Thursday 30 September 2010

33rd State …done!

Our vision was to actively take part in a life changing experience that would broaden our appreciation for life. We embarked upon a mission to cycle around the perimeter of North America and along the way set ourselves many goals and targets. We’re on schedule and have successfully reached many goals, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. We’ve missed a few targets, such as not cycling through the Grand Canyon and falling short of 14,000 miles. However …drum roll please …today we reached another goal, our 33rd and final state, Connecticut (CT). It’s not long now until we complete our mission and realize our vision.

Being so close to ‘Mission Accomplished’ it would be very easy for us to get ahead of ourselves and lose concentration, which is not something you’d want to do when cycling the final 200+ miles into Manhattan. Therefore, with sensible heads screwed firmly on, we jumped on a bus to leave Newport over two impressively large and busy bridges, which did not permit bikes. When safely back on the mainland, we removed Trusty and Steed from the rack on the front of the bus and breathed a sigh of relief. It’s never easy sitting on a bus witnessing a grumpy driver executing every move possible to try to dislodge the bikes and run over them, only to turn around and say “sorry guys it was a mistake!”

Giving the grumpy bus driver a two-fingered salute (English style) and saying farewell to Kathleen, a lady we got talking to on the bus who suffers from MS, who gave us that extra bit of inspiration to push us along the final stages of the trip, we were back on the bikes and making our way toward Mystic, CT. The cycling was 50/50. Half the trip was on a scenic beachside highway and the other half was along a busy state highway. The shoulders were wide, the road surface was great, the traffic was thin but very fast and scary. We made it to the CT State line, shed a little tear and pushed on to Mystic. Arriving at our hotel we were faced with an Internet connection that didn’t work in our room and the realization that we had lost our cell phone …bummer.

To be honest guys we’re extremely shattered and are looking forward to being back in NYC and then the UK with family and family.

Us x

1 comment:

  1. Hey you two. Congratulations on making it this far. I'm proud of you. Sorry to read about your losing your cell phone.

    Just think. You've got just 200 miles of travel left. Be careful. The closer you get to NYC the more congestion there will be with a lot of stoplights to deal with and lots of traffic. U.S. 1 isn't really bike friendly beyond New London.

    If I were the two of you, I would catch the ferry from New London, CT to Orient Point, Long Island and ride into NYC that way. Just a thought since I've done it before.

    Take care,

    Your cycling minister friend

    Rev Hans

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