking her for her generous hospitality.

I took the first ride today, beginning just across the state line in CT on US HWY 41, which was a relatively quiet country road. It WAS a good day on the bike. It was 70-74 degrees and sunny but lots of shade on the road. There was an ample shoulder, which was quite wide at some sections of the road, and the road surface was very good. Traffic was light and the speed limit was only as high as 45 mph and lower in some sections. There were rolling hills, but really it was mostly down hill. There was a cross wind but it wasn't too bad.  I graded my ride an A- ("minus" because of the rolling HILLS), until I crossed the state line into MA.  Immediately the shoulder disappeared and the road surface badly needed resurfacing. But the traffic was still light, the maximum speed limit was 45, the drivers (except for one empty-headed jerk) were considerate, and the hills weren't too bad. All-in-all, it was a great ride.

I got off the bike with 21.4 miles, and Philip got on his. He had far more climbing in his section of the ride. He rode through three ski areas, where the hills were quite steep, but he rode most of the way with a tail wind. One hill was so long and steep that he rode it in stages, stopping three times before reaching the top. The tail wind did not help.  But, still, he had a great, strong ride. He finished with 40.22 miles at Westfield, MA.  Then we drove the remaining 55 miles or so to our night's accommodation at the home of John Sprague on "Baker Rd." in Shutesbury, MA, which is a small rural community about 7 miles north of Amherst, MA.  Philip located John's accommodation on airbnb.com.

I was tired and hungry, and not interested in having to navigate dark country lanes to drive to a restaurant in Amherst and then find our way back afterwards. I wondered why Philip selected yet another place so far off the beaten path (the first being Dianne's place in Crosby, TN on Monday night, although I thoroughly enjoyed that stay), and I let him know that I was not happy about it.

Our host, John, is a charming guy, I guess in his late 40s/early 50s who admits to being an ex-hippy. He is a musician who plays string, wind and percussion instruments, and earns his living with his instruments. His place is comfortable and peaceful.  After John greeted us and showed us to our room, I reminded myself that it's Philip birthday, and I should drop the attitude, which I did. The rest of the evening was quite pleasant. We had a very good meal in Amherst at Miss Saigon, a Vietnamese restaurant, after a stop for a beer at Amherst Brewing Company.  Philip did all the driving to Amherst for dinner and back to John's, for which I was very thankful.

We drove 144 miles today, and cycled 61.6 miles.  We were on the road about 8 1/2 hours today.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 7, Friday, August 27, 2010, Rest Day, Hyde Park, NY

Today was our planned rest day--our second day in Hyde Park, hosted by my good friend Valerie Hail at her B&B.  We started the day with a designer breakfast, prepared by two graduates of the Culinary Institute of America, which is located less than a mile from Valerie's place.  I spent most of my day in Valerie's cottage on my laptop attempting to catch up on my business emails, which I had not checked since last Friday.  At the end of today I still wasn't caught up. 

Philip spent his day touring some of the local sites.  He rode his bike across the beautiful new Mid-Hudson Bridge and back.  Later he and I went to the FDR estate and toured the grounds. 

We ended the day with dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Hudson River, with Valerie and her beau Steve.  It's back to cycling tomorrow, but not until after one more designer breakfast at the B&B.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 6, Thursday, August 26, 2010, Hagerstown, MD to Hyde Park, NY

We were on the road by 7:30 AM. We each grabbed a bagel from the free motel breakfast buffet, and found a Starbucks nearby (thanks, IPhone).  Philip described the choices for today's ride and driving route.  Choice 1: old US Hwy 11 from Hagerstown, MD over the Potomac River, through Harrisburg, PA to the Susquehana River, and up towards Wilkes-Barre, PA, through the Catskill Mountains, and on to Hyde Park, our destination for tonight.  Choice 2: Carbondale, PA, over the Delaware River to Hancock, NY,  to Kingston, NY, and on towards Hyde Park.  We decided to drive 3+ hours north on Interstate 81 to Carbondale, PA and begin our ride there. Philip assured me that the ride would be scenic and mostly downhill "after reaching the top of the watershed." I was hopeful that "reaching the top" would be less challenging than yesterday's ride.

I was the first to ride.  We pulled into a Sunoco gas station on PA Hwy 171 and I got ready in the shady rear corner of the parking lot.  It was hard to calculate the exact mileage between Carbondale and Hancock from the information in our road atlas, so Philip canvassed some of the customers and workers in the gas station store.  Two of them were visitors and didn't know where Hancock is.  Two locals gave the distance in different estimates of drive time.  One local had never been to Hancock and so didn't know.  Another guy asked his buddy, who finally gave Philip a mileage estimate of about 30 miles.  Philip tried to convince me to ride the entire distance.  I decided not to commit, but to wait and see.

