September 15 - Provincetown, Ma

Starting mileage - 51826

We went to bed with the sound of waves crashing outside our window and awoke to silence. The tide was out, way out. Mudflats everywhere. It's a unique area. The motel has a pretty good breakfast as part of the price so we ate and then headed out for some sightseeing and cycling. There was some rain forecasts. We wanted to get an early start before it started.

We drove up to the end of the cape to the Cape Cod National Seashore to ride this 5.5 mile "absolutely awesome" trail we had been hearing about. We assembled the bikes and started off. I didn't bother with cycling clothes or my helmet since I assumed it would be a flat, easy, short trail. WRONG! I was sweating after half a mile. It was all up and down, and the "ups", although short, were somewhat steep.

There were bikes everywhere as there seemed to be in most of the cape. There were more bikes per capita here than anywhere else we have visited. We met two women at the top of one of the hills and we talked for quite a while. The more robust and svelte of the two was an avid cyclist and had used the Adventure Cycling maps to do a cross-country ride. She was very enthusiastic about the quality of this set of maps which was encouraging for us to hear.

More people here knew what our Bike Fridays were. People stopped us to ask about them.

The end of Cape Cod was not at all what I expected. I thought it would be flat and sandy. To my surprise it was hilly and forested, and the forests were dotted with marshes and ponds. After about two miles of this "flat and easy" trail I was sweating mightily. One five-year-old boy made a point of mentioning to his daddy that I should be wearing a helmet. &^%#@@(*^%^ kids! But he was right. I should have worn one.

It turned out to be a very interesting and unique trail, and the people were more than friendly.

Deb only got lost once.

We rode the bike path today at the end of The Cape. It was listed as a 5 mile ride. Bob thought "no sweat" and wouldn't wear his bike clothes. It turned out to be a long ride. We stop and chatted at the top of every hill. Riders were friendly and fun.

We returned to town, went for a dip in the pool, and walked the 1-2 miles to Provincetown. I liked Provincetown very much. It's an artsy, touristy type of place with quite a large gay population. It's all shops and restaurants, but there is a difference here. The people are certainly friendly and more tolerant of tourists than is the norm in most places of this type. The homes and gardens are quite pretty. The main street is all pedestrians and bicycles. Cars maneuver carefully here.

We strolled around for a few hours, returned to the room for a weather update (it never did rain) and went out for dinner. Against Deb's token, weak protests, I got a bottle of wine, and we had a very good dinner. I had tuna, and Deb had scallops. She said they were the best she had ever eaten. My tuna was also first-rate.

During our walk in Provincetown we had decided to return to Erie in the middle of October so we would have time to fly to San Diego and retrieve Deb's car for use in Erie during the winter. It would also give us the opportunity to visit friends in the Bay Area and then stop in Colorado to view the colors and visit Deb's sister, Adele. We called my sister, Margie, who got on the Internet and found a flight for us. Five minutes later our flight was booked.

We want to get to Erie by October 10^th, and we fly back to San Diego on October 13th.

September 16 - Provincetown, Mass.

Starting mileage - 51826

We awoke at 7:00AM, got the weather update on Hurricane Floyd, and decided to get outta Dodge before it hit. The end of Cape Cod is probably not the best place to be with a massive hurricane bearing down. Deb was a bit more than nervous.

Cape Cod is scheduled for a direct hit at 2 AM tonight.

We gulped down our free breakfast, jumped in Vinnie, and hit the gas pedal.

We have a confession:

We used some major highways and interstates in our exodus. This is a major deviation.

There are not many campgrounds near Boston. I didn't want to be alongside a stream or lake with flash flood advisories posted and heavy winds scheduled. We ended up at a KOA on a hillside outside of Littleton. Littleton is where we spent the first night of our honeymoon ride one year ago. It feels like old home week. Unfortunately, we are enclosed in the van. It was already raining too much to do any exploring or sightseeing It is a reading and writing day.

September 17 - Littleton, Mass.

