A Tale of Two Sisters

It was the best of climbs...it was the worst of climbs...

One sister (Michelle) works a desk job while the other (Molly) is a former pro triathlete who regularly rides up mountains at altitude...

Pop quiz : one sister whistles while she climbs the hills of Maine...while the other huffs and puffs...can you guess which sister is which???? (hint: this is not a trick question)

Orientation and Brrrrr-ring on Belfast

Tuesday was orientation in the park near our motel in Bar Harbor.

Leaders gave out welcome bags with maps, jerseys, stickers, and other items - including a note of well wishes from an MS patient.  My note was from Melanie and it was very encouraging - a touching reminder of why we are spending ten weeks on the road.

After everyone introduced themselves, our group of 25+ riders was divided into 4 stations which rotated after each activity.

Station 1 - communication - Everyone was set up on twitter and also to receive tweets via text - a good way for leaders to quickly tell everyone about changes or what's coming up.  We took pictures of the route leaders' phone numbers so that we could call if we needed something on the road.

Station 2 - bike safety - we had to deflate and change out our back tires - and received tips on how to do this more easily. Additionally, we covered road rules.

Station 3 - maps - as part of our welcome bag, we received 11 maps from the American Cycling Adventure Association - we reviewed the first map and discussed key features.

Station 4 - the trailer - everyone picked a cubby for storage and one for food and we signed our names and the year with Sharpies.

We sealed the deal at the end with Pat's Pizza - I remember that from growing up in Portland,ME!

Ben left us Tuesday afternoon - hard to say goodbye but we will see home again in Middlebury when he comes up to pick up Molly.

Wednesday morning started in Bar Harbor with egg sandwiches at 'The Great Maine Breakfast' and the group dipping their tires in the Atlantic ocean at 8:30....a chilly and memorable start to our first ride day.  As the sun started up in the sky, Sony noted it was a balmy 42 degrees - thank goodness for layers!  I swear that Molly packed ten outfits in her little bag and just kept pulling out additional layers like a magician.  (She is a much better packer than I am).

I was a slow rider that day.  Molly and Sony stayed with me like my own personal biking secret service, as we travelled 67 miles to Belfast.  Great rest stops and periodic encounters with other cyclists.  Cool bridges and the infamous Triple Chicks Farm for photo ops.  Such a good group.  Molly kept the tweets flowing to document our adventures and whereabouts.

Amazing to end the day camping on the water in Belfast - are all the camp sites like this???

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Affix it to the Back of the Car...

Today is Tuesday.  Tomorrow we start the ride. Getting to this point was a little dramatic for sure... As Ben and I drove up the East coast on Saturday, we were just north of DC and getting ready to switch from 495 to 95...

All of the sudden...we heard a loud crack as the car lurched forward...we were rear-ended!  I should probably tell you that no one involved in the accident was hurt.  As you can imagine, my first thoughts raced to the bike - my trusty specialized roubaix that was attached to our rear bike mount.  This bike had accompanied me to two Cycle Oregons  and countless rides on the green ways of Raleigh.  What are the chances that my bike would be OK after that awful noise???

As we got out of the car to assess the damage, my heart sank as I saw the front end of the other car.

Initially, there appeared to be little damage to our car and initially the bike looked OK....

Upon closer inspection though...cracked carbon fiber frame... The bike was totaled.

After waiting for the police and exchanging insurance info with the other driver, we stopped at a specialized bike shop 10 miles up the road.


The owner took a look and agreed that the bike was totaled. Two other fun facts :
1. I am tall (you all know this) and since I am so tall, I need an XXL frame.  The fun fact is that this size is typically not carried in stock - usually a special order.  Did I mention that it was Saturday and Monday was a holiday and the orientation for the ride was on Tuesday???
2. The specialized bike site...the one that allows us to search dealers across the country to locate a replacement bike...was down for maintenance for the weekend.  This means we would need to search for my bike MANUALLY.

The bike shop was super nice and he called around to shops in the area with no luck. Ben and I decided to grab lunch while I called two fellow riders - my friend Sony in NH and my sister Molly  (and her husband Mark) in Boulder, CO..to widen our manual search.

Here is an excerpt from Mark's Facebook post : 'Emergency!  Enormous road bike needed ASAP! '

In the end, Molly and Mark were able to locate a replacement in Boulder - which Molly could bring with her to the start of the ride if we needed her to.  Sony was able to locate a replacement at Goodales in NH.

I called Goodales, they built the bike on Saturday and I stopped by for a fitting on Sunday.   They were super helpful and when I told them the story of how we came to find an XXL bike at there shop...one of the mechanics said - of course we had one - we are bad-ass!  Bad ass indeed and my heroes for sure!!!!

Pack it up...pack it in. Let me begin...

It is crazy to think that we are now two days away from the start of the journey in Bar Harbor, ME.  The last time I was in Acadia National Park was a loooonng time ago - one of our summer camping adventures as a family. Hopefully we will get a chance to see Thunder Hole!

Our first night in Bar Harbor will be in a hotel...but the rest of the trip will be mostly camping.  Each morning, we will pack up our belongings onto a truck.  Each rider will be allocated a cubby that measures 30x16x18. I will be using the large north face base camp bag and will also carry some things in my camelback.

Ben and my mother in law, Julia, supervised as I packed.   It was good to be done - hoping I did not forget anything!