The traffic on that road was fairly light, and there seemed to be an ample shoulder, so I felt pretty comfortable starting out.  As I started out, I immediately tried to change to the small ring of my crank for easier peddling, and realized, to my dismay, that I was already in the small ring.   This was not a good sign. 

Sure enough, it was mostly uphill peddling, with a head wind, for the first 15 miles or so.  The shoulder soon disappeared or was broken up.  Some parts of the road were worse.  I had been spoiled by 5 days on the beautiful roads of the Natchez Trace and Blue Ridge Parkway.  I was too busy huffing and puffing today to see any scenery.  But the traffic was light, and I consoled myself that I was developing climbers legs.  At each point on the road where Philip had leap-frogged ahead, he kept saying that the downhill sections were just ahead.  But where-o-where were they. 

I decided that I would give today's ride a "D", until I turned off Hwy 171 onto Hwy 370 heading for Hancock, NY.  Philip was there at the corner.  I gave him an ear full about the climbing (Philip calls it "bitching"), but he insisted that it would be downhill from here to the PA-NY state line just up the road.  Finally he was right.  I was screaming (not literally this time) down hill at 32 mph.  That was indeed enjoyably scary.  Of course if there are downhills, there are up hills.  I wanted to finish my 20-mile goal for today.  At 19.5 miles I was at the base of a long hill, and had to decide whether to wimp out or carry on.  I decided to carry on, and finished the climb.  I gave that stretch of road a C+.  Philip wanted me to stay on the bike until the state line, which, he again assured me, was all down hill.  I started peddling again, downhill, uphill, downhill.  By 24 miles, I'd had enough of both and ingnored further encouragement to reach the state line, so Philip decided to begin his ride there.

Supporting a cyclist on country roads with lots of intersecting roads is not an easy task, especially if you are direction-challenged as I am.  Philip had ridden these roads on his previous Robert's Rides up to Halifax, so he knew them well.  For me, I went from the anxiety of riding on the road, to the anxiety of loosing my rider.  So I drove only short distances ahead of Philip and kept asking him to confirm his route.   If you loose your rider because you take a wrong turn, and if there's no cell phone signal to call the rider (which was the case), well, you probably get the picture. 

As soon as he started his ride, Philip realized that his rear brakes were rubbing the wheel.  The brake calipers had bound up from exposure to rain on top the car.  His hopes of a perfect ride down into Hancock were not to be.  We stopped in the tiny town just before the state line and tried to find a nearby bike shop, but the nearest one was several miles away in NY.  After a few minutes of tinkering, Philip fixed the problem himself with his little handy pocket tool kit.  From there he decided to ride until 4:30, so that we'd have enough drive time to arrive at our friend Valerie's B&B in Hyde Park by 7:00.  Philip tore into his ride, with the wind at his back (not fair!).  Instead of continuing his ride on country roads, he rode one 11 mile stretch on NY Rt 17, which was a huge highway, like an interstate, but with 55 mph speed limit and a huge shoulder.  I thought he was nuts, but he was able to make really good time.  I leaped-frogged ahead several times, until he found me asleep in the car at 4:20.  He got off the bike there, with 26.7 miles.  From there we drove to Valerie's place.

Valerie's B&B is called Le Petit Chateau Inn (http://www.lepetitchateauinn.com/).  She and I have know each other since my years in law school in Austin in the mid-80s -- she was the librarian at the county law library, and I had a part-time job doing research requested by inmates at the county jail.  Valerie's B&B is very nice.  Philip has stayed at her B&B on 2 previous Robert's Rides.  He had originally planned that we would stay at Valerie's B&B for one night, and camp for two nights in Brattleboro, VT (one of his favorite places) where we would take our rest day.  When he told me his plan, it took me a milli-second to suggest that we should take our rest day at the B&B instead of in a tent in Brattleboro (dah!)

It was great to see Valerie again; it's been about 10 years since I'd seen her, but we have stayed in touch, and she's a loyal supporter of Robert's Ride.  After settling in our very comfortable room, she and her beau Steve and Philip and I had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant call Twist.  All of the dishes have a bit of a twist of the unexpected--some unusual but delicious flavor.  Hyde Park, NY is the home of the Culinary Institute of America.  The chefs at Twist, and the chefs who prepare breakfast at the B&B, are graduates of the Institute.  We're in for a treat for tomorrow's breakfast.

