Day 48 Fairfield, CT

June 11, 2019

Challenging

Heart

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Today got off to an excellent start. We chatted over breakfast with a very nice couple at the B&B. They are from the Netherlands, live in Germany and have been traveling the eastern United States on their motorcycles for the last three weeks. They are really interesting and well traveled people.

Then, the rain which had been falling on and off all night stopped just before we left he house. We could even see a little piece of blue sky. We rode down to the ferry landing 1/2 mile away and took a ferry ride across the Hudson to Ossining, NY.

The day had an excellent ending as well. We arrived at our hotel to see the smiling faces of our good friends Gail and Jerry meeting us in the parking lot. They're going to spend two nights here with us and we're looking forward to having fun with them on our rest day tomorrow.

The part of the day between the ferry and arriving at the hotel was less than excellent. We had some very steep hills, a lot of heavy traffic and miles of narrow, winding roads - sometimes all three at once. It's a ride I would call challenging.

It was still wet, but the rain had stopped by the time we left for the ferry. The sun came out and the weather was beautiful all day.

We had to pay and extra $1 for the bike on the passenger ferry. Kerry and I paid the senior rate of $2 each.

The ferry arriving from Ossining. It only runs on weekdays during commuter hours. The crossing takes 13 minutes.

As soon as we got to Ossining, the climbing started. We had steep hills for three miles, then up and down hills all the way to Connecticut. We used our four on the floor propulsion method several times today. We had grades of 12% that I saw, but I can't see the Garmin when we're pushing, so I'm sure we had higher grades than that in places. A loaded recumbent tandem is not the best bike for climbing!

Up from Ossining (and I mean UP, not north) we came to Mount Kisco. It has an attractive downtown and some impressive homes.

As is the case almost everywhere we've been, the larger the home, the more hidden it is from the road.

These lovely, expensive homes were fronted by DIRT road! I hate riding on unpaved surfaces and we were so surprised to find dirt roads going by multi-million dollar homes. The surface was slippery from last night's rain and large pieces of gravel just added to the fun. Fortunately, we had less than two miles total of unpaved road today.

We passed through the affluent towns of Bedford and Pound Ridge (and if you're ever there, eat white pizza at La Familia. It was delicious!) and then entered Connecticut.

There was no sign indicating the Connecticut border, but there was this marker for the New York boundary.

In New Canaan, CT, we saw more gates and long driveways than homes.

We got our first view of the Long Island Sound at Southport.

I don't have a picture, but we were so happy to see our friends Gail and Jerry waving to us from the parking lot when we arrived at the hotel.

The beginning and ending of the day were great, and the part in between was just more type 2 fun.

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 1,878 miles (3,022 km)

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Keith A. SpanglerYou have a lot of friends......continue on travelers.
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5 years ago

DAVID FAULKNERWhat experiences who two are having...trust none of these long winding estate entrances don't attar you both to consider moving North.. remember winters..snow.. limited months of ability to bike.. hah hah!
Dave & Sharon
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5 years ago