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.

Duty Honor Country

When I looked at the map last night, I saw that I was very close to West Point.  Since I had never been to the USMA, I knew I had to take a trip there.  The only problem, is that I arrived at eight, and you are not allowed on the post until nine.  So I killed an hour, and then spent about an hour riding around the academy.  I'm sure I could have spent more time, but I was also pretty sure there was some weather moving in that I wanted to try to get ahead of.  Good plan, but it didn't work.  I got drenched this morning.  In case you didn't know, waterproof gear is only good up to a certain point, and this rain exceeded that point.  So I was a bit damp for the rest of the day, but it was much cooler than yesterday which was good.  Moving on, I got past Danbury Ct  and got on to the secondary roads.  These were pleasant riding roads, but except for the interstate, I never saw a road with a speed limit greater than 45.  It's really hard to travel at 25 MPH.  I found out that I'm not very good at it.  I crossed the Connecticut river on a ferry.  The structure you see across the river in the upper left is the Gillette Castle.  Interestingly, it has nothing to do with the Gillette razors.  After most of the day, I entered Rhode Island down in the southwest corner.  Since RI is the "Ocean State". I decided I should at least go out to one beach and find out what makes their ocean better.  It pretty much looked the same to me.  Guess I picked the wrong beach.

It Can't Be Done

Today's mileage:  243
Loop total:  1037
Quest total:  16,434
State total:  39
Present location:  Harriman, NY

I try really hard to stay off the interstates and miss the big cities.  That's really hard to do up here in the northeast.  I thought I had a really good plan (one that took me from NJ into PA and then back into NJ), in order to miss the cities, traffic and interstates.  Maybe two out of three isn't bad, but there is just noway to miss traffic just by skirting the cities.  Even though I stayed mostly on county roads, there were still plenty of four lane roads, traffic lights, and of course traffic.  Add to that the fact that it was quite hot today, and it made for a rather trying day at times. It wasn't all bad.  I did find some really great county roads away from the cities that gave me some great riding and some good scenery.  I have to admit, there were times when I didn't really think I was in NJ, because it didn't fit the mental picture I had.  But even with that, I think I may have to try some different tactics for the next few days.  I think I'll probably just ride the interstates through the cities and try to get thru them as quickly as possible in order to get to some better riding.  We'll have to see how that works out.  They are no real stories behind today's pictures.  I just found them to be interesting.  If you are interested, the car is for sale.
 

The Rinse Cycle

Today's mileage:  258
Loop mileage:  794
Loop total:  16,191
States total:  39
Present location:  Odessa, Delaware

When I checked the weather radar before I took off this morning, I knew there was a chance I could get wet.  I took off anyway, hoping for the best.  It wasn't long before I did indeed run into rain showers.  Luckily it didn't last long, so it really wasn't an issue.  I was in MD at this point, so I got onto secondary roads and headed for a ferry crossing.  Unfortunately, when I arrived, there was no ferry (closed for maintenance).  I knew there was another ferry crossing further upriver, I just wasn't sure where, so I took to the back roads to see if I could find it.  I'm sure it took me much longer than it should have to find it, but it was the type of riding that I really like.  They were good roads that were lightly traveled, and I was never really sure where I was at.  After the crossing, I continued north for a while longer on the back roads.  Every small town I entered had a sign stating it was a historical town.  I'm no expert, but I didn't think this house color was historically correct (and this was without any sunshine to brighten it up).  Maybe he just doesn't like his neighbors.  I reached 100 miles in MD. So I turned east to enter into Delaware.  That's when it really started to rain, I felt like I was definitely in the rinse cycle.  I don't consider rain to be a deal breaker on a trip, but it is a game changer.  It's one thing when you are heading for a destination, it's another thing when you are just meandering. It takes a bit of the fun out of it.  After about two hours of riding in a steady rain I was considering calling it a day when I came upon the Airlift Museum at Dover Air Force Base.  While visiting the museum's inside exhibits, it stopped raining, so after my visit, I decided to head east towards the coast.  This is when I learned that when the area has a lot of rain, and the tide is coming in, some of the roads in the low lying wetlands areas  close due to tidal flooding.  After crossing a marginal area of road that had rising water on both sides,  I decided to call it a day.  Hoping for a dryer day tomorrow.

Moving On

Today's Mileage:  536
Loop Mileage:  536
Quest Total:  15,397
Present Location:  Franktown , Va.

Today was a moving day.  I was moving thru states I have already checked off, in order to get to the areas I haven't visited yet.  This meant that I spent over 300 miles on the interstate.  Still not my favorite, but it did get me to where I want to be, which is in the eastern shore area of Va.  From here, I should be able to cover MD. And Delaware tomorrow.  Nothing special on the interstate, but I did go thru the Chesapeake bay bridge tunnel.  For those of you who don't know, this is a 17 mile long system of both bridges and two tunnels across the bay.  The tunnels allow sea going ships to pass thru the bay.  The picture is from one man made island to the next in the distance that a tunnel connects.  It's considered an engineering marvel, but they did charge me 12 bucks just for the privilege to marvel at it.  Only other highlight of the day was that it was open mike night at the local clam shack where I had supper.  The second guy up was playing a 12 string guitar, which was about 11 more strings than he could handle, which was more than I could handle so I bailed out.  I'm sure that there is probably some fine talent playing tonight, but it's been a long day, so I'm calling it quits for tonight.