137

Sunday, October 19, 2008, a truck stop somewhere about 200 miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio
It was very cold last night. I'm glad we didn't have to try to sleep in the tent. There was frost on everything in the morning. We got an early start and made it to Niagra Falls around noon. The falls were magnificent, so beautiful and powerful. It was such a clear day. We took lots of pictures. I wish we could have stayed until evening because they put the colored lights on then and they illuminate the falls in a rainbow of color. I also wish we would have had our birth certificates because with a license and birth certificate, you can still cross the Canadian border into Ontario. From there you can see the face of the falls, the best vantage point. Everyone was real hungry when we left, so we went to the Friendly Chinese Buffet and filled our tanks. After that, I was too tired to drive, so we stopped at a rest stop and I took a snooze in the back of the van. After about an hour we continued driving and read the Bible and sang hymns. We drove late into the night again and ended up at a truck stop and tried again to sleep in a sitting position in the car. The two front seats don't recline at all so it was not a very restful sleep.

136

Saturday, October 18, 2008, at a gas station somewhere in New York
I got up early and went to the store to buy breakfast food before everyone got up, then made breakfast: eggs, bacon, cereal and yogurt. We all ate and enjoyed; then we had to say our goodbyes. Such a nice family. We headed first to the U-Haul dealership to rent a trailer. We got a nine footer to fit the tandem. Everything fit well, not too overcrowded. Then we went to the Portland Headlight, the famous lighthouse. Then we found a place downtown that sold Maine Lobster and bought two, plus two clam chowders and shared them. Expensive, but good. We had to try Maine Lobster before we could leave. Well, now we could officially leave. So we went to get our trailer and said goodbye to Gwyneth and the kids and drove off to begin our return to California. We planned to stop at Niagra Falls in New York, The Allen's house in Indiana, The Reynolds house in Colorado, and The Grand Canyon in Arizona before arriving at the Locsin's house in Morgan Hill, California, where we would be staying until we got a place of our own. Before we could go, we had to eat, since the Lobster dinner didn't fill us up, so we went to Wendy's and filled up on the usual, hamburgers, french fries, and coke, not exactly the food of champions, or is it? The toll roads in New York were expensive. We spent over $30 just in tolls before we left the state. We listened to Karen Carpenter for miles. She's a great singer, but it was the only CD we had so it got a little old after awhile. The plan was to ride as far as possible every day then pull in to a place we could park the van for the night to sleep. We ended up driving until 2:30 am then we pulled in to a gas station to sleep.

135

Friday, October 17, 2008, home of Jamie and Gwyneth Arrison, PORTLAND, MAINE!
Well, today we finally made it, all the way to the finish line, Portland, Maine. Last night was cold, our coldest so far, but we managed to sleep ok, at least I did. We started out well, eating the breakfast Pastor Humphreys gave us and saying our goodbyes to him and Marsha, a nice lady from the church. He gave us the names of two other pastors he knew in Portland who we should call when we got there. So from there we picked up our bikes at the fire station and rode off toward our final destination. The weather had cleared up by morning and it was a beautifully sunny ride. We passed through York, which was preparing for its annual Harvest Festival. Booths were being set up, food was cooking, all very festive. We stopped by a bike store and I bought a mirror to replace the one broken in yesterday's fall. It was great to see behind myself again while I rode. Next we headed to the Nubble Lighthouse, a picturesque tourist sight on the ocean, and it was beautiful. Everyone rode today, which is what I like best. During the ride I saw an apple tree laden with ripe apples alongside the road, so we loaded up the panniers with them, a nice refreshing, nutritious snack. As we approached Portland, I called Pastor Jamie and he said we could stay with him and his wife. He was even going to make a dinner for us! We were all excited about knowing we had a place to stay in Portland, dinner included. I decided to take the scenic route, knowing that, even though it was longer, it would be safer than the main road, which was already starting to get hectic as it approached rush hour. It turned out to be a lot longer because I took the advice of someone at a store for a more direct route. Oh well. It was ok. It was almost nightfall by the time we crossed the final bridge leading into the town of Portland. What a thrill to finally see the Portland sign! We had made it. We were so excited blowing our horns and celebrating that we didn't realize we had passed up the photo opportunity until a half mile past the signs. So we parked our bikes and ran back to the signs on the bridge for the historic photos. We were all smiles. Later we met up with Gloria, John, and Sarah for a family picture in front of the main welcome sign of Portland and took a nice family picture, capturing our thrill at finally realizing our dream. We rode with our lights on in the dark to Jamie and Gwyneth's house and met their children, Faith, Dena, and Alex and had a nice night talking and sharing with them. Later we went back to the store and bought 5 containers of ice-cream, including a new delicious flavor I had never tried before: New England Blueberry (or something like that). It was great. Unfortunately, I think they only sell it in New England, so we might never taste it again until we return to Maine. The whole evening, I wore a smile on my face, knowing we had arrived at our destination, finished our course, and accomplished our goal. We all were tired by the end of the evening and slept well on the warm floor. I lay on the floor reflecting on the trip before falling asleep.
68 Miles.

