By The Numbers

There's nothing very earth shattering in this post, but if you're interested, the final numbers are posted below.  Don't even bother to cross check them, I'll tell you right now, that they didn't all add up exactly, but after 50 days and over 18,000 miles, all my totals came up to be within 150 miles of each other.  Considering the lackadaisical method of record keeping I did, I can accept that.  The picture will probably be difficult to see, but it shows a good approximation of the five loops I rode to accomplish my quest.  So I don't have any idea of what the next decade birthday will bring, but I have ten years to figure it out.  My goal might just be to be able to walk up to the mailbox and back all in one day.

Days gone:  53
Travel days:  50
Total mileage:  18,389
Avg. Miles/day:  368
Most mileage in one day:  686
Least mileage in one day:  170
Total gallons of gas used:  503.591
Avg. Cost/gal:  3.792
Avg. Miles/gal:  36.53
Top 3 most traveled states:  Tennessee. 997/Arkansas   910/Georgia. 841
Bottom 3 most traveled states:  Minnesota. 103/Rhode Island. 103/Massachusetts  103

Now What

Today's mileage:  304
Loop mileage:  3528
Quest total:  18,925
Present location:  Home

I finished up today by riding another couple hundred miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then jumped onto some familiar back roads and headed on home.  Again some great scenery on the Parkway, but the best sight today was Manfred sitting in front of our house.  I will probably do some looking at my notes and numbers and make one more post with some totals.  If you are interested, you might check back in about a week to see the final tallies.  So that's it from here, so now what.

Doing It Right

Today's mileage:   378
Loop mileage:  3224
Quest total:  18,621
State total:  48
Present location:  Fancy Gap, Va.

I know that from Leesburg,  Virginia I can go west, catch the interstate south all the way into South Carolina and be home in ten hours.  And once you are headed that way, the pull of home can be awfully strong.  But I've had such great riding days by staying off the interstate, that I just couldn't let this quest end that way.  Especially since I had such a great alternative route so close.  So I decided to go ahead and take two days to get home.  About 40 miles southwest of Leesburg, you enter the Shenandoah National Park, and get on the Skyline Drive which carries you along the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  As you exit the park, you immediately join the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The combined length of these roads is over 550 miles.  Right now there is very little traffic( too early for all the leaf lookers, and the summer vacation rush is over), and semis and all commercial traffic is banned, as are billboards.  The roads climb and descend, with sweeping turns, some tight spirals, and fantastic scenery the entire way.  Without a doubt, this is the way to end this journey right.  So I'm on the road for another day, but I'll be home tomorrow.

Are we there yet

Today's mileage:  339
Loop mileage:  2846
Quest mileage:  18,243
State total:  48
Present location:  Leesburg, Va.

Today I met my basic goal of riding 100 miles in each of the lower 48 states within one year.  The picture of the bike is where this actually occurred.  I'm sure it's not the exact point, but it should be at least within 5 miles.  It is somewhere in Pennsylvania.  I shot off some streamers, but  I guess they didn't show up in the picture.  So basically I started off from Hancock, NY this morning and headed into Pennsylvania.  Like yesterday, the morning started off cool and foggy, but cleared quickly as I rode thru the mountains.  After a couple of hundred miles on the back roads with some great scenery, I hit the interstate so that I could get to Leesburg to see our friends Jim and Jean.  Years ago Jim and I had a wager where the loser had to buy the beer whenever we got together, and I'm not talking a six pack here, this was beer for life.  I never tire of collecting on this bet.  Additionally, I wanted to see Jim's new toy.  We became friends when we were in the Air Force over 30 years ago,  I think he bought this plane just to make me jealous.
Anyway, even though the basic goal is complete I still have to get home before I can consider it successful.  If things go as planned, I should be home in two days.  I'll keep blogging until I get there.

