Day 43, Monday, August 11.
Abington, CT to Sandy Neck Beach, MA
Daily Mileage: 95.62 miles
Total Mileage: 3,874.6 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 5:48 hours
Average Speed: 16.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 37.4 mph
Today we woke up and began to eat some of the 100 pounds of food. We went into David's parent's room to watch the news, eat and read the paper. Around 8:30AM we hopped back in the van to make the return trip to where we ended the day before. After stretching and putting on sunscreen to the accompaniment of camera clicks, we began to ride our fully loaded bike for the final time. We rode them for about ten minutes while David’s parents went up ahead and positioned themselves to take actions shots of us on our bikes. It was hard to keep a straight face as we passed them running across the street and snapping pictures—very unlike what we were used to. We finally unloaded our packs after about five to ten miles. That’s when the real fun began as we started to fly down the road. Everything had come together to give us a great day. The weather was incredible, we had unloaded bikes, David’s parents were sagging for us, and we were pumped because it was our last full day and tomorrow we were going to pull onto the beach and finish our trip.
We started by crossing into Rhode Island. It was the first state sign in which we had a photo shoot. David’s parents took about eight pictures of us with the state sign, which was extremely funny since it was the smallest state through which we were biking. Rhode Island's roads were in poor condition always we need the smoothest roads, downhill and into the cities. We stopped about every ten to fifteen miles, but when we rode we flew. Pretty soon we were in Providence, which proved to be a huge pain.
David’s parents went ahead of us to scout out a better way to cross the river so David and I were able to keep riding until we met up with them again. Unfortunately, we got into the city sooner than they expected so we ended up stopping to wait for them to return. I thought for sure we were on the wrong road and that they would never find us, but eventually we found each other. We ate in a Burger King parking lot while still trying to figure out a way across the river that didn’t involve another Interstate trek. Eventually though, we decided that we were going straight across.
This was even scarier than our last bridge and Interstate experience—five lanes of traffic on our side with many, many merging lanes coming from all over the place. It was busy, scary and a huge adrenalin rush! It was also the longest time we spent on an Interstate. Once we crossed the bridge our exit was right there waiting for us. We met up with David’s parents and told them that it was one of those experiences of the trip that you wish your parents hadn’t been there to witness. For the most part, David and I were riding in the shoulder, but there were so many lanes merging that it made the whole experience all the more exciting. With every new approaching lane of traffic we'd throw out our arm in the direction that we needed to go and start moving. You know, besides the fast, heavy traffic, and the constant fear of death mixed with amusement park-like excitement, the people were very polite. No one honked their horn or cut us off, all in all a very pleasant environment for us to work in. David’s mom said that she didn't watch us cross since she knew what his dad had to do to drive in it. Fortunately though, David’s dad took out his camera and telephoto lens once they got to the other side and said he got some good shots of a blue and yellow dot (our jersey colors) in a sea of traffic.
From the gas station where we currently were it was only three miles to our next state, and last state, Massachusetts! From that point we rode like the wind. The closer we got to Cape Cod, the more excited we became. Our last stretch on the mainland was seventeen miles, and we continued to fly to the Cape Cod Canal.
The first thing we encountered on our trek to the bridge was a rotary perhaps more dangerous than the interstate. The traffic was pretty insane crossing the bridge, which by the way, was huge. The incline wasn't too steep, but the bridge still had to be tall enough for ocean-going vessels to travel beneath it. There was a rather high sidewalk on the side of the bridge, raised at least a foot or two above the roadway, so we road on it for a bit. It was a bit scary because it wasn't very wide and the wind was so strong it was hard to keep the bike on the sidewalk, not to mention, this was a busy bridge with constant four-lane traffic. At the apex of the bridge David and I stopped to look around. We held onto the fence and looked out over the canal, the island, and all the way to the ocean. It was here that I had realized what we had done and the hairs on my neck stood up as I looked out at the ocean.
We coasted down the bridge and were greeted by a Cape Cod welcome sign made from shrubs. Our plan was to take the highway along the island until we reached our turn off at the Shady Neck Beach tonight, about twenty miles away. We wound our way along the coast of the Bay through the thick traffic. We made the turn off for the beach and proceeded the mile down the road to a parking lot. When we arrived, we piled the bikes back into the van and started back for the motel. Right as we were pulling into the motel parking lot our cell phone rang—it was Doug, Lauren and Rob calling from Rhode Island, and they were going to be able to join us for the final day of our trip
After dinner, we picked up some postcards and Dunkin' Donuts and then went back to the motel to sit on the porch and wait for Doug and the crew to arrive. When they finally arrived, we all talked for a while until we were about ready to collapse. We hadn't seen Rob since he dropped us off on the West Coast and left us for dead. And Lauren, the girl who taught us to shave our legs, we hadn't seen since leaving Cincinnati seven weeks ago. Target time to be riding in the morning was 8AM—I never thought we'd make it though.
(Photos: The “Welcome to Rhode Island” and “Welcome to Massachusetts” signs. It was pointed out when the photos were printed that while David was actually kissing the Massachusetts sign, I on the other hand, was laughing too hard and didn’t actually make contact. I was still glad to be there.)
