Wednesday October 3, 2012

Danville VA to Siler City, NC  119km, 987m vertical climb

This morning shortly after departing, we crossed into North Carolina. Our route took us through the countryside and the neat green lawns were everywhere.  Even what looked like abandoned houses were surrounded by well-manicured green lawns.  We had a good day navigating with just a little difficulty in the middle of Burlington NC.  However our destination hotel was nowhere to be found in Siler City.  After consulting with some locals we ended up at the hotel we wanted on Chatham Square, not Chatham Street. 

            We had lunch in a small place, Sharkey’s Grill in Burlington, where the cook kept asking us about our trip.  When we left he took our picture to post on face book, since nobody would believe he had 2 guys who cycled from Montreal eating in his restaurant.

            We also noticed a strong change in the accent in North Carolina. We are definitely in the south now and we both have trouble understanding the locals.

Tuesday October 2, 2012

Lynchburg, VA to Danville VA; 114 km, 996m vertical climb

When we got up this morning it was still raining but being optimists we figured it might stop by the time we got on the road. First we had to get breakfast so we walked down the highway a few hundred yards to a diner and on the way the weather had to pretend it was monsoon time. That was the first soaking of the day. Breakfast was our first all-you-can-eat-buffet for $6 so we loaded up good and proper for our 114km/71m ride.

Our optimism didn’t help at all so we set off in the rain. On a fast downhill to the middle of Lynchburg to cross the river the front half got wet and on the highway to get out of town the trucks going past made sure the back half got wet as well. Monsoon type showers gave us the rest and by the time the water was running out of our cycling shoes we didn’t care which direction the water was coming from. For some reason, when our multi-lane highway, Route 29, bypassed a town, we were not allowed to use it so we had to successively take the exit and ride through the middle of Altavista, Gretna and then Chatham before finally exiting for Danville. The rain stopped around midday when we were in Altavista and, thereafter, steadily improved to the point where we thought we were in a tropical jungle when we arrived in Danville. After settling in at a Super 8 motel for $55 we set off to find the Laundromat that the receptionist said was just down the road. After walking over a kilometre we gave up and diverted to a Mexican restaurant just for a beer to get us back. It turned out to be Happy Tuesday and the Mexican draught beer was only a $1.50 a glass so we decided to stay for supper and a second, third and, I think, fourth. It was a long walk back. Some days are really tough.

Monday October 1, 2012

Charlottesville, VA to Lynchburg, VA 97 km, 1153m vertical climb        

Mexican Restaurant in Lynchburg

After getting lost twice yesterday, we took the main road today.  Route 29 runs straight to Lynchburg and we made good time riding the shoulder of a 4-lane highway.  We rode all day in the hills and climbed or descended all day.  We stopped in the suburbs outside Lynchburg at a Mexican restaurant to have a hot drink and reorganize our maps.  The waitress didn’t know what black tea was, so we picked our teabags, gave her some instructions about hot water and she made the best tea we’ve had this trip.  We had a second cup and by the time we left it was raining heavily so we checked in a the motel across the road.  After cleaning up we went back to the Mexican restaurant for supper and just one beer.

Just one beer

Sunday September 30th, 2012

Warrenton Virginia to Charlottesville Virginia; 127km; 1160m vertical climb

Horse Country near Warrenton

  
Today we had a long day planned.  Within 5 km the day got longer as we had to turn around after we couldn’t find the 3^rd road Google maps had recommended.  We picked up the route again down the road but within 20km we lost the road again when 3 roads had the same name.  After flagging down 2 cars to get instructions we finally hit a main road and we threw the Google map away.  After losing an hour on back roads we stuck to the main roads until Charlottesville.  The terrain is still hilly but gentler hills than Pennsylvania.  During the morning we passed through the horse raising area of Virginia.  During the afternoon we saw some remnants of the industrial area.  We arrived in Charlottesville at 5pm but it took an hour to find the hotel district.  Fortunately the pizza parlour next door to our hotel had a special on beer tonight and we enjoyed 4 large locally brewed beers for $8. 