134

Thursday, October 16, 2008, St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Kittery, Maine
Today we wanted to go far, maybe all the way to Portland if we had a good day. Becky's knees have been hurting lately, so Sarah couldn't ride, unfortunately. We rode on a road that paralleled the coast and was lined with old beach style houses. Every day is more fun now that we realize the end is approaching...fast. It's been fun for me. Every day I like to ride and I cherish the moments together on this epic adventure, knowing that such a time will probably never happen again. So, for me, I soak it all in and appreciate it more as time goes on. The kids are very talkative along the way. When we arrived in New Hampshire, we stopped to walk along the beach and collect rocks. We saw lobster for sale at only $3.99 a pound. We saw some gorgeous houses along the coast and took a picture by one of them. Vicky had developed a slow leak in her tire, so we had to stop and refill it at regular intervals, but it had been a while and it was getting low, so the others took a break while Vicky and I rode a mile out of the way to a gas station to fix it. It turned out to be a cracked valve stem, so the repair was faulty at best. But we did manage to pump it up. By then, Mom had arrived and used the time we were repairing the tire to see about fixing the license plate lights which had been out for some time, I guess, because a policeman stopped us the night we went to the Chinese Buffet and told us they were out. He asked for my driver's license, which is the normal procedure, and I discovered it was missing. Where? I don't know. Fortunately, he didn't give me a ticket for not having it but just told us to have the lights fixed. Thank God! I need to find it or get a replacement. So, back to the original story, it was very nice to find out that the mechanic had figured out the problem, a grounded out trailer wire, and had not charged us a cent. Just a kind man. So fortunate. Finally we were on the road again. We saw a recently killed beaver on the way back, a first for me. After awhile it began to rain. We put on our rain gear and continued. As we were crossing over a metal bridge the front wheel slid out from under us and Adriana and I had our first real fall of the trip, a painful one. We both landed on our left thighs and got good bruises and Charley horses. The fall broke my mirror and bent both the pedals on the left side. Fortunately, we could still pedal and no mechanical problems resulted. We were very careful after that. Finally we crossed the border into Kittery, Maine, our last state. The rain was starting to get pretty hard, so we stopped in a library. I updated the blog a little, but we still hadn't found a place to pitch the tent, so we left in search of finding one. We ended up asking a guy at the fire station if we could leave our bikes there over night and slept at the St. Mark's United Methodist Church. Pastor William Humphreys and the leaders of the church were very gracious and generous with us and let us use the facilities and funded our dinner and brought us breakfast donuts and orange juice in the morning. Great people. We took a picture in front of the church bell before leaving.
25 miles.

133

Wednesday, October 15, 2008, the Driftwood Motel, Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts
Today was a beautiful day for riding, cool, and not too hilly. We took pictures by Walden Lake. We bypassed Boston to avoid traffic and ended up having a much nicer ride. We rode without many breaks because we wanted to make it to the coast of Massachusetts fast to go to the beach before dark. We made it before dark to Salisbury Beach and took pictures. At first we went to the campground and took showers; then later, we ended up staying at the Driftwood motel because I met one of the guys in charge and he let us stay for only $25. So, we had to go back to the campground and take down the tent in the dark; I think it was worth it, though, because it was going to be so much warmer in the motel. After that we went to a pizza shack on the beach boardwalk area. The lady there gave us a good deal on her remaining pizzas since it was right before closing: 4 pizzas for $30. We met a lady there who was crying and wanted to use our cell phone because her boyfriend had been arrested and she needed money to bail him out, so we let her use our phone. After that we went to MacDonald's for a group drink. MacDonald's should have sponsored us considering how many times we have eaten there. One of the justifications for our frequent visits is that we are hoping to win a cash prize for a Monopoly since we only need one more of any color to win. How gullible! It was crowded on the floor of the small motel room, but we managed to sleep warm and comfortably.
80 miles