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It was a short night for everyone as we found out in the morning. The boys had stayed up past midnight and Sarah and Curtis had a different kind of thunderstorm in the house than we did outside. Sarah had hot coffee waiting for us, though, and that helped boost all our energy levels.
There was another wrinkle that day besides getting the boys fed and back home. Curtis’ aunt had passed and they were heading to the memorial service in the late morning. Dana headed out for a run and I stayed back and worked on drying the tent, packing up the camping stuff in the car, and catching up on the blog.
When Dana returned and got her shower, we went to a local thrift store that Curtis and Sarah both raved about. It was quite a busy place: huge, with lots and lots of stuff that kept us occupied for an hour — of just looking — we had enough stuff to take back with us. After that, we went shopping for provisions for dinner. Sarah is a chef, so we wouldn’t be cooking any of it, but we did want to have everything ready for her. On our return, everyone was home and I helped Curtis unload a Leslie speaker he had bought at a different thrift shop. The Leslie will compliment the Hammond Organ Curtis has. This one looked to be highly modified by someone, but we plugged it in and watched the baffle rotate and all the tubes light up. Didn’t get a chance to test it with an actual input, but it was a fun exercise. At some point that afternoon, we all caught little naps, too.
That evening, Curtis started the charcoal, Sarah prepped the salmon and corn, and Dana and I worked on a salad. We had dinner outside and were joined by Curtis’ cousin Merlin who we had met last year. Delicious dinner and great conversations and we went to bed sated in many ways.
Sunday morning (Day 28), Dana went for a run/walk, and after more great coffee and a hearty breakfast, I worked on packing up the car and loading the bikes. Dana got back and showered and we finished packing (except for the one food bag I left in the cooler which she won’t let me forget about now!). We thanked Sarah, Curtis, and Elam for putting up with us (and the car that sat there for almost a month), said our good-byes, and hit the road for PA.
We got back home around 11 pm and unloaded Dana’s stuff and the perishables and went to bed. Next day, I went to my house and unloaded, and then, having not ridden for two whole days, we went on a 40 miler to Spring Mills on our road bikes. They felt particularly squirrelly to us being so light and quick, but the old muscle memory came back soon. That about wraps it up for this tour. Stats, of course, are below with a pic of our route. Thanks to everyone who supported us and those who kept the home fires burning (Sarah, Xavier, Lisa, Stephen, & Debbie) and thanks for following our travels! Next adventure? Who knows? Stay tuned!
Stats: 28 days; 1300 miles; 35,773 ft of climbing; Average 50 miles per day; 10.6 average MPH; 12 days with rain; 7 days of riding in the rain;
Lodging: Camped 14 days; Motel-ed 7 days; Warmshowers Hosts 3 days; Friends & 1 Road Angel 4 days;
Oh, and we had some new equipment on this tour. We had been using our phones for guidance, and we still use RideWithGPS to map our routes and record the actuals. However, we both got a fancy new iGPSport BSC500 unit that saved our phone batteries and gave us a good trail to follow and good guidance. It’s 25hr battery is enough to last three touring days before recharging. It will also work with power meters, heart monitors, and other ANT devices, but we have none of those, so I can’t comment on how well it works with them.
To compliment that, we added the iGPSport SR mini-Radar light which alerts us to traffic coming up from behind — it also only flashes when traffic is detected and when they are close to passing. That saves the battery and it can last for two or three days before recharging. I can highly recommend both, and they are much less out-of-pocket than a Garmin or Wahoo and work much the same.
The last new item is a pair of AI sunglasses — I didn’t use them for the AI, but the built-in camera allowed me to capture some shots that would’ve gone by too fast if I was fumbling for the camera. Not the sleekest looking things (think “fitsovers”), but they worked well as sunglasses and adequately as a camera.
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