Starting mileage - 52005

It rained a lot last night, but not as much where we were as had been anticipated. And the winds were not very heavy either. This is OK. No branches fell on Vinnie and the puddles were all drained by the time we got up.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we drove around where we had ridden last fall, then took back roads to Concord. First stop was Walden Pond. The wind is still whipping about…in fact stronger than yesterday. I convinced Lazy Bob to walk to see Thoreau's cabin site. Once there he reluctantly agreed to circumnavigate the pond. Not really an endurance hike. It is really an obscure, nondescript pond but of much historical value. In the last few years a major shore restoration project has been underway and it is looking quite rural and natural again. It is a very heavily used area and has been for hundreds of years. It still was an invigorating walk since the wind is so brisk today.

So she made me trudge around this dirty little pond. We took pictures. We laughed. We cried. We tossed a rock on the pile of rocks by Thoreau's cabin site. That's symbolic, but I forget why.

Then on to see The North Bridge and "the shot heard round the world". The bridge is rebuilt. Actually a couple of times. Only one board from the original is on display at the NPS Information Center. They dug it out of the river when building this last bridge.

It was right about this time that we heard on the radio that NASA is sending two cows up in the next space shuttle. I think it's kind of a waste of money, but they wanted it to be the first herd shot round the world.

You should have seen Bob's face. The Minuteman statue is enclosed in scaffolding. Can't get a good look at him with all those boards in place.

Lemme splain this…

When I was but a wee lad of 6 and 7 and 8, we would buy stamps at elementary school to paste into a little book, which we could eventually redeem to buy a US Savings Bond. The stamps were in ten-cent and twenty-five cent denominations. When you got $18.75 worth of stamps you could redeem your little book for a real US Bond which would become worth $25 in ten years.

We scrimped and saved to collect enough stamps to fill up our little books. The picture on these stamps was the Minuteman Statue, the original of which we saw today. I have waited my whole life to see the real thing. I was, to say the least, quite disheartened to see this icon of my youth enshrouded in scaffolding. It was undergoing "renovations". IT JUST ISN'T FAIR!!!!! I wanted to see the real thing. I am morose.

Concord and Lexington have some history there. Another batch of old houses. Lots of plaques. We again wandered the back roads to the coast near Swampscott and Marblehead. Bob was a little tired of driving while I looked at the old houses. The final straw was navigating the narrow, curvy, crowded streets of Marblehead. No more sightseeing. We stopped at a campground on Winter Island and parked it for the night. He won't even get out of the car. There is another fort here (Fort Pickering) protecting the mouth of Salem harbor. We gaze across the harbor at Marblehead. It is quite scenic. I enjoyed my walk about the island by myself.

Vinnie is leaking black water again. The other day in Provincetown we though he had sprung a leak, but seemed to heal himself. Now it is a different spot. He seems to know the end of his summer trip is close and little problems have started to appear. We went to dump to alleviate the problem and we couldn't so we hope he doesn't drip too much tonight.

I really enjoy it when our little "sewage monitor" feels a need to tell the rest of the world about our sewage problems. Why does she do that?

This is one of the worst "campsites" we've had on our trip. It's a concrete slab out in the middle of a driveway near the office and boat launch ramp. All the other sites were taken, and it's the only campground close so we had to take it. The good news is that it's right on Salem Harbor, which is an excellent name for a harbor. Salem. Sail 'em. Get it!? Hahahahahahahahaha

We got a lot of fresh produce along the way today so we're going to have an excellent dinner.

It was a good dinner. Fresh corn on the cob, a fresh tomato salad, real crusty Italian bread, and a perky white wine. Deb had pan-fried ham chunks, and I had chicken breast stuffed with crab and lobster. Quite obviously, I think, I planned my entrée a bit better than Deb, but because she is the Light Of My Life ®, I shared my exotic chicken with her.

September 18 - Salem, Mass.

Starting mileage - 52074

Floyd is but a fleeting memory this morning. It's a crisp, sparkling clear New England morning.

Today was very close to a perfect day. We were camped just outside of Salem, so naturally Deb felt right at home.

Asshole!!

We broke camp, drove to town and parked on the Salem Common and proceeded to do a long walk around the town. I had no idea there was so much history in Salem. It actually precedes Boston. Aside from the nasty witch thing, it was for a time the most prosperous city in America. The houses and seaport here are amazing. Houses from the 1600's are still inhabited. We also saw the House of Seven Gables. Nat Hawthorne did a lot of stuff here.

