...in sunshine, with a bit of wind too
That wild wind we had last night did a really nice job of moving the clouds. I woke this morning to clear blue skies, with temperatures a little cooler than yesterday and with some remaining but relatively minor wind. It was a good day for riding.
First business of the day though was a good breakfast, served to all guests at a single table. Interesting morning conversations accompanied a wonderful breakfast. A dish of fresh strawberries and blueberries topped with a nice light sauce was a good start, as was the peach-mango juice. My main breakfast course was different than everyone else's since I had told my hosts that I don't eat meat. So my eggs were much enhanced with chunks of avocado. That went down well, as did the accompanying blueberry corn muffins. My stomach was happy, and definitely ready to ride.
I headed out this morning wearing both my knee warmers and wind breaker in addition to my normal shorts and jersey. Those extra layers stayed with me until the afternoon. Every time I thought I was getting too warm during my morning riding, the wind kicked up and reminded me that although the temperature was probably in the low 60s, it still wasn't that warm!
My ride started today as it ended yesterday, with a walk across the Route 1 bridge between Kittery and Portsmouth. There are sidewalks on both sides of this lift bridge, with the driving surface on the "lift" section of the bridge that hated metal gridwork, and stern signs on either side of the bridge instructing cyclists to walk their bikes on the sidewalk. Then I rolled onto the roads of Portsmouth, in search of Marcy Street - the road that would lead me onto Route 1-B and then to Route 1-A. Ah, mission accomplished. Oh - what's that? An old, old cemetery on the side of the road. I think I need to stop. That was typical of my ride for today... I'd see something interesting that I absolutely needed to explore or my camera needed to photograph. One example was the pair of cormorants that I think were posing for me. As I was riding along the coast, I could see one of the birds standing with its wings spread, a typical cormorant pose. I never thought I'd be able to capture that with my camera. After all, I needed to stop the bike, retrieve my camera from its home for the ride, focus, shoot. But that crazy bird waited for me. And in fact, the pair of birds even switched; at first the bird on the right was standing with wings out. But after I shot a few pictures, that bird pulled its wings in, and the other one stood with outstretched wings. Fascinating.
And then there was the humming tree... I was getting close to home, and I have to admit I was ready to be home. But I had to keep stopping - there were too many beautiful sights to capture with my cameras. I was standing under a tree just loaded with beautiful small magenta flowers when I started hearing a humming noise that seemed to be coming from the tree. It wasn't windy at the time, and at first I thought that I was hearing things. And then I looked a little closer... the flowers on this tree were absolutely loaded with bees, happily feeding and humming, humming. I didn't even think about stepping back since the bees were so interested in the flowers that I figured they wouldn't stop to sting me. The flowers must taste a lot better than a sweaty cyclist!
Between my frequent stops and the conversations I had with strangers along the way, it took me about an hour and a half longer to ride home today than it did to ride to Kittery yesterday. That's not a complaint though; it was again a thoroughly enjoyable ride.
I don't think I've ever ridden the New Hampshire coast and not encountered other people on bikes, but there were more cyclists than usual rolling down the coast today. My ride home coincided with a Tour de Cure fundraiser. Luckily for me, I didn't hit any sections with bunched up riders; everyone was spread out fairly well. I believe the folks I was passing heading south were on the 25 mile ride, while the longer route riders had apparently looped around in a different spot. I saw them further down the road, and heading north. The riders I was passing appeared to be occasional riders as opposed to experienced road riders. I'm a consistent rider who can go for hours, but I'm not fast. And yet I felt like I was flying by people, even on my relatively lightly loaded bike!
It was a good people day, starting with conversations at breakfast and continuing throughout the day. I stopped often to play with my camera, and I found myself talking with people who were fascinated by my bike. I had a long conversation with a woman who was sitting with her dog at one of the beach access points in Seabrook, NH. She was a psychologist who often counsels women that it is OK (even good) to do things alone, yet she only started following her own advice recently. My habit of traveling alone (well, not totally alone if you count Rover!) on my bike (or not!) was very interesting to her.
Reversing course today meant just that. I rode the same roads as yesterday, only backwards. I'm still amazed that riding a road in the opposite direction is often enough to make it feel like I'm on a different road. I suppose that's a good thing, because I can see myself repeating this very short tour again at some point in the future.