Today we drove 370 miles and cycled 50.7 miles.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 5, Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Salem, VA to Hagerstown, MD

It was still raining when we packed up the car this morning to head back to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it stopped by the time we had fueled up at Starbucks and bought more ice for the ice chests.  It was a slightly chilly morning (64 degrees) with heavy mist hanging over the higher elevations of the Parkway as we drove to the start of today's ride. 

Philip took the first ride today.  He started at mile marker 77 at about 10:30 AM with arm and leg warmers and a vest.  He rode to mile marker 63 at James River, which is a beautiful spot. 

We chatted there with a guy from Illinois who was about Philip's age, I guess, who was also cycling parts of the Parkway but wasn't on his bike today.   He eventually turned the conversation to politics and got an opposing view from Philip.  Philip quickly changed the subject, and they chatted for a few more seconds about wood turning before our new acquaintance announced abruptly that he had to go.  Very strange.

There was also a couple of  young guys at James River whom we had seen earlier cycling very slowly up a steep incline as we drove to Philip's starting point.  We chatted with them for a while.  One was from Ohio and the other from nearby Roanoke.  They were headed to Washington, DC and points beyond, with probably 50 pounds of gear on each of their bike.  They didn't seem to be worried about how long their travels might take.

I drove Philip to mile marker 50.  He wanted to skip the steep climb between the two legs of his ride.  The elevation profiles that he downloaded showed only a few moderate climbs, but, like yesterday, the information wasn't accurate.  He had quite a few challenging climbs.  He reflected on an attempt that he made back in the early 90's to ride 200 miles a day on the Blue Ridge Parkway and complete the length of the Parkway in 3 days.  "I didn't do it then and today to get 50 miles was extremely difficult."

When he arrived at mile marker 20, I was ready to ride.  I was planning to ride to the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway, for a total of 20 miles.  It was still a bit chilly so I added arm warmers.  Philip rode the first 2.5 miles with me and then turned around so that he could finish with at least 50 miles.  All of the climbs were challenging to me, a flat lander.  There were many climbs; one was at least 2 miles.  I was ever so glad that I asked Philip to change my double crank to a triple before we left home.  Even so, I probably averaged 6 mph on the uphills, which were fewer than the descents.  Today I felt a lot more secure about descending without constantly gripping the brake levers, since the traffic was very light with a 45 mph speed limit, and I didn't have to worry about a narrow shoulder.  I clocked 30 mph at one point.  Things were going pretty good, but I could see ugly rain clouds ahead.  At about 11 miles the sky opened.  The support vehicle was nowhere in sight, and I was going way to fast downhill to stop safely.  It had to ride a couple of miles in heavy rain before the road leveled out so that I could stop.  I took shelter under a large-leafed tree and wondered where the [expletive deleted] was the support vehicle.  I did occur to me that back at mile marker 20 where Philip was probably leisurely eating lunch, it wasnt' raining.  I waited about 10 minutes before he showed up, but by then it was only barely drizzling.  I decided to ride on, but I was soaked and the ride was pretty fast downhill for the next couple of miles and I was cold.  It started to pour rain again.  Philip turned up again immediately, and I decided to throw in the towel.  I had completed 15.6 miles.  And wouldn't you guess...as soon as I had changed into my dry driving clothes the sun came out.  I decided not to get back on the bike, so we headed to tonight accommodation in Hagerstown, MD.  We stopped at Ruby Tuesday for dinner, same as last night.  They have a pretty good salad bar, and free refiles of fresh lemonade or tea with berries.  It is our choice of restaurant for dinner for the time being.

Today we rode 282 miles and cycled 65.6 miles.

Robert’s Ride 2010, Day 4, Tuesday, August 24, 2010, Cosby, TN to Salem, VA

I didn’t occur to Philip and me until we were sitting at the breakfast table this morning that we lost an hour and were now in the Eastern Time Zone, which meant that we were already behind whatever schedule we have been trying (without success so far) to establish for our trip. After an equally delicious breakfast and a walk through the morning dew and cobwebs towards the back of Dianne’s property where there is an abandoned log cabin built about 100 years ago, we packed up the Passat wagon and hit the road, to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Philip told Dianne that he would put me on the bike at the first downhill section on the Parkway, which sounded OK to me, until Dianne told me how incredibly steeply downhill that section is. After yesterday’s scary descent on US Hwy 321, which is probably really tame in comparison to the hill that Philip had in mind for my ride today, I thanked Dianne for her warning, and suggested to Philip that he ride first today, and I’d ride later in the day further up the Blue Ridge Parkway where the elevation changes are less dramatic.