Salem has copied Boston with the red line on the sidewalk for tourists to follow. But it works. It keeps us all in an orderly line as we traipse about the town. We did deviate a couple of times.

The weather was perfect. Clear and breezy. So we meandered up the coast through Beverly, Manchester, Gloucester, Ipswich, Newburyport and finally Salisbury Beach. We got a campsite right on the coast and rode our bikes up the coast a while before stopping for an early dinner at local seafood house.

Once again today's route somewhat followed our bike ride of a year ago. Quite a different scenario today. Shimmery, glisteny waterways. The marsh grasses wave in the breeze. Last year as we rode through this it was bleak, windy, rainy and foggy, so we didn't see much. Today we very much enjoyed the scenery along with the other thousand tourists who decided to get out of the city for a glorious day on a mid-September weekend.

We finished dinner, rode back home, and took a leisurely stroll up the beach during the sunset. We are really beginning to like New England.

September 19 - Salisbury Beach, Mass.

Starting mileage - 52122

What a fantastic morning! Crisp and amazingly clear. We both slept about ten hours last night. The fresh, salt air was quite brisk and kept us snuggled into spoons all night long. It's no wonder these old New England families had so many children. We dragged ourselves out of bed, had a cup of coffee, and went for a walk up the river. We are camped at the mouth of a river into the Atlantic Ocean.

Bob has this idea that when he sleeps the world sleeps. Now that it is getting dark earlier it is difficult keeping him awake past 8 PM. He is unaware that I am usually awake at least a couple of hours after he has dozed off.

Salisbury Beach is surrounded on 3 sides by water. The Merrimack River runs into the Atlantic and a small, creek marsh encircles another side. There are lots of birds in the marsh.

The fishermen beat us out of bed, and the estuary was crowded with small white boats bobbing in the water. Across the bay you could see the small, white spires of the churches rising above the small town. It's a postcard waiting to happen.

We ate and began driving up the coast. We camped in Massachusetts, but a mile after we started we were in New Hampshire again. The coast was one beautiful postcard after another. The ocean was a clear blue, the boats were white, the beaches were clean, and the land was bright and green. It was quite an awesome drive. Deb even quit reading her beloved maps as we drove. We followed our honeymoon route for quite a while, but last year we were riding in a torrential downpour. This year was quite different.

We stopped a couple of times to walk various beaches. Then stopped again in Portsmouth to walk about the public gardens. I could see that 2 weeks ago they had been magnificent, but with a couple nights of cold and then the storm that just passed, they were looking a bit blown over.

The tide was very low again today. When we passed through southern Maine coastline last year all the sloughs were full. Today was like looking at an area that we had never seen before.

We stopped for lunch, and I had the best bowl of clam chowder (chowdah) I have ever had. That and a big stack of mussels made a great meal. The New Hampshire coastline is only about 12 miles long so we got to Maine rather quickly. Three states in about two hours. Not bad!

Deb has been quite enthralled with her DeLorme mapping CDs that I got her for Christmas. As we were leaving a Maine Visitor Center, we found the DeLorme headquarters right across the street. Deb genuflected three times and now wants a job there. At the very least she wants to stop by and tell them how to improve their product. That's my Deb!

The campground I found by perusing my books and maps is quite wonderful. We are perched on a bluff called Flying Point overlooking Casco Bay just north of Portland. Hundreds of little islands are visible from Vinnie's back door. Our neighbors are ex-Californians with computer modem problems. They heard our system works and really want Bob to help them tomorrow with their modem.

That's that I want to do! Fix a computer. Oh JOY! And Deb set the whole thing up for me just so I could keep up my computer skills. What a woman!

September 20 - Freeport, ME

Starting mileage - 52232

Another crispy, cuddly morning! We both slept like logs. We went for a short 10-15 mile ride after breakfast and then headed into town for a visit to (Fanfare!) the L. L. Bean Factory Store. It was like a pilgrimage to Mecca. This whole town is factory outlets, and they are all built around L. L. Bean, which has its headquarters here. It's quite a store. It's open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It never closes. It's a shopper's paradise. Busloads of people were assaulting the town. They actually do bus tours here.