Stone walls just like England

   

Methodist Church

Old Mill near Rapidan, Virginia

Saturday September 29, 2012

Gaithersburg Maryland to Warrenton, Virginia; 98km; 823m vertical climb

Every day has a personality and today it is traffic lights. We rode down the longest strip mall in the world when we rode Route 29 from Vienna VA to Warrenton VA.  Every 800 metres we had a traffic light.  Some were green - most were red!  Some were on down hills – most were on up hills.  We stop / started are way through Virginia.  We are each carrying 20 kg of luggage.  When we come to a stop it uses up energy to get started again.  I estimate we went through 140 stoplights today and stopped 70 times. 

Crossing the Potomac

 
  

            We left Maryland this morning and rode into the District of Columbia.  We then crossed the Potomac into Virginia and rode past the CIA offices. There was a sign at the side of the road that said “George Bush Centre for Intelligence” which we thought was a contradiction in terms. We dropped into a bike store for travel information.  The shortest route to Warrenton was route 29, which wasn’t recommended by the riders in the store, but we tried it anyway. It was interval training at its worst, or best depending on how masochistic one feels.

Stop Lights everywhere

 

 

Friday September 28, 2012

Tourists at the White House

  

Washington DC

Today was our planned tourist day in the capital. We had to wait until 10am to be able to take our bikes on the Metro and we were not allowed on between 4 & 7pm so we had a full day to look around. Having the bikes was a major benefit because the centre of town from the White House to the Lincoln & Jefferson Memorials and Capitol was several miles. It was all well worth seeing and on the way from the Jefferson Memorial to the Capital we were held up by police closing off crossroads all along Independence Avenue. I asked a pedestrian on a corner what was going off but she didn’t know so I rode into the intersection to ask a 9 foot 300lb black police officer what the hold up was for and he growled `the President` and shortly thereafter we were treated to the spectacle of around 10 police outriders clearing the road followed by the 2 big black limos and about 14 other vehicles. We didn’t get his autograph but we did manage to video it. Once the road was freed for the plebs to use we went up to look at the Capitol and then road back down Constitution Avenue to then head north for a few miles to see the Washington National Cathedral. With that little job done we then rode down Newark St.!!!!!! towards the Metro where we had to waste an hour drinking in a bar until we could get on the train after 7pm.

                                                                                                             
           

Washington Monument

         

Lincoln Memorial

WW II memorial

The Pres is coming

Jefferson Memorial

The National Cathedral

Thursday September 27th 2012

Gettysburg PA to Gaithersburg MD 99km 1134m vertical climb

The day off to look round Gettysburg did our legs good. The roads were still wet from the storm in the night that had woken us both up and the forecast was for unsettled weather, but it turned sunny and remained dry the whole day. The hills were not as steep and high for the first hour but that changed after Taneytown and, thereafter, the terrain was similar to Tuesday’s ride. When we arrived in Gaithersburg we had done nearly as much hill climbing as on Tuesday and a few kilometres more and with the temperature at around 26C coupled with high humidity we were somewhat dehydrated. Fortunately, a bar/Indian restaurant not far from our motel enabled us to rectify the hydration problem in no time at all. Time for Thursday night football……………………

Gettysburg

Wednesday September 26th 2012

Stores on York Street

 Gettysburg is an introduction to American history. In 1863 the biggest battle of the Civil War was fought in this area.  In 1865 Lincoln made his Gettysburg address here.  To rest our weary legs, we spent the day touring the town. The town is well kept and every second house seems to have been around during the Civil War.  We walked the main streets in the morning  and after lunch we sat through a 30 minute show depicting the 3 day battle of  Gettysburg.  We toured the National Military Cemetery and then returned to the hotel for bike maintenance and laundry.  All is ready for Tomorrow.

Gettysburg - Main Square

House on Middle Street

National Military Cemetery

Tuesday September 25th 2012

Duncannon PA to Gettysburg PA 81km 1166m vertical climb

 

 

 

We set off at around 9:15 and decided to use the Google route description to take a country route rather than use the main roads through Harrisburg. The first few kilometres were easy enough to follow, but suddenly we arrived at a junction where the instructions said turn right on 305 but route 305 went straight on and 307 went right!!! We decided to go straight on to stay on 305 and had to tackle a tough climb through a forest until we hit a road that was not mentioned on our instructions (nor was it on our state map) so we knew we were lost. Well, Florida is south so that is the direction we took and, as luck would have it, we picked up the route as described a few kilometres later. The only problem we still had was that the terrain was crippling us. The climb rate was higher than any previous stages on this or any other tour.

