August 5
Sunday, August 5
Manchester, NH to Portsmouth, NH
I MADE IT! I WENT THE
DISTANCE!!
Touch down at Wallis Sands State Beach
Atlantic Ocean today at 12:00 PM. What
an emotionally charged moment for all of us.
We had to leave the motel this morning and ride our bikes 49 miles to
the group meeting place which was in the parking lot of Rye Junior High School.
As we waited for everyone to get there we
were snapping those last pictures of each other. I wanted a picture of the four recumbent bikes that made the
trip. I managed to gather up Bill,
Chris, Mark and Marty and asked them to get their bikes and line up for a photo
moment. Goodness! They sure were a
popular shot as everyone with a camera rushed to get this picture of our ‘bent
buddies.
Then the shout from Doug finally came to
line up two by two. We picked up our bikes and the line stretched out in a
colorful scene of red white and blue because we were wearing our official
America by Bicycle jersey. The
Portsmouth local police came to the front of the line to be our escort. When the flashing lights were turned on my
heart leaped again in excitement and we went forward out on the road pedaling
to the beach. Other patrol cars held
back traffic at intersections allowing our long line to proceed as a
group. We were going at a pretty good
clip. My speedometer was reading 15-18
mph.
Then we caught the smell of the sea and
knew we were very close to the water. I
felt like I was in some sort of dream – it was hard to believe this was really
the moment I was pedaling toward for these last 50 days. There were people waving and cheering as we
passed by. Three miles down the road on Route 1A we made a right turn in toward
the beach. There were people with signs
and banners welcoming us. Many of these
were friends and relatives of our group who had traveled to witness this
moment. There was a sandy sidewalk we
rode our bikes on up to the rock wall that separated the parking lot from the
people lying on the sandy beach. A few
started to take their bike shoes and socks off. Most of us just left them
on and walked our bike down the four or five steps to the beach. The fine sand can get in the hubs and bottom
bracket of the bike and cause big problems so we lifted our bikes up and
carried them. There were people
everywhere on the beach and we were weaving our way in between the bodies
sitting and standing around. I was so
happy and I was sobbing at the same time.
I walked right into the water, shoes and all, and touched my front wheel
in the water. I hoisted my bike up high
in a sign of victory!
For all those who have made a donation to
Habitat for Humanity, I thank you so very, very much. I “hammered it home!” all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Thank you for cheering me on. What a celebration for me. I am thankful to God for restoring my good
health so that I could do this difficult journey on a bicycle and be here
today. It was my dream and it came
true. For those who started out and
could not make it because of those unfortunate accidents, I am thinking of each
of you and carried you in my heart to the end.
I hope you are all healing completely and will come back to finish the
miles you had to miss this time.
After we took pictures and visited with the people for a while we
started to leave at different times.
Three of us left together and went up to a water hose at the beach house
and rinsed off the sand from our shoes.
We turned back on Rte 1A and made our way to the bridge that lead over
into the state of Maine. We walked our
bikes on the walkway to the other side and took pictures at Kittery point. I could see a lot of lobster traps down by the
water and lobster fishing boats. There
was seafood restaurants lining the water on both the New Hampshire and Maine shores. It was about 1:00 then and I was pretty hungry and would have
liked to eat at one of the places. But
those of us who wanted our bikes boxed and shipped home had to be at the motel
by 2:00 so that we could be transported to Bicycle Bob’s Bike Shop to check in
our bike for them to professionally box it and ship it.
I loved cycling through downtown Portsmouth. What a grand historical town. Established in 1612. There were hundreds of Sunday afternoon
tourists out and about on the sidewalks of the town. Stores were open, and people were eating out doors and enjoying
the lovely warm day. The streets were
narrow so it meant taking a lane behind a vehicle instead of being able to ride
along to the ride side of the cars. The
motel was about three miles from the downtown.
When I got to the motel there was a
pretty long line of us waiting to check in.
When it was my turn and reached the desk the gal said, “ I bet you now
have a bicycle you want to sell real cheap!”
I couldn’t believe she said that.
I looked right at her and said, “Are you kidding?! This bike is priceless. This bike just rolled more than 3,600 miles
from coast to coast. How many can make
that claim about their bike? Oh no, it
won’t be for sale, in fact I just might have this bike bronzed!”