August 7, 2022 on
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At breakfast we continued with last night’s conversations. As Colin had builders and an electrician coming that day to work on his house, we bid Colin good-bye and he gave Dana a big home grown Avacado and a few hard boiled eggs for her lunch. We packed up and headed into town to get some cooking gas and visit the local bike shop as I still needed to have some work done on my bike.
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Another good night’s sleep and we got up to bid Theresa adieu as she had to leave to visit a sick friend. Darren fixed up breakfast and we got everything together and bid him goodbye, too carrying a couple of apples and a banana courtesy of Darren. We stopped in “downtown” Te Awamutu to visit the hardware store and get some gas for our camp stove as we hadn’t confirmed a stay that night and our backup was to camp at Lake Ngaroto. No gas at the store!
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After a good night’s sleep and some breakfast, we headed out on our way to Te Kauwhata and our Warmshowers hosts, Darren & Theresa.
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We arrived in Auckland Friday the 30th at 6 AM after completely losing Thursday due to crossing the International Date Line. The flight from Baltimore to Houston was 3 1/2 hours, an hour and a half in the terminal in Houston, and a 14 1/2 hour flight from Houston to Auckland. Not very restful, but uneventful as all good flights are. It took some time to get through customs as they need to check our tent for biological pathogens. The tent passed, as did all our luggage, and within an hour we were outside the airport in the 75 degree weather putting the bikes back together.
Continue readingOur new adventure takes us to New Zealand for three weeks, then to Australia for five weeks. Much of our time since the Holidays has been spent planning and packing, though if you asked us what our exact plans are, the answer would be, “Dunno, exactly.” Roughly, we’re flying from BWI to Auckland NZ, cycling through the North Island to Wellington, ferrying to the South Island and flying out of Christchurch to Melbourne.
In Australia, we’re hoping to visit Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane (and the Gold and Sun Coasts) and the Great Barrier reef. Flying a bit blind, so to speak, but we’re building on our recent upper Midwest tour and what we’ve learned about New Zealanders and Australians, and we expect we’ll be just fine.
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This is a long-delayed summary of our Dakotas trip. We’re about to embark on another epic tour, so I thought it time to get this one summarized before we start the next.
Continue reading“The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.” — Henry David Thoreau
48 miles cycling, 30′ of climbing (3682.2 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
Slow morning for me as Dave went off to work. I made some coffee and started to pack up. Dana was slow moving too, but we met at her cousin Tony’s and got going about 11. It was overcast, and there was a threat of rain, but the future radar showed just light rain passing through for our ride back to State College.
Continue reading24.8 miles cycling, 213′ of climbing (3633.6 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
We got up at midnight and finished packing, stripped the bed, fetched the bikes from the garage, and carried our panniers to the bikes. Then it was a dark, but warm, ride to the Amtrak station. It was a good thing that we found it yesterday, because finding that station in the dark would’ve proved daunting. Not in a very accessible place. We checked in and got baggage tags for the bike, and settled in for the long wait until boarding. The train was about 1/2 hr late, so the wait would be a bit longer.
Continue reading14.4 miles cycling, 348′ of climbing (3628.8 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
Bobbi had coffee ready for us and sausages and a bagel for me. Dana went for a run and I caught up on my blog, while Mark and Bobbi attended to their daily activities. At noon, we headed out on our bag-free bikes to ride to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), just 4 miles from the house. The only down side was that there was a Cleveland Browns game and the stadium is right next to the RRHOF.
Continue reading46.7 miles cycling, 766′ of climbing (3614.4 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
David whipped up some delectable blueberry pancakes and we shared another great morning repast, toured their camper and took a walk down to the lake. No F.L.A.T.s this morning, thankfully, and the best part was having David and Mary escort us the first 10 miles to Cleveland.
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