We spent the first 1 ½ hours or so on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the new Visitor Center at mile marker 397, and then at the Folk Art Center at mile marker 380 (the Parkway begins north near Waynesboro, VA, and ends south at mile marker 465 near Cherokee, NC). The Folk Art Center has a fabulous collection of crafts made by artist from the Appalachian region, and is one of Philip’s favorite places. So, we dropped a bit of time there.

Philip finally started his ride at about 1:30 at mile marker 364 at the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center.

Philip studied the profile of the Parkway that he printed from the Internet, which showed a mostly downhill ride for 37 miles from this point, and then a serious climb. So he planned to ride the 37 mile stretch, get back in the car, and finish his ride further up the Parkway where the climbs weren’t so steep. However, like most profiles, the information wasn’t detailed enough. There were good downhill sections, but there was a lot of climbing. Later, after studying an elevation chart that we got at the Visitor Center, Philip calculated that he climbed 3700 feet in 37 miles. It was a cloudy day, and it did rain a little, which dropped the temperature to 64 degrees, so Philip grabbed his rain jacket from the car at one of the scenic overlooks where I had leap-frogged to wait for him to ride past. He got off the bike at 37 miles, which took him 2 hours and 45 minutes. His bike computer showed that his average speed was 13.9 mph and average power was 475 watts.

We drove 391 miles today, and cycled 37 miles.

Our schedule for completing our goal for cycling miles each day (about 2 hours for me and 4 hours for Philip), and the number of miles that we need to drive to our night’s accommodation, hasn’t worked out so far. After Philip got off the bike at about 4:15, he calculated that we had at least 4 hours of driving to do to reach Salem, VA, where we had made reservations for the night. So, Philip didn’t finish his ride, and I didn’t ride at all. Driving the 4 hours to Salem was the pits. There was one section of road that began with the sign “switchbacks next 22 miles”, which was beautiful, but exhausting to drive. The last 142 miles were on Interstate 81 in rain, which was a real vacation buster. Maybe by the time that we reach Halifax we will have worked out this cycling/driving thing.

Robert’s Ride 2010, Day 3, Monday, August 23, 2010, Franklin, TN to Cosby, TN

Today didn’t go as planned. It’s a bit impossible to get on the road “on time’ when you’re visiting with good friends. And I didn’t find the time to update the blog. Jayne and Kevin served up a wonderful breakfast, and the conversations were way too interesting. And Jacques continued his insistence from the night before that we should stay for at least a couple more days. Despite Kevin and Jayne’s clear directions to get us to an AT&T store (phone issues) and on our route for today, avoiding the interstate, we (I) lost our way almost immediately.. and so went the rest of the day. It was about 1 PM when I finally got on my bike, on a twisty turny part of US Hwy 321 between Crossville and Rockwood, TN. Immediately I was screaming (literally) down a steep descent faster than I’d every ridden before, on a very narrow shoulder, gripping the brake levers has tight as I could. It was SCARY. But the traffic wasn’t heavy, and I didn’t go over the guard rail. My bike computer wasn’t working so I have no idea how fast I was going. The elevation eventually leveled out, and I had a good ride until the shoulder disappeared. I threw in the towel at about 18 miles. It wasn’t a good place for Philip to start his ride, so we drove on...and lost our way...and found our way...and lost our way. By this time we were behind schedule for our ETA at our night’s accommodation in Cosby, TN, so Philip didn’t get to ride today. So, he’ll need to make up the mileage tomorrow...maybe.

We followed US HWY 321 to TN 73 to reach Little River Road in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. That was a lovely drive, until we reached Gatlinburg, which is not so lovely. We spent the night at the home of a lovely and interesting lady, Dianne, whose accommodation Philip found on www.airbnb.com (check it out). Her place is WAY off the beaten path, and absolutely charming and rustic and QUIET. Dianne prepared a delicious pasta meal for dinner, and was a very gracious host. There was no Internet access for my laptop, so, again, no blog entry was posted today. No photos taken today, either.

Today we drove 291 miles, and rode only 18 miles.

Robert’s Ride 2010, Day 2, Sunday, August 22, 2010, Aberdeen, MS to Franklin, TN

Our night’s rest in Aberdeen was about 50 miles off the Natchez Trace. The Best Western Motel where we slept could be “best” described leaving off “Best”. Our choices for nearby dining were Wendy’s and Sonic. We settled for Wendy’s, where we were warned to be watchful for clubbers crossing the highway on our drive back to the motel.... Question: Why do clubbers cross the highway? Answer: To get to the other side???
We left the motel at 7 AM and headed north.  Philip searched for left-over Saturday night blues on the radio. He found a good radio station. This song, “I'm glad that she gave me the blues, because I found you” stuck in our minds. When that station faded, we found Elvis singing “Daddy don’t cry” as we drove to Tupelo.

