day 85

today was a shorter day from charlestown up to providence. we mainly just rode the highway on up to providence; we also got to ride on some good bike paths for once but it was short lived. at one point during the ride, two racing cyclists blew past me and one said, "on your left" a little too condescending so i thought i'd teach them a lesson. i then broke away from matt and evan and started hauling it after the racers, yes i am still fully loaded and they were a couple miles ahead of me but i soon caught up to them and gave them a little, "on your left" treatment but kinder. it was just amazing to see that i could pick up some good speed and pass racers while i was fully loaded. we rolled into providence but our host, diana, was still at work so we hungout downtown and grabbed some donuts. we then stashed our bikes behind her apartment and walked down to go watch "the other guys" (this isn't a movie reviewing site, but one of my other blogs is, but not at the moment so i'm not going to go in to much depth here). it was mildly entertaining but wouldn't recommend it. diana was home now so we went over to the house and just chilled with her and talked about our trip, providence, and her job. we then left to go get some jamaican food; had some wonderful curry chicken, after failing to get some jamaican food in philly several times. we then went to a pastry restaurant and got some cakes to go. that evening we all just sat around at chatted but for a bit we jammed on the guitar, harmonica, and melodica. it was nice to play music but it'd been a long long time. i then routed our final stretch from providence, rhode island to boston, massachusetts! thats all for today, folks.

day 84

we awoke this morning and ate some cereal while we waited for ian to come back from his meeting. we got to get in some more mario cart wii. ian came home and we started the drive to charlestown, rhode island; ian had to make some work calls on the way so we just enjoyed the drive. we got to charlestown and met up with jamie, the kids, and bob (ian's dad); waylon was the first to recognize me, easton was a little hesitant at first then it clicked, but london wanted nothing to do with me. uncle al, wasn't so uncle-y. we grabbed some lunch and headed down to the beach; we weren't real sure what the beach was going to be like but it was awesome. the water was super warm, the waves were great, and the sand wasn't too hot! matt, evan, and i had a great time boogey boarding; we got pretty good about reading the waves and swimming into them. we were out there for several hours and bob came out and joined us. we then met up with ian and the boys and headed back to the house to clean up. we then headed out to a seafood restaurant and enjoyed some great food! we then headed back to the house and sat around and talked for a good amount. lets just say there were a lot of laughs to be had; mainly at my expense but thats ok, i'm used to it. i do look pretty rough. everyone then retired to bed and called it a night.

(yes that is a picture of evan falling back there)

day 83

today we all got up and packed our bikes to head out to grab some breakfast; hans biked with us for a bit and dropped us off at a restaurant. we grabbed some french toast and eggs. we rode from new haven to new london so it was a shortish ride about 45 miles. it was nice to have matt biking with us; we stopped off at a cool farmers market to eat some blueberries and a huge melon! we chatted with the farmers for a good amount then headed up to new london. when we rolled into new london, we stopped at the pier and a girl came up to us and chatted with us. she worked on a sail boat and she gave us a tour of the boat, it was great. we then grabbed some dinner at a seafood place and waited for my brother, ian, to pick us up and take us up to hartford. ian rolled up and greeted us and helped us load up our bikes/gear into his truck. he drove us up to his house, but we hit some traffic which slowed us down. ian had a good time heckling me about my facial hair but we still had a good time catching up. we got to ian's house and he had a fresh pizza waiting for us to devour, it was glorious. he gave us each a bar of soap and we all got cleaned up, cause we needed it. we then had to play some mario cart wii, which i dominated but we did a team competition and we had a rough time but finally won! we were so bushed we went to bed.

day 82

today we slept in and decided to roam around town. hit up some bookstores and finally picked up a copy of "the mountains of california" by john muir, been looking all over the county for it. we heard about a cool abandoned power plant, so we went down to it to check it out. after some time, we finally headed in to check it out and it was completely locked up. we were bummed cause it had such huge potential. we headed back to walk around yale and meet up with our good friend, matt gilroy. he just got back from iraq a month or so ago and he lives in upper new york so he drove down with his bike to finish biking the rest of the trip with us. we stopped in at the apartment and just chilled and matt showed up and we caught up since the last time i saw him was 2 years ago in amsterdam. we went with hans and his girlfriend to a community dinner and it was a lot of fun. we enjoyed some good food and then went around the room talking about things we needed and tried to see if others could help, it was beautiful. evan got some "learn romanian tapes" and matt got a free place to park his car instead of in a parking garage. we walked to move matt's car to the house and we grabbed some dunkin donuts and matt really struggled finding his validated ticket. it took literally like 5 minutes for him to find the ticket and pay for it. i felt really bad for the parking lady. we roamed some more and finally decided to go back and catch some zzzzz's.

