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.