After a long 36 hours of traveling by train we arrived home in St. Paul Saturday night just before midnight.  We hope you enjoyed following our journey.

Ready to Go Home

Our bikes are packed and we're ready to leave tomorrow noon on the 34 hour train trip home. What a full, delighful, unforgettable time this has been!

"Be still (cease striving, let go, relax NASB notes) and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 has been our theme verse for this trip. I (Mary) have just begun to live this a bit more because life has become so much simpler. My prayer is that I can carry that restfulness into my life at home.

As I biked many mornings, Ilistened to a prayer room set from IHOP by Justin Rizzo's team that so spoke to our situation - and I hope will also carry on in our lives at home:

"For the weak ones who keep pressing on
You are not unjust to forget
Their step by step
Their choice by choice
Their day by day
And their yes by yes.

Thank you, Lord!

After saying good bye to the ocean we headed into Boston not knowing where we were going to sleep for the next three nights.  The cheapest hotel we could find was $120 per night.

Taken from the deck of the house of our host.

Mary had contacted six potential warm showers hosts.  Five said "no".  One we didn't hear from...until late Monday night via e-mail.  (We had already gone to bed.)  On Tuesday morning we learned that we had a place to stay for our three nights in Boston, beginning Tuesday night.  Praise God!!!

Fenway Park

On Wednesday, we went to a Boston Red Sox game with Ben, the son of one of my (Ron) cousins.

As it turns out, the house that we're staying in is less than a five minute walk from where Ben lives.

One of the wharfs in Portland.

We stayed in Portland three nights.  Though we were there on the fouth and close to a park with an excellent view for the fireworks, the city postponed the fireworks for one night due to Hurricane Arthur.  Since the hurricanne was off shore a ways it wasn't very windy.  It just rained for two nights and a day.  We're thankful for a home of a warmshowers.org host for three nights.  Thank you Gary.

"Portland Head" lighthouse

Saturday we started our three day ride to Boston...

...until we discovered this beautiful beach in York, ME.

As we were getting toward the end of our day, we were looking for a campsite when we rode past this beautiful (but crowded) beach.  Being that it was a holiday week-end at 4:00 pm the odds seemed slim to find a campsite, but God provided one.  Since we couldn't pass up this opportunity we are staying for two nights.

Bike Trip Life

Our sunset cruise turned out to be a daytime cruise because of fog, but we turned around 15 minutes into the cruise because of a thunderstorm in the bay. 😢

In just three days, we hope to finish our ride extension in Boston. Bicycle touring, as you can imagine, is a totally different lifestyle.  If you're interested in our daily schedule, see below.

June 30 - Best ride of the trip- also the highest mountain -Kanamagis Pass, New Hampshire. We climbed to approx. 2855 feet, which included some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery and waterfalls.

July 1 - Worst ride of the trip: sunshine + 90 degrees + 10% grade hills + swarms of voracious deerflies biting us even at 7 mph = two miserable, exhausted cyclists. Fortunately this part only lasted about 20 minutes.
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Here's how our days have looked, although the times varied from day to day:

7:00 or so - wake up, exercises, dress, breakfast, and pack up tent and gear

8:30 -9:00 - read the map and start our ride - Ron enjoying the sounds of nature, Mary enjoying her iPod recordings of the IHOP prayer room and audio Bible

9:00-noon - ride with occasional breaks for water and Clif bars

Noon- 1:30 - lunch at a cafe or Subway, catch up on our blog, charge the tablet, and look at photos from the morning ride

1:30-3:30 - ride to the largest town close to our destination to buy supper and breakfast at a grocery store

3:30-4:00 - arrive at campground or WarmShowers host

4:00-6:30 - shower, set up camp, and supper

6:30-8:30 - take a walk, talk with our hosts, or catch up on blog

8:30-9:00 - call Philip and Christina and settle down to sleep.

This trip has been similar to a sabbatical,  since the simple lifestyle with only one daily goal has allowed for much personal reflection, prayer, and rejuvenation. We thank God for His blessings of beautiful weather and no major mishaps.

We arrived!!!

We arrived in Portland ME yesterday.

About a week ago, when we realized we would arrive in Portland a week earlier than planned, we decided to continue riding onto Boston instead of taking the train.  As it turms out Amtrack cancelled our ticket from Portland to Boston.  Amtrack has already made one change on our trip from Boston to St Paul.  At this point we plan to leave Boston on July 11.  Pray that all goes well with Amtrack.