day 81

today we head out on a 70 mile day up to new haven. it was a beautiful ride since we rode along the coast of new york and connecticut. it didn't take too long to get to the connecticut border and they actually had a sign so that's good. as we were riding we rolled into a city, i can't remember the name of, but there was the WWE headquarters there so we tried to go in and see if we could take a tour but they aren't "open to the public" as the receptionist said through the little speaker at the entrance. we love WWE because of its ridiculousness so we thought that it would've been a great time to see the inner workings of the fixed sport. we pressed on and rode out of the city and into a small beach town that was having a farmers market so we stopped and chatted with some people there and enjoyed some great nectarines and banana bread! i love banana bread. we rode down to a little restaurant called the 101 and it serves milkshakes and sandwiches so we got some of those and they were very very delicious. from then on out we were riding along the beach and we decided to stop and just soak in the wonderful weather and the ocean which we haven't seen in such a long time. we talked with two ladies for a bit about our trip and they were just loving it. we rode, rode, rode and finally made it up to new haven where we spent some time checking out the city waiting for our couchsurfing host to get back from work. we went and got some falafels then went to a really good pizza joint. supposedly new haven claims to be the inventors of pizza and burgers, so pizza and burger joints were everywhere. we then sat on the front steps of cris' house until one of his roommates let us in and we brought in our bikes and gear and made ourselves at home. cris just started a new job that day working on a pilot for a new tv series so he was being worked to the bone till pretty late. we chatted with his roommates for awhile and shared our stories with hans and his girlfriend. they are such wonderful people. cris made it home and we stayed up late talking about his new job and about movies and everything else movie related. it was nice to chat with someone about that stuff. we then just crashed after a full day.

day 80

when we got up and going we enjoyed a nice breakfast of cereal and waffles, two favorites of mine. we packed up our gear and loaded up our bikes and said goodbye to neil and martha. thanks for having us! we set off for the big city. today we were heading out of new jersey and into new york and biking through northern manhattan and up to white plains area. there was a lot of traffic and it was hot out again so we were sucking down water and getting caked with exhaust. we caught glimpses of the new york skyline and it was super impressive, we kept riding and caught the bike path to ride on to cross the george washington bridge. we got a super awesome view from their and got welcomed to the state by their welcome sign, which we missed with a handful of states. sadly, this was the most recent welcome sign we'd seen in a long time. hopefully the other states like new jersey, delaware, maryland, and pennsylvania will get their act together. we then entered new york and it was rush hour so we were weaving in and out of traffic trying to make our way out of the city. it was a wild time since there were so many cars and the roads were terrible. it was a long ride because of the traffic and all of the lights so we finally arrived at colby's, our couchsurfing host, place. we did our introductions and got settled inside and we unpacked our gear. we just sat for a bit rehydrating and telling of our trip and talking about food options for dinner. we decided to go eat at so dam hot, and we all got pulled pork sandwiches and they were awesome! we then hit up whole foods to get some breakfast stuff for tomorrow. that evening we just went through the atlas and showed colby and his friends our route and told many stories of our travels then colby told us about his crazy roadtrip across the country. we just had a wonderful night swapping story after story. 

day 79

today we setoff from phila and made our way to highland park, new jersey. we rode on highways the whole way there so there wasn't much to look at. it was a hot day so we had to stay hydrated (thanks sun for having an explosion that sent plasma into our atmosphere to increase the heat for a couple of days.) we stopped off at a tiger noodles and grabbed some lunch which wasn't that great and they only accepted cash so i had to go out and search for an atm. the town we were in was princeton so it was a super ritzy place. we then kept riding and hit rush hour traffic on our way into the highland park area but luckily arrived at neil and martha's, our warmshowers hosts, place before it got too hectic. when we arrived we got cleaned up and put our bikes away in their garage and chatted about our trip and about their tours. neil and martha are a super nice couple and made us feel right at home. neil made a super awesome pasta for dinner then we all went out and got some ice cream! since they are bikers, they know how much we love ice cream. we then just chatted that evening and hungout. it was nice to just relax and that was the place to do it. we were pretty tired so we decided to call it a night and crash.