I have never purchased anything from LL Bean, but I was very impressed with their store and its representative salesfolk. Each person we talked to in the store was very knowledgeable and helpful. I do think that being open 24 hours per day every day is a little excessive. I don't approve.

With DeLorme, L. L. Bean, and the great location here, we're about ready to move in. If it wasn't for that snow thing!! This is a great area. I have already begun selecting my canoe and kayak. There are a zillion islands off the coast, lobsters everywhere, maple syrple, lots of water inland, no smog, and the natives seem friendly. The help wanted section of the paper resembles San Jose's. It's quite large. By comparison, Boston's was about a page and a half. The property

is also more than reasonable.

Right!!! It only gets to -20F for a couple of weeks a year, then the rest of the winter is a bit warmer.

We did some shopping, had lunch, and then hiked up one of the local mountains. It was a short hike, but the view was great.

Fall color is here. We found 3 red-orange leaves on the ground on the way to the top of Bradbury Mountain. I could see that in another couple of weeks it will be a striking view from the top. Today was just pretty. Temperature has started to drop. I have been wearing a jacket for the last 2 days.

Oh…oh…the most important item we almost forgot to mention. Our new household addition is mounted on the dashboard. It is a little autumn squash they have here in the east called a pumpkin. We named it Sydnee.

Every year our friend Sydnee distributes small white and orange pumpkins to her friends. We are supposed to put them on our computer monitors to celebrate Fall and Halloween. They are callled Monitor Buddies®. Naturally, we will miss having our monitor buddy this year, but now we have "Sydnee" firmly velcroed to the center of our dashboard.

Kind of a slow evening. We had some good salmon and leftovers for dinner while we waited for our neighbors to get home so I could fix their computer. They got home late so we just went to bed after reading for a while. I somehow wound up with a Tom Clancy book. There's one guy with waaaay too much testosterone. All death and killing, no sex.

September 21 - Freeport, ME

Starting mileage - 52252

So Bob worked on Cheryl's computer this AM, but wouldn't fix it because it meant major setting adjustments and we were leaving. One should never "fix" someone else's computer, then leave. He told her what needed to be done, so she could do it when she was in an area to get customer support if needed. But he did his good deed, and I am proud of him. They are a very nice couple. I could have chatted a while longer but Bob hauled me out of their rig with the comfy recliner rockers.

Another crispy, clear morning. It sure is nice here. We took a shower, and then I tried to "fix" our neighbor's computer, but I didn't want to make major changes and then leave before they had a chance to test it so I just left it alone. It's safer that way.

We headed up the scenic coast for more scenery. Our next stop was Cook's Lobster House of VISA International fame. Santa Cruz had been pinned on their global map, but not Sunnyvale, so we added a red pin to mark our presence. This place is famous for their fresh lobster all brought in locally and purged for a minimum of 3 days in the tanks next door. It was good, but I thought the friendly waitress was a real benefit of this establishment. In fact we really like the Maine inhabitants we have met.

Yummmm…. Overpriced lobster for lunch! How decadent! It was great. The geography here is wonderful. The whole shore is spits of land leading out into the ocean which is covered with offshore islands. It is quite magnificent. We were quite taken with the postcard views at every bend of the road.

On the way up the highway we encountered a farmer's market. We have a weakness for these local events. They are dangerous though. We have been known to walk away from them with far more food than we could possibly eat. Today we bought chard, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, dilly beans, and a few varieties of squash. The food cabinet in Vinnie is bursting. But we'll eat well for a few days at least.

We think it has been a constant low tide since we have been here. Today we saw quite a few clammers out on the mud flats. There are so many rocks and islands exposed by the tides that you know the local fishermen definitely follow specific channels in to their homeports. Some of the channels are only a couple of feet wider than their boats.

We drove through more scenic towns and across more beautiful peninsulas then found a campground to hole up for the rain scheduled to start this evening.

And it has just started to pitter-patter on our roof. It's 7:30PM. Time to post the journal.

End of Week 19