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We have been in Connecticut for the last couple of days, just left the state a moment ago, crossing the border into New York.  OH MY GOD!  I have never seen (or felt) hills like this in all my life (and I am not just being dramatic…)  It has been a physical challenge unlike anything I’ve experienced before on a bicycle.  This is also our first four consequtive day of riding with no break or soft cushy bed.  We are getting very strong.  We have also been enduring intense heat and sun with a promise of our first day of rain tommorro…but you never really know.  We have also been staying in some of the most interesting campgrounds either of us have ever seen.  It appears as though folks own thier RV sites and set up shop for the whole summer and it looks like a little competition for who can have the tackiest lawn ornaments (christmas lights and copius flags included).  But it is amazing.  All these campsites have “wilderness sites,” allowing us to camp among the tall pines and maples.  It has been so beautiful.  Connecticut is so beautiful.  Today we rode past the appalachian trail and talked to an angry Italian man at the health food store who seemed to hate America…but he lives here..  We met two other guys from Pennsylvania yesterday on recumbent bicycles who are making their way to Bar Harbor.  It was nice to see that we weren’t the only crazy ones out there, and to swap stories for a little while, even though they seemed a little shy…TOday we are only riding thirty miles, we have done most of our work for the day and are beating the heat at the library.  WE only get 30 minuetes on the computer, so we may not have time to post any pictures.  Okay, here are the pictures.

 

Alexa in her comfy clothes 

And here are some of our journal entries from the past week:

Anthony 9/5/07

THe last two days since we left Bonnie and PHillipe’s house in Cambridge have been good.  Wehave had ideal weather and we have averaged about 40 miles a day.  YEsterday, we made it to Ayer, MA and stayed in a campground that was a litttle pricey, but it was nice and we made a fire, played some music, and went to sleep as the night became somewhat cold.  During the day we rode out of cambridge and rode to the decordova sculpture musuem.  It was a great break and the art was fascinating. 

 

The Man listening to the Earth (eerily resembling the man painting the Ouellett’s house in Portsmouth.) 

Then we went to Walden pond and swam again and spoke to a man who had toured quite a bit himself.  It was inspiring to hear his stories and reap all the advice we could from him.  We went to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s houseand went to a cafe in Concord, MA where I knitted and Alexa sewed and we had come caffeine and a cookie.

Today we left Ayer and headed to a bike store in Westborough to see about the wobble in Alexa’s bike.  They didn’t have many suggestions aside from truing the rear tire. THe biggest concern of the last couple of days has been the wobble in Alexa’s bike, Lolly.  It has been happening since we made the repairs in Portsmouth.  It seems to shimmy most often when she is riding at a good speed, but it happens other times, as well.   I don’t think the bike is going to break, but I am worried about the handling of hte bike when its wobbling.  I don’t want Alexa to be so focused onthe wobble that she is not paying enough attention to the road.  It’s a confusing situation and I hope we can get to a point where it’s not constantly bothering us.

Alexa 9/6/07:

Whitman said, “now I see the secret to the making of hte best persons – it is to live in the open air, to eat and sleep with the Earth.”

‘Viewage’ in Connecticut

 

“What happens in a meadow at dawn?” 

We’ve now had three fulls days and nightsl iving entirely outside, sleeping under the moon and waking up looking at the underbellies of theh leaves on the undersides of the trees.  And we’ve been blessed with perfect riding weather and appreciating it, knowing it will change, as everything does.

And it seems like most things – everything would be perfect if one little thing were gone or different, or would change.  The wobble.  Lolly lobwobble.  Her new shimmy constantly makes me say in my mind, “if this was gone everything would be great, perfect, even.”  When I am riding slow or fast or just almost always, Lolly has taken to start shaking.  IT unnerves me, especially with traffic around, going up steep hills.  I just want it to be fixed.  But it can’t.  The mechanic doesn’t even know what causes it. – it will never be fixed.  I am to always – for the next 2,000 miles, ride a shaky bike, and it makes me feel  like a shaky person…but i just have to accept it because I have no choice.  I have come to the conclusion that Lolly’s wobble mirrors my own inner wobble.  So here I am riding lolly lobwobble and everything would be perfect if it was all different.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 4:28 pm and is filed under In Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.