We arrived in Carlisle about midday and were glad to be able to stop for lunch. The next section was a little easier until the road forked and we took the 94 to York Springs. It just got steeper and every time we topped a rise we could see a series of hills that looked just as bad. Forever optimistic, we pushed on hoping that every hill would be the last until we turned onto the Old Harrisburg Rd to Gettysburg where it did get a lot easier but still far from flat.

Gettysburg is the best kept town we have seen so far and being the scene of a major civil war battle in 1863 has a lot to see so we will stay an extra day to see the sights and get some feeling back in our legs. 

Monday September 24, 2012

River street in Northumberland

Danville PA to Duncannon PA 101km 766m vertical climb

Tim resting by the Suskahanna

We had our earliest start ever and left our hotel shortly after 9.  We passed through Northumberland/Sunbury where the Susquehanna and Lackawanna Rivers combine.  The town of Sunbury has built major defences against flooding and lookout posts dot the river dyke.   We decided to follow a minor road to Duncannon.   The road was hilly, steep and sparsely populated.  The shoulder was narrow or non existent and the truck traffic was heavy.  It wasn’t the best, but the drivers in Pennsylvania are considerate and we did well.     After lunch the road improved and the route followed the river closely so the terrain was flatter and the riding faster.   We arrived at the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon to find it is a hostel for hikers walking the Appalachian trail.  Our room cost 32.50 and the bathroom is down the hall.  But they have the best food in town and 3 local beers on tap.

The Doyle Hotel, Duncannon

Saturday September 22, 2012

 

            Scranton PA to Danville PA 107km 545m vertical climb

The strong smell of mothballs nearly choked us so we were glad to get out of our motel room this morning. The motel breakfast was in the room price but what looked like second hand donuts and coffee was not enough for us so we walked up the road to a diner and had a classic breakfast of fried eggs, bacon and potato pancakes with toast and jam. That was a much better start to the day. We had a clear blue sky and the heat, while stood loading the bikes outside the motel, led TimB to decide on a short sleeve shirt for the ride. The air, despite the sun, was actually quite cool so the high speed downhill immediately after leaving the car park left TimB with jaw ache after trying to stop his teeth chattering so it wasn’t long before he put a second shirt on.

           

Main Street - Avoca

            The first couple of hours were spent riding through the suburbs of Scranton and Wilkes Barre on rough roads past a lot of rough looking properties. Things looked more cheerful as we left Wilkes Barre and cycled on Route 11 paralleling the Lackawanna River. We stopped for lunch in Shickshinny and on entering the restaurant saw a plaque on the wall showing a line 55 inches off the floor, which was the level that the Lackawanna River had reached on Sept. 8^th last year as a result of the tropical storm Lee. The restaurant was about 300yds from and several yards higher than the river so it must have been an impressive sight to see. It had taken the owners until May this year to rebuild the place and reopen for business.

The afternoon was pleasantly warm and we had a nice steady ride through flat terrain until we decided to stop at about 70km for cold drinks when we saw the Bandits Roadhouse. The place was buzzing, being surrounded by Harley motorbikes and full of leather clad bikers. Despite not fulfilling the apparent dress code we felt qualified to enter having arrived on two wheels. After tanking up on two (US) pints of ginger ale on the rocks we easily managed the remaining 37km to the Red Roof Motel 4km north of Danville. 

Bandit Roadhouse - Berwick

Saturday September 22, 2012

Binghamton to Scranton, PA   106 KM  640m Vertical climb  

 We       We left Binghamton NY at 9:45 and crossed into Pennsylvania 1 hour later.  We headed south against the wind all day.   I am driving a new bike today – a Specialized tri-Cross.   I guess it will be all right, but it is not my deVinci.  It’s sad to end a love affair after 6 years of passion. 

Bridge built by the Lackawana Railroad in 1915

  My new bike performed well as we climbed and descended all day.  Pennsylvania met my expectations, an industrial landscape with decaying industries.  The Lackawanna viaduct, despite being 100 years old, still is an impressive concrete memorial.    After the first16 km the highway we travelled became a nice, smooth, well-maintained road and we cycled through PA in safety. 

