October 8, 2021
Day 130: Portsmouth NH to Salisbury Beach MA
A beautiful fall cycling day
“I asked where is the Staahbucks?” Matt our host is telling a true story as we are going to dinner. “Where is the Staahbucks?” he asks a local Bostonian again who is not understanding him. “You know the coffee place” Matt tries again. “Oh, you mean the Storebucks!” Later in the evening, he teaches us all how to talk Bostonian, and by doing so will lower our IQs by 40 points.
Today is a beautiful fall day perfect for cycling. This morning Jeff has coffee ready for us when we are up. Christine fixes us blueberry pancakes. We are loaded up and take pictures of us all together in front of the house. We invite Jeff to ride out with us so he quickly gets ready and rides with us to New Castle. Along the way he points out history and sights until he has to turn around to get back to his projects.
The route is not very direct, but it follows the coastline and we are treated to beautiful sights across the water and very expensive homes in very nice places. We stop for coffee and a blueberry scone at a café, then go across another causeway onto another island and back to the mainland. Then it is south along the coast. There’s a huge storm wall in most sections, but we get lots of good views of the Ocean. In Hampton, we stop for clam chowder. Frosene has carried the good bread from last night’s dinner that goes perfect with the chowder. We reach Salisbury Beach around 2pm and enjoy ice cream cones. This area is a few blocks of tacky shops, most closed for the season. Rachel imagines that when this was built it was the typical beach front amusement, only now it looks tacky and outdated.
At 3pm, we head to our Warmshowers host, Matt, just a few minutes away from the beach. A man is in the middle of the road taking our picture! It’s Matt, just outside his apartment complex and leads us to his building. He has made reservations at a Thai Restaurant in Newburyport for 6pm. We go and walk around town before going to the restaurant. This is a quaint colonial style downtown and harbor. Matt orders 2 appetizers and 4 dishes and we clean the plates. When waiting for the bill, we are finished eating and waiting for the bill our waiter says our “table is taken care of, bill already paid”. Thanks Matt!
Tomorrow is our last day of cycling.
Today's ride: 28 miles (45 km)
Total: 4,892 miles (7,873 km)
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