Meanwhile in Portland, we are staying two nights with a warmshowers.org host.  While here we plan to take a 90 minute sunset cruise in Casco bay to celebrate our arrival in Portland.

The last mountain we climbed was the most scenic.  We enjoyed refreshing breaks at streams and waterfalls.

New Hampshire has several covered bridges.

On today's ride we made it to Maine.  During our ride we rode past Lily, a young girl selling limeade.  That's all the excuse we needed to take a break.  The temperature has been in the 90's the last two days.  Thank you Lily for the refreshing drinks.

As we started to approach the mountains we looked at the chart on the back of our map...and feared the worst.  "That's steep.

Then we looked at the mountains and set in for the long haul.  On the chart above you can see four tall mountains.  We did one per day starting from left to right.

We did the tallest on day four, yesterday.  It was twelve miles to the top.

And were treated with a great view at the top.

After staying two nights in Ticonderoga NY, we stayed in Hancock, VT on Friday night.  Hancock is a small town in a valley.  As so often with the small towns we've been passing through,the restaurants, cafes and/or places to lodge have closed and we have to go to the next town.  But even though this cafe looked run down, dusty and closed, it was open. The proprietor served us a nice meal and also told us of an inn across the street we could stay for the night.  So we did, and because we weren't using petroleum for our trip she gave us a discount on the cost for lodging.

On Saturday night a warmshowers.org host invited us to stay in her yurt.  Our host was not home so we had the use of her house to make supper and take showers and we slept in the yurt.  

Break time.

       

Nice mountain views.

Riding through the Appalachian Mountains, we are often riding along rivers and streams and finding waterfalls.

Fort Ticonderoga overlooking Lake Champlain.

Crossing Lake Champlain to Vermont.

Some beautiful landscape inVermont.

A reminder as we begin our ride up some of the more difficult hills on our trip.

A nice ride down, a gradual ride up.

Riding on a quiet country road.

Beautiful cascades along the road.

We almost missed them.

Luke and his dog are riding from Vermont to Iowa and possibly on to Washington.

Blessings Received, Blessings Observed

After climbing a mile and a half and zooming two miles down, we arrived at Ticonderoga today at 11:30 am. It's our easternmost destination in NY, where we'll take a couple of nights' rest at a motel with internet - yay! Friday we plan to take a ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont.

The Adirondaks are similar to the Boundary Waters, but with 2,000-3,000 ft. mountains.  Gorgeous rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and forests have been a feast for the senses these past four days.  God has been richly blessing us with this time to simply enjoy His creation in an unhurried way.

God is not only blessing us, but I got to watch Him at work twice yesterday blessing other people. As we left the campground yesterday, we stopped at the general store across the lake. I was warmly greeted by the manager who was stocking shelves. A man then entered the store and I couldn't help overhearing the brief conversation he had with the manager.
    " Hi, brother. How are you doing?"
    " I'm really struggling right now, and I need prayer."
Immediately, they linked arms as the manager prayed for his friend. Just as quickly, the man left. He had come to the store to receive what money can't buy - the blessing of God through a friend's prayer.

At 11:30, as we entered a cafe for lunch, two tables were occupied by a group of boys and a group of girls from the local high school celebrating their last day of school for the summer. For six of them, exchange students from China, Vietnam, and Spain, it was their farewell lunch before going back home. As we began looking at our menus, a woman called the owner's wife/server aside, exchanged money, and left. As the students were getting ready to leave, the server announced to them, "Did you see that woman who just left? She just paid your entire bill and extended her congratulations to all of the graduates." None of the students knew her. She just wanted to bless them.

My heart is full as I think of the many generous, kind people we have met along the way, all extending God's blessings to us - the elderly couple driving out of their way to give us a map of town because we looked confused, the hospitable young man who offered us a beautiful shower, breakfast, and camping spot in his yard. He already had an extra dog he was taking care of, a friend who was spending a long weekend with him, and another friend living with him. (Thanks again, Chad!)

May you be blessed today as well.

Sunday night we stayed in Old Forge, a resort town in the central Adirondack mountains. We camped in the yard of another warmshowers host.  Chad (our host) lived in town and on route.  It was very convenient for us.  We were able to catch up on laundry.  His house mate, Shane, made breakfast for us.  Thank you Chad and Shane.

