It was another early start at around 6:15 am to, yet again, avoid the heat of the afternoon. The very first climb after leaving the hotel parking lot had a grade of 8%. Not exactly my idea of a fun way to start a day 😊 You could say that my friend Janet and I have a love / hate relationship: She loves hills and I hate them!! There were several climbs that were 7 to 11% grades and others that stayed below 5%. For me, anything over 3% is a climb that will have me breathing hard and shifting into a lower gear. There was one downhill that had just been paved and there weren’t any cars. Now that was fun!! I still brake going down a hill and try not go over 30mph however, today my max speed was 34.1 mph. There were hills pretty much all day, so I didn’t take too many photos during the ride.
Today is my friend Linda’s birthday and it was a lot of fun! She had a birthday brownie at one stop, an ice-cold Dr. Pepper at another stop, and then at the hotel she had a flower delivery of yellow roses from her brother! Linda is originally from Texas where Dr. Pepper rules. The flower delivery turned out to be tricky as well because the hotel owner would not accept the delivery until her brother called and pleaded. It is a small local hotel and the owner is not receptive to anything out of his norm.
Starting early also meant we ended early around 11:00 am. That meant we could not get into our rooms for several hours. As each rider arrived, we would add another chair from the support vehicle and sit in the shade. The tour provides lunch every day; as soon as the food vehicle arrived, lunch was served! It must have looked pretty darn good because several people stopped and tried to grab a plate! The lunch food has had a great variety: usually some baked chicken, lunchmeat & cheese, PB & J sandwiches, at least one type of salad, fresh fruit (like black cherries, blueberries, etc), a soup or stew, or even penne pasta with meat sauce, and several dessert options. Let’s just say that I won’t be losing any weight this past week.
Tonight was the celebration dinner for the riders that completed the entire Northern Tier. You could call me a one-week visitor. The riders that completed the entire route received their custom-made jerseys at the dinner as well. It was very emotional for the group and I felt very privileged to be a part of their epic adventure.
Stats from the day:
Start city: Loudon, NH
End city: Sanford, ME
Miles: 51.15
Total miles to date: 347.71
Pedaling time: 3:50
Avg. speed: 13.4
Feet climbed: 2,438
Wind: start: ENE calm; end W 7 mph
Temperature extremes: 72 at ride start, 88 (feels like 95) at ride finish
Sunrise as we left the hotel.
One of the first climbs. Note that you can only see one of my three friends in front of me. Yep, even those first hills put me in my place :-)
One of my favorite pictures.
Birthday brownie. And yes, we did sing happy birthday to Linda!
Next stop, one of her cold Dr. Peppers!
My fourth and final state of this ride: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and now Maine!
The Florida crew.
We’re in Maine!
View of Sanford.
Our hotel for the night.
Roses for birthday girl Linda, from her brother.
Center Barnstead NH.
Linda, Fred and Janet showing off their new jerseys that even has their name on the sleeves.
Amy and Clark.
The table I was sitting at included Chrysa, Gayle, Maggie, Richard, Tom and Nate.
Ray was trying to get the tag off his jersey when I snapped this photo.