Bar Harbor, ME Photos of finish! Aug. 16th, 2011

Everyone, I am home now on Nantucket, and it has been a week since I finished my cross country bike journey in Bar Harbor, Maine.  Here are the photos that I have promised.
Love,

Kit

August 17th, Lamoine, ME. 0 Miles. At the Cottage!

The journey is over, and I now am reunited with my family, Paje, and my dog, Cash.  We are in Lamoine, ME at a beautiful cottage we have rented for the week.  It is here where I will rest, and reintegrate into life again... See the pictures of the cottage below.  It is very nice, and on the ocean surrounded by the craggy shore line.  I have had a great day.  We saw a bald eagle flying over the shore line.  What a sight to behold.  It is strange to be back in civilization, and out of my very structured routine of ride, eat, sleep.  Paje picked me up at the hotel in Bar Harbor this morning where I stayed, as we all had our celebration banquet for the completion of our ride.  We had a delicious dinner at the Parkside Restaurant on Main St. in Bar Harbor.  We had our choice of Prime Rib, Lobster, Crab cakes.  I ordered crab cakes, and it was yummy! The two beers made it all taste just perfect.  We all laughed, reminisced about our 43 days together, and all the miles.  I have posted pictures here for you all to see. It was hard to say good bye to the friends I have made, but I will keep in touch and ride with them again.  Throughout the tour, I had the most capable, incredible guides.  Michelle, Linda, and Carol.  I will post pictures Paje took of my finish in Bar Harbor when I get back on Nantucket as my lap top won't read her card.  Tomorrow night, we are having our friends the Lambs over for a barbeque to celebrate.  I am so lucky to have done this ride, and to have had the support of all my friends, family.  What more could I want?
Love,
Kit 

   

Aug. 16th. Bar Harbor, ME. 47Miles-Mission Complete!!!!!!!!!!!

A dream come true.  I can now say I have ridden my bike across the USA!!  It was quite a difficult ride into Bar Harbor from Bucksport. It was pouring rain, and extremely busy roads.  I am thankful to have made it in one piece.  I rode with my buddies, Milano and Con Con.  Just as we were about to enter into Bar Harbor, , Paje drove by!!  I waved like crazy, and was so happy to see her. I couldn't believe I was finally laying my eyes on her after 6 weeks!! Moments later, I would see her as we rode down to the Pier at Bar Harbor where I stood in the ocean and held my bike over my head!  I was quite emotional as I rode down West St. in Bar Harbor.  A lot went through my mind.  The joy of being done.  Having made it safely without any problems.  The joy of seeing Paje. And wishing my aunt was alive to see this.   Paje took some great shots with her camera, so when I leave tomorrow, we will load them onto this blog for you all to see.  The Lambs, my friends from Nantucket, were also there.  Laura bought  a bottle of Perrier Jouet Champagne which Paje and I drank.  Thank you Laura & Jay!  It was great, and I had a nice buzz on after the first glass!  It was very festive!  Ellen's family had balloons, cow bells, and champagne.  Despite the terrible weather our spirits were high and not dampened by it!  It is one of those moments I will never forget in my life time. I am now at the Bar Harbor Grand Hotel, where I am dry and clean!  At 6:30 tonight we have our celebration banquet, then I will spend a few days recovering, and catching up on my rest at a cottage Paje and I have rented.  2,400 miles is a long way to ride a bike!!  Fargo, ND - Bar Harbor, ME.  It was a very challenging tour, filled with challenging terrain, traffic, and extreme high temps in the mid west.  I thank you all again for all your support.  Check the blog tomorrow for photos of the finish!
Love,
Kit  

Aug. 15th, Bucksport, ME, 87 Miles!

Awoke today expecting to see a lot of rain, but just a drizzle.  Wake up call @ 5:15 a.m., threw on my bike clothes, ate a great bfast put on by the wonderful Hampton Inn, and by 6:30 a.m., I was on my bike headed 87 miles down the road to Bucksport.  I rode with my friend, Ellen, a kindergarten teacher in VT.  We had the most incredible, stellar ride today!  It was like all the others have been recently, full of steep climbs, and heavy traffic. We laughed, talked as we rode, and the miles flew by.  We rode on Rt. 1, and many of the back roads, which had the steep hills.   Still, it was an incredible ride, and we were the first ones to finish out of the group.  We rode really hard, and basically were super strong the whole day.  We were glad to finish safely.  Tomorrow, we have our final ride into Bar Harbor, 47 miles.  It is hard to explain how I am feeling, but it borders on elation, excitement, and some sadness that this routine I have been living for the past 43 days will be ending.  All I've had to do is ride, eat, sleep.  I need to thank everyone who supported me, and gave money to my fund raising for Roswell Park Cancer Insitute in Buffalo, NY over these past two summers.  It has meant the world to me.  The real heroes are the people we all know, family, relatives, loved ones who are fighting Cancer.  All I know how to do is ride my bike, and raise money in hopes this disease will some day be put to rest.  I never lost sight of the purpose of my ride, and it kept me motivated, and going to ride some 2,400 miles over these 6 weeks. Ithought of my beautiful aunt, Ann Newell as I rode each day in her memory.  Her St. Jude medal protected me from a lot of challenging moments on the journey that I faced.  Including last summers WA State- Fargo, ND, 1,850 miles ,it is a total of 4,050 mile that I rode to cross the USA. Tomorrow, we get into Bar Harbor, at the West St. Pier.  We will ride in between 11-12:00.  Paje will be there to greet me!  So will my good friends, The Lambs (Laura, Jay, Jennifer, and Madeline)  I can't wait to see them all!!!!  Tomorrow night, we have a send off Banquet where we all eat, drink and say farewell to all of our biking friends who we've shared so much with over these intense 6 weeks. I am so fortunate.  I have had it all. 
Love,
Kit          

Aug. 14th. Bath, ME. 68 miles.