I started my ride back on the Trace at 8:40 AM. at mile marker 278, north of Tupelo.  It was another beautiful day on the trace – sunny and hot, but maybe 5 degrees less hot than yesterday. There was a definite head wind, and more climbing. The climbing was OK, since I kept reminding myself that we are headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the Appalachian MOUNTAINS. I got off the bike after 25.6 miles, in 1 hour 48 minutes, at mile marker 303.

Today Philip and I were a bit more coordinated. Philip was ready to begin his ride when I got off my bike, so he was able to start riding a couple of hours earlier in the day than yesterday. The head wind was a factor for Philip today, too, but he had a good ride. He finished at mile marker 353 with 50.32 miles in 3 hours, 43 minutes. From there we drove to Leiper’s Fork, almost at the terminus of the Natchez Trace, and arrived at the Franklin home of our evening’s hosts, Jayne and Kevin Thibodeaux, at about 5:30 PM. We finished the day with dinner with Jayne & Kevin, their boys Jacques (5) and Jean Pierre (7 months), and my brother Carl, who lives in College Grove, at Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant. The food was pretty good!

We drove 246 miles today, and cycled 75.9 miles.

Robert's Ride 2010, Day 1, Saturday, Aug 21, 2010, Baton Rouge, LA to Aberdeen, MS

On the road again......Day 1 was a beautiful, sunny, and very hot day.  I began the first miles of Robert's Ride 2010 on the Natchez Trace at mile marker 0 at about 8:30AM.  It was a glorious ride with gentle inclines and fun down slops, very few vehicles, and still quite a bit of shade at that time of the morning.  The Natchez Trace is truly an American treasure, especially for cyclist.  We saw quite a few cyclist on the road today.  Philip kept his promise to my mother and kept a watchful eye on me in leap frog fashion until I finished my ride.  After 1hr 45 minutes of leisure riding, I called it quits at 27.3 miles.  I got back in the car and Philip drove to the Reservoir Overlook near mile marker 105, north of Jackson, where he started his ride.  By then it was about 12:40 PM and brutally hot.  He had unexpected company for most of his ride from a guy named Angus from North Carolina, who pulled up in his mini van while Philip was prepping for his ride.  Angus is a pretty big guy, who, it turned out, is a former Olympic rower.  He and Philip made good time on the road until Angus turned around after about 22 miles to return to his van.  Philip was riding with only one water bottle, while I left the Trace to look for ice for his Camel Back.  By the time I caught up with Philip, he had ridden at least two hours and was pretty sun whipped.  There was very little shade by then, and the temperature topped out to 97 degrees (Angus had a thermometer on his bike).  Philip's water bottle was near empty.  (I have much improvement to do in my support role...)Philip got about 20 more miles, and finished near the 146 mile marker for a total of 42 miles.  His computer wasn't working, so he doesn't know his total time. 

We drove 396 miles today, and cycled a total of 69.3 miles.

Gifts made from Robert's Fund in August 2010

On August 10, 2010, Robert's Fund made gifts to St. Aloysius Child Care Center, Volunteers of America Parker House, and Baton Rouge Children's Advocacy Center.

St. Aloysius Child Care Center is the day care center that cared for infant Robert Martin Maillet. St. Aloysius Child Care Center provides care for children ages 6 months to 5 years.

Shown here are Philip and Goldie with Bonnie Hyfield, Director of St. Aloysius Child Care Center

 

Volunteers of America Parker House is a residential treatment facility in Baton Rouge for up to 10 children ages 3-13 who have been abused, neglected, and/or abandoned, and placed in the care or legal custody of the State. Parker House primarily serves foster children with a history of severe emotional impairments/behavioral disorders that preclude their successful placement with a family.

Show here are Philip and Goldie with Allison Traxler, Chief Development Officer of Volunteers of America of Greater Baton Rouge, and Susan Butler, Director of Parker House.

Baton Rouge Children's Advocacy Center serves abused children in four parishes in southern Louisiana. The center coordinates the investigation, judicial, social service, and mental and medical health systems that respond to reports of child abuse, with the goal to lessen the trauma experienced by child victims when abuse allegations are investigated.

Show here are Philip and Goldie with Sharon Pol, Director of Marketing and Development.

 

On August 13, 2010, Robert's Fund made a gift to McMain's Children Development Center, a multi-disciplinary treatment center serving 12 parishes in southern Louisiana, which helps children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities, such as sensory processing, severe speech and learning disabilities, AD/HD, and autism.

Shown here are Philip and Goldie with  Janet Ketcham, Director of the Center.