Tales of a Last-Minute Sally

In keeping with my habit of waiting 'til the last (and I mean VERY last) minute to get things done, I figured I would finally blog about our Memory Ride training rides from the past few weeks (OK, months). When last I blogged (back in May!!??), I mentioned we had 3 rides to report on, but then I only blogged about two of them (Mother's day and San Francisco). The 3rd ride was a really nice 30-mile loop that Ta, Neddie and I did in the Concord/Carlisle area. We came upon this monument in Concord Center:

Then Ta and I got ... well, let's just say distracted with a certain real estate transaction. But while we were on the Cape we did manage to get in a few rides... one long one out to P-town and back and a few shorter ones out to Lt. Island. We stopped in at Wellfleet Bay and visited Charlie's spot:

Back in Boston, we went on another ~25mile ride with Neddie, this time on the South shore/ Blue Hills area. My guess is they're called "Blue" Hills after the color your face turns while trying to climb up them. Aside from oxygen deprivation, this ride was notable for two things: 1) Ta's first wipe-out of the season; 2) a certain street sign we came upon:

Two weekends ago Ned, Ta and I did our last training ride together, a really pretty 40-mile loop on the North shore in Ipswitch/Essex/Manchester. We wrapped up the ride at Singing beach where we dipped our tootsies in the chilly Atlantic.

Not only am I a last-minute-Sally blogger, but I'm also last minute when it comes to training. The 40-mile North shore ride with Ta & Ned made me realize how woefully underprepared for the big ride I was. I had to work last weekend so I wasn't able to do any rides. So this past week I went into panic mode. Monday I put my bike on the back of my Mini, drove to a commuter rail station about 20 miles away from work and rode in from there. OMG, Worcester county has some serious hills. Let's just say, Monday was a short work day... it took me 2 hrs to ride in and 1.5 to ride back, so I think I was only at work for an hour or two. Tuesday was wicked rainy here so I just put my bike on the trainer in the basement and rode for about 45min. Wednesday I did a 40-mile portion of the Memory Ride route. And, yes, it did include the dreaded "6 miles of crying". The good news is that it's definitely do-able, but it is tough. My advice is don't over think it, cause you'll psych yourself out... just take it one hill at a time. Yesterday, I did a quick out and back on the Minuteman path, which is about 20miles, easy flat riding. I did that mostly to just re-inforce the work I had done earlier in the week. I thought it would be completely uneventful, but then I decided to have what I'm calling a "sympathy crash" for Polly. I completely scraped up my knee and got a big bruise on my tussic.

Today, I decided to take the day off and rest my weary bones.

I think I might be ready...

Belated Tales from Nova Scotia

So thanks to some handy work by Brendan I have rescued about 90% of my pictures from the trip and can now report back in full technicolor. (n.b. lupins are ubiquitous in the Acadian scenery.)

Yes, there was quite a bit of rain up in The North Country and I was wishing I had splurged for those waterproof shoe protectors at REI but once you accept the rain its not that bad. And all told I was in pretty good biking weather most of the time; not too sunny, not too humid, not too cold.

The first day there I just did a short 45 mile loop not too far from Yarmouth but after spending the next day in a rental car driving the Fundy Coast I decided to take the plunge and do my 4-day loop in 3 days. From Yarmouth to Barrington day 1, Barrington to lervely Trout Point Lodge on day 2 and back to Yarmouth on the final day.
Here I am on the first day's trial run looking very contented. This was before I rode right into a serious black cloud of pummeling rain. (see storm clouds in next picture)

So one nice thing I discovered is that my new panniers come with their own little yellow raincoats. Isn't that handy? If only my shoes did too.








The weather seemed nice enough the day I left and the forecast looked the best it had been all week. But of course as soon as I turned onto the first major road, the deluge came and I was soaked before I could even don my terrible outfit.

You can't see my booties too well here but yes, those are plastic bags on my feet. They did the job well enough and after 12 or so miles of rain it started to clear up and I had dried off by mid day.

Most of the first day was along what is called the 'lighthouse route'. It was a lovely road through many a quaint seaside village, although I only saw a couple lighthouses.
I did pass by the site of the famous (?) Shag Harbor 1967 UFO incident. Alas I could find no UFO.
After the sun came out I found a place called Creamy Treat and finally discovered the joy of ice cream and cycling. I don't know why I was such a hater before.




After a night at a pretty boring motel in Barrington I headed out in the early mist (see the picture at top) for my longest day of the trip. I was pretty worried about the climb on this day coupled with the distance but it turned out to be a very low grade and gradual climb and once I decided to put it in the 2nd gear I cruised most of the way. And awaiting me at the end was a stay at the very relaxing and beautiful Trout Point Lodge. Gourmet food, river swimming, hot tub on the bank of the river, and a Swedish massage. Every cyclist's dream.
I thought the final day would be the easiest since it was the shortest and I had an hour long massage that morning but the checkout person cautioned me that it was pretty hilly on the way back to Yarmouth and she was not lying.

All in all, it was a great trip that I recommend to all. While there are not very good shoulders on the roads up there most drivers are very courteous to if slightly confused by cyclists and the roads overall were in good shape. I realized I really like the idea of touring - of biking to a new place each night rather than just looping immediately back to where you started and I am already starting to hatch plans for my next bike tour. I've also found that the best way to do it is to stay at nice hotels with really good food. So....who's in?

We're here!

Not wanting to make Polly feel so lonely, I thought I'd make a quick blog post to point out that Team Charlie is once again on the fund raising leader board in 4th place!
I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'm definitely finding it a bit harder to reach my goal this year. But the totals are creeping up little by little.

How's everyone doing with the riding part? Nancy and I have done a fair amount of training but nowhere near what we did last year. I'm hoping that's ok since a) we're in better shape and b) I probably over-trained last year since I was nervous I couldn't do it.

Can't wait to see everyone - just a bit more than 2 weeks!