Milano and I rode together all day today.  We left Bridgton at 7:30 a.m., only to have her cable snap 20 minutes later.  We called Michelle, the trip leader, and she was there in no time flat to thread a new cable through.  Mic is a awesome bike mechanic!!  There is nothing she cannot fix.   Womantours is so lucky to have her on board.  The ride to Bath was very, very hilly, with short steep constant climbs.  I have a name for those short steep hills, but I am too much of a lady to type it out.  Deb has had a injured knee since Iowa, which was weeks back, so doing these steep climbs is tough for her....but she did the ride, and I looked out for her, and kept her laughing and all kinds of senseless nonsense!.  Once we got into Bath some 68 miles later, a brand new Hampton Inn awaited us!  Just gorgeous!  Very swanky!  I did the usual, hot shower, laundry.  For dinner, Linda, our chef, made mac. and cheese-scrumptous, and pulled pork on a bun with cole slaw.  SO GOOD!!  Our desserts were amazing--whoopie pies, chocolate twinkies made by a fellow biker, Robin's teacher friend.  Oh man I love whoopie pies!  The ride tomorrow is going to be, I think, hellish.  Not because it's 86 miles, but because there is a 70% chance of rain.  We ride into Bucksport, ME tomorrow.  I know I'll do it, but will get drenched.  Big deal.  I am determined. Then, Tuesday, we ride a mere 46 miles into Bar Harbor!!!!!!  I can't believe I have ridden from Fargo, ND to Maine in six weeks!!!!!!  Everyone is very excited for Tuesday.  We will all, after 6 weeks, get to see our families! Is there anything better than that?!
Love,
Kit

Bridgton, ME. Aug. 13th, 70 Miles. What a wild ride!!

We biked to Bridgton ME. today, some 70 miles from Lincoln, NH.  First thing, as soon as we got on our bikes at 7:40, we began a 12 mile climb up Kancamagus Pass in the White MTs.  Some 3,000 or so feet up.  I got up and over it no problem, I like climbing!  The descent was fast!  The ride was great the first 41 miles, where we then crossed the state line into Maine!!!!  I was elated!! I got choked up, and shared the moment with a father/son team also biking cross country, and headed to Lubec, Bar Harbor.  We each high fived one another and took photos on our cell phones.  The next 30 miles were pretty hairy...awful roads, high traffic.  There were more hills, but rolling, not mountians!  Still steep with awful maintained roads.  I got into Bridgton at 1:30 p.m. and felt really proud of myself as it was a really challenging ride in so many ways.  My camera was left in my suit case, so I have a photo of me at the Maine state line that was taken on my cell phone.  I'll try to figure a way to post it...  Tomorrow we ride into Bath, Maine, 67 miles away.  I can't wait to reach Bar Harbor on Tuesday.  So far I've ridden some 2,200 miles or so!  I am looking forward to Tuesday, when I dip my front tire into the Atlantic Ocean at the Pier in Bar Harbor, which will signify my cross country journey complete.
Love,
Kit

Aug. 12th-Lincoln, NH-63 Miles

We're in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!  We biked today from White River Junction, VT to Lincoln.  The first 28 miles was lovely, beautiful New England farm houses, then we hit the Mountains, and had all climbing the last  30+ miles.  The descents in the Whites were a blast, long and beautiful pavement.  My friend Con Con hit 50 mph on the descent!!  Wo!!  Once into Lincoln, NH we ate lunch, burger and fries, and a soft serve ice cream  I had banana.  Yummy!.  The climbing was very difficult, and my legs, along with everyone elses, felt fatigued from all the climbing we have done over the course of days.  I let out some choice swear words on a few of the climbs that were merciless and never ending.  Could you hear me?  One of the words began with the letter F.  And it wasn't the word, Fun.  Lincoln is a skiing town, home of the ski resort, Loon Mountain.  We bike into Bridgton, ME tomorrow, 70 miles.  We begin our ride with an immediate 12 miles climb on the Kancamagus highway.  The good news is, it is only a 6% grade climb.  We have been on hills that are 13+%.  Our trip guide, Michelle, said tomorrow is going to be a long day, full of climbing, and descending, and climbing.  Oh well...I like to climb more so than some of the down hills.  I just do it.  Everyone on our trip is feeling pretty tired, and worn out.  Many of the women are ready for the trip to end now.  Bar Harbor will be here before we know it...Tuesday!! One of my good friends has a stomach bug.  I hope she feels better so she can get some riding in tomorrow. Well here are some photos I took after the ride.
Only 4 more riding days left!!
Love,
Kit