A Change Of Direction

Today's mileage:  398
Loop mileage:  2507
Quest total:  17,904
State total:  47
Present location:  Hancock, NY

Coming up here, I always figured that as long as I was on a highway that said North or East I couldn't go to wrong.  I'm heading home now, so the directions have changed to west and south.  Of course I suppose I could have a lapse and get to far west, but I'm pretty sure I could figure it out before I got to the Pacific.  So I started out west and entered Vermont.  It was chilly this morning, and initially there was some fog in the higher elevations.  But the fog cleared, the temperature warmed up, and I had one of the best mornings I've had.  I was in the Green Mountains, on a good road on a spectacular fall day.  I'm not sure it gets any better.  Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do it justice.  I hated to leave the Green Mountains, but it was time to leave Vermont and enter New York.  After a bit, I jumped onto the interstate to get thru the Albany area.  South of Albany I exited west and went thru the Catskills.  Another great riding area.  As you can see from the picture, the water levels in the lakes up here are down too.  All in all, it was a great riding day.  A couple of comments on the pictures.  I realize a picture of a cemetery is a little strange, but I'm impressed with the cemeteries in the northeast.  I like the simplicity of the old headstones, and every cemetery I've seen has been mowed, trimmed and very neat.  As I came up on this cemetery, with the sun to my back, I thought the view was very striking, so I took a picture.  The other picture was in Killington where they are having some sort of scavenger hunt that includes hay sculptures.  I saw about five of them, but this was the one I liked best.  There was another town in New York that had Hobbit statues all over town painted differently, but I thought they were just plain creepy.  I should have taken a picture but I don't think it would have been that precious.

Wicked Good

Today's mileage:  334
Loop mileage:  1782
Quest total:  17179
State total:  44
Present location:  Bar Harbor, Maine

Today was a pretty decent day for riding.  The weather was cool, there was no moisture and I found some pretty good roads. One goal that I have had for this loop, was that I wanted to get to Acadia National Park.  I started off in NH and then entered into the land where things aren't just good, they're Wicked Good.  The towns in Maine are a little farther apart and not real large for the most part.  This allowed me to move at a pretty good pace, but it was still a haul to get to the coast.  I had about two hours to ride around and stop at various places in the park.  It is indeed beautiful.  I realize that when I travel in a park like this, that I am only getting a taste of what it has to offer,  but I'll take what I can get.  Just a few pictures included to give you a taste too.  I also included another house picture just for the heck of it.  Maybe the house owner is a John Mellencamp fan (kudos to those of you who understand that reference).  Only other thing to report, is that since I am on the Maine coast, I deed indeed have the lobster special for supper.  It was Wicked Good.

I Remember That One

Today's mileage:  170
Loop mileage:  1448
Quest total:  16,845
State total:  43
Present location:  Nashua, New Hampshire

When I walked out of my door this morning it started to sprinkle.  I turned around and walked back into my room.  45 minutes later, the rain stopped and that was it for the day.  Day started off cool and cloudy but ended up being sunny and warm by the afternoon.  I headed up north thru Rhode Island.  Saw a few yard sculptures I thought I would share.  Heading on into Massachusetts, I took a side trip to go to Rice-O-Rami.   This is a big swap meet held every year for old Japanese manufactured bikes.  I spent over two hours looking at things and know I didn't see it all.  There were bikes held together with baling wire with all the left over parts piled in a box, and bikes that had been totally rebuilt that looked brand new.  They were all for sale, it just depended on how much you wanted to spend.  The really fun part for me was seeing all the old bikes I remembered growing up with.  It was "I remember that bike, that's the one I learned to ride on, that one's just like the one I had in high school, that one's just like the one I wrecked".  That's also where I saw the toy jet trike(I don't have any idea what it has to do with a bike show).  There was certainly no way to get it home, but I did think that in a couple of years, my granddaughter would look really cool on it.  When I finally headed out, it was a really nice day, and I ended up having a great ride thru the rest of Massachusetts. I stopped a little earlier than usual today, and didn't cover much ground.  But this isn't a race, and besides, I had to do some laundry.