Friday September 21, 2012

  Binghamton Chenango Point Cycles

            There were a few cycle shops in the Yellow Pages but most of them were between 10 and 65 miles from our motel so we settled on the nearest. The taxi driver that fetched us from Greene had left us his number and he came straight round this morning to take us to the bike shop. It was with considerable relief that we found a bike of the right type and size and the shop owner had the time to transfer all the necessary parts from Tim’s old bike (luggage racks, mudguards, wheels) to the new one by mid-afternoon. Richard, the taxi driver, even waited while this was all agreed and then took us back to the motel. That was it then until we got the call that the bike was ready. Tim is now the proud (but poor) owner of a Specialized triCross bike and once we were mobile we set off to do a bit of shopping and get the laundry done. A trip to the cinema to see the new Clint Eastwood film (Trouble with the Curve) followed by supper at Applebee’s nicely rounded off this successful but expensive day. I think the enormous Glenlivet that the waitress served made it seem like a wonderful day but then that’s just me.

Thursday September 20, 2012

Hamilton to Binghamton 75Km 350m climbed.

We had a nice motel last night, a little more expensive than the budgeted but it was the only choice. At least breakfast was included. It was a beautiful day, a cool start but sunny blue skies. We set off through the middle of Hamilton and headed south for Binghamton. We had been told to look out for the Colgate University on the way out of town. Neither of us had heard of it before but it is an Ivy League university and well worth looking at. Beautiful buildings set on a forested hillside. We rode around the campus and took some pictures and shortly before we left a student came over to talk to us. He gave us some background on the university such as: 2800 students, they are the number 2 earners as a group among US graduates, fees $55000 a year (where did I go wrong). He is there on a scholarship so we figured he must be pretty clever to be there. He has hiked across Lebanon and the Golan heights and used public transport to get from Ethiopia to South Africa, which we found pretty impressive for somebody so young. He came to talk to us because he wants to cycle across the US from Maine to Seattle or, if he can get the money for the air fare, from France to Bulgaria and he does not have any experience of long bike tours hence there were many questions. After a long and fruitful chat we had to leave and make our way south. It was difficult because we were both very saddle sore. Insufficient training and averaging over 70 miles a day was taking its toll so we were thinking about taking a day off in Binghamton. As it turned out we did not have to think about it. We made our way through Sherburne (where we had lunch), bypassed New Berlin and headed for Norwich. Norwich looked promising for an overnight stop but we really had not done enough (50km) so we pressed on to Oxford. Oxford was just as big a splodge as Norwich on the map but there was next to nothing there so on we went. We stopped on the side of the road for a break and TimB complained about his bike wobbling so we checked the steering etc and couldn’t find any loose bits so we carried on. At Greene (75km) we had to stop at some road works and Tim said his bike was worse and then he found that the down tube, just below the steering tube, was cracked three quarters of the way round. Now that was a showstopper. I can deal with a lot of technical problems on the road but I must confess to not having packed the welding kit. We pushed our bikes over the road (works) to the petrol station where TimB phoned for a taxi for the remaining 19 miles to Binghamton while I tried to cadge a lift off pickup drivers on the forecourt. TimB was more successful than I so we ended up with a taxi ride into town. Once we had checked into the motel TimB got to work with the Yellow Pages and Internet to find a bike shop in town. It is too late to do anything until tomorrow so we get a days rest anyway. I get to write the blog because Tim is still traumatised from the loss of his bike and the expense of replacing it. We will be posting bank details for generous donations to this calamitous loss. 

Wednesday September 19, 2012

Old Forge, New York to Hamilton, New York 128 KM   750m Vertical climb

Downtown Old Forge - Deer

Old Forge is a picturesque small village in the Adirondacks and its most distinctive feature is the deer roaming through the city.  They were visible last night, and this morning, as we came out of our motel room, we had 4 deer feeding on our lawn.  Nice friendly animals. 

We had a slow start this morning as we had to do the laundry first.  There were a lot of soggy clothes from yesterday.  We left Old Forge at 10:45. The road was mostly downhill and we covered the first 50 km in 2 hours.  We had a better than expected lunch at a roadside pub and hit the road again.  In preparation for the trip I had mapped the route using Goggle Maps.  So far the road has been so straightforward I have ignored the maps. In the afternoon we had to navigate around Utica and goggle maps failed us.  Because the street signs do not always match the maps (ie. route 69 instead of Oriskaney road) we didn’t know if we were lost or not so we reverted to using major highways instead of scenic byways.  We ended up at a hotel that didn’t rent rooms and had to hop on our bikes and pedal 25km to the next town that had some motels.  We arrived just at sunset.  We are in Hamilton, New York where Colgate University is situated.