Monday night we stayed at Lake Eaton Stae Park, near Long Lake, NY.  We had a rare experience --- rain.  At the time of this writing we are eating lunch at High Peaks Kitchen and for the second time while riding we're having rain.

Camping at a state park near Long Lake NY.

We signed up for an adventure, right? When we started out yesterday, we knew we might have a challenge finding a place to stay, as the only available lodging in Redfield, NY, were a lodge and B&B that each cost $100 for the night. We decided against them and instead found a very sketchy map of the state forest we'd be riding through that included some primitive campsites scattered here and there near the large Salmon River Reservoir. Unfortunately, after riding 60 miles we were ready to settle down for the night, but we headed down the wrong road to find the camp site (I mean DOWN a big hill) We were spent by that time, and Ron found out from a local that there would be campimg at the end of Noble Road. Well, 5 miles later, we found it, an old, rocky, formerly paved road. When we met two women walking along the road, they said that there was no place to camp, but there was a lodge.  Once we arrived at the nice-looking building, it took us a while to rouse the owner, who lived upstairs. She finally answered our phone message, said we could stay there for $69.95 tonight, and let us in. After we told her our story and that we had biked 73 miles that day, she said, "Well, I'm only going to charge you $40, since you're biking so far. Praise God!  The sleep was luscious, breakfast delicious, and we're halfway through our second long day - this time around 63 miles.  After today, we'll really hit the mountains and will travel much slower.

We've been enjoying some beautiful scenery.

We've been meeting lots of people, including chatting a few minutes with this Amish farmer.

We've seen Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Now we've been riding insome hilly country for two days as we head through the Adirondack Mountains.

"...Low bridge, everbody down.

Low bridge, we're coming to a town..."

Riding along the Erie Canal

Upon leaving Ontario, we came back into the U.S. in New York.  At Lockport we started riding along the Erie Canal.  Wednesday night we camped near Holley, NY.  Thursday we continued our ride along the Erie Canal. Thursday night we stayed with a couple we met through warmshowers.org.  They were very generous in providing us a bed, showers and an excellent dinner and breakfast.  We enjoyed hearing about their bike experiences.  Thank you, Ken and Karin.

Today we head up to Lake Ontario and ride on to Wolcott.

Our silence the past week was due to no internet or spotty connection while we biked through beautiful southern Ontario. Along the way, we met other enthusiastic cyclists and many friendly Canadians. Our final destination in Canada was Niagara Falls, where we spent two and a half restful days. We enjoyed viewing and photographing the majestic falls from many vantage points.

Some of the people we met:

Angelo, a native of Winnipeg, who's cycling solo from Montreal to Windsor. He told us of many other bike trips he's taken all over the world, since he works for an airline. I can't believe his wife stays home!!

A man from Hamburg who was staying at our motel in Niagara Falls enjoyed conversing with me, since he doesn't speak English. He grew up in East Germany, a place he described as a prison, which he fled in 1989. That explained his desire to travel everywhere he could. He's been to more states in the US than Ron or I have!

Angelo Rossi, a famous glass blower artisan from Venice who spent his career in Montreal and Niagara Falls. He spent at least 20 minutes with us telling us his life story and relating all of the famous people who have commissioned him, among them Elton John, Ringo Star, Jane Fonda, and Carol Burnett. After he related some recent difficulties, we had the honor of praying with him. His last words to us - "God is good! He makes such good wine, and I love wine."

Sunday morning we rode on the friendship trail north along the Niagara River until we came to the falls.

Approaching Niagara Falls from the south.

We enjoyed three days and three nights at Niagara Falls.

We've had another good week of riding.  The weather has been good and our bodies have been doing well.

We also learned of a motorcycle rally that happens in Port Dover Ontario every Friday the thirteenth for over 25 years.  This time they were expecting over 100,000 people.  It just so happens that yesterday, Friday the thirteenth, our route took us through Port Dover.  It was crowded.  We had to walk our bikes through town.  Since we had to wait to get to Port Dover to eat, we had to stand in line for an hour to get lunch.  The crowd was friendly and orderly.  (There was good police presence).

We've been riding and camping along Lake Erie since Wednesday

It was so nice for this restaurant to welcome us.

We have to hang our food sometimes to keep it away from racoons.

I guess that sign earlier wasn't for us.

This was a motorcycle rally we couldn't avoid.