Lunch Time Pub - Barneveld

 

White Lake - Adirondacks

Tuesday September 18, 2012

 Tupper Lake to Old Forge  112Km, 1157m vertical climb
The forecast for today was for showers followed by continuous rain after midday with strong winds developing in the afternoon. When we started to leave the motel it had already started to rain so we went back and put on the rain jackets. It was just as well we did because the weather gods decided to skip the showers bit and give us continuous heavy rain for the whole of the 112km to Old Forge. The village with restaurants after only 30km was too soon so we carried on, only to find that, thereafter, restaurants and cafes were either derelict or only open at weekends. That meant we had to do the whole stage on an egg McMuffin and coffee plus a couple of granola bars, and we had run out of Gatorade so to say we were hungry and thirsty when we arrived in Old Forge is a bit of an understatement. This situation has, in the meantime, been suitably rectified. Despite the rainy weather we had, we were lucky in the end because, five minutes after checking into the motel, the serious bit of the storm hit.

Monday September 17, 2012

Malone, NY to Tupper Lake NY  97Km 750m vertical climb 

First on the to do list was a visit to a local store for phone cards and a memory card for TimB’s (wife’s) camera.  Despite being the tour IT expert he managed to make the card unrecognisable for the Notepad AND the camera. The weather was excellent and the clear sky forecast meant that I had to cream up a bright red face from the first stage. The stage started off tough and stayed that way. The first 15km were uphill and thereafter each decline was followed by a hill a bit higher than the last one. There were no opportunities to pull in for a tea break so we targeted a place call Paul Smith’s that was signposted about 35 miles away. It turned out that Paul Smith’s is a college and we stood outside the entrance with no apparent place to go for lunch. TimB stopped a motorist leaving the college and asked if there was a restaurant in the area and he was told that there was one a few miles towards Lake Placid. That would have meant a big detour that we did not want to do so we decided to try the college on the grounds that they must have a restaurant of some sort and we could only be rejected on the grounds of ineligibility. We followed road signs through the grounds and parked the bikes outside the St.Regis Café where many students were entering the building. Well, we went in and nobody batted an eyelid so our confidence rose and as the students queued to turn left we turned right into the St. Regis café. That is where we stopped for a second because the cloth covered tables, uniformed waitresses and panorama windows overlooking the terrace and Lower St. Regis Lake made us both think we would at least be turned away if not arrested. Far from it, an extremely attractive sophomore student took us to a table and gave us her utmost attention for the next hour. We had smoked pork and red bean soup, crayfish and shrimp pie and finished off with banana slices in a hot caramel sauce on a bed of vanilla ice cream all for ten dollars. Yep 10$!! TimB busied himself with his camera to take a picture of our waitress while I tried to figure how to tell him we should forget the tour and check into the college for a month. In the end he pointed out that his wife was only about 2 hours away by car so it was much safer to carry on the tour. Duly fortified were continued on to Tupper Lake where we found a lakeside motel and a restaurant (with the all important liquor licence) just down the road. Unfortunately, several bottles of 5.4% Blue Moon beer rendered us both unable to write the blog afterwards, hence the delay. 

Sunday September 16, 2012

            Pointe Claire to Malone, New York  130 km

We left Pointe Claire at 9 AM and headed west to Vaudreuil, the Soulange Canal and Valleyfield.  At the St Lawrence Seaway we waited for 20 minutes for a boat to go under the bridge.   We passed through the village of Huntington, under a covered bridge and then through the metropolis of Elgin, Quebec.   We tried crossing at Jamison Road, but we were refused entry because Euro Tim is an alien.  We trekked 15 km down the road to Trout River and entered the USA legally.  We then rode just 18 km to Malone but it was uphill all the way.

            We found the first day to be tough.  Somewhere around the 100km mark we both were wishing for a shower, supper and a beer.   This being Sunday we had to settle for a shower and supper.