We are now hanging out at Miles Standish on Charge Pond for a couple days camping with friends. The plan is to do the entire trip back home on Sunday. After some rest, that shouldn’t be much worse than some of the long days we’vw already had and we won’t need to bike anymore afterwards!
Yesterday, a dirt road that we had followed for a mile ended in a bush about a mile from where it was supposed to meet up with the park road. Isaac wanted to persue a scraggly path into the woods from that point, but I had to insist it was too uncertain. It took us many extra miles including miles of dirt road and directions from skeptical locals to get us around to the park entrance. By the time we did, it was after dark and the bugs in the park woods were so thick that it was impossible to open one’s mouth while ridign without catching a fly. :x. Similarly, we had to wear our sunglasses into the night to protect our eyes from insects. We setup and climbed into our hammocks as fast as we could.
Today, we biked out of the park to a nearby town to do laundry and have some lunch. Our trip mileage now exceeds 300miles and will approach 400 by the time of our return.
Keeping my phone charged has continued to be a challenge. After Thursday in the Sun, my solar charger had enough juice to charge my phone an extra 25% and that got us through the day. I think some new techniques for positioning the charger on my bike might help its efficiency. It doesn’t really make sense to me that 10 hours in 80-90 degree sunshine can’t provide a little more energy.
We have been noticing that people are interested in what we are doing in ways we didn’t expect. Isaac walked into a Dunkin’ Donuts that we had never been in before and was immediately identified as a Fernandez brother on a bike trip returning from Provincetown before anyone had a chance to see his jersey. We think the woman might have seen us at another Dunkin’ Donuts earlier in the trip. Either way, at least once a day we run into someone who wants to ask us about what we are doing, ask about our gear, or tell us stories of personal biking experiences. Some people just ask for clarification in disbelief and others seem to want to come along! We haven’t yet figured out how to make this public interest work for us, but we’ve got plenty of time on our bikes to dream it up.
Good luck with the home stretch! Keep moving since this is a bad bug year as you know! Beware of paparazzi! LY
Another great 24 hours. A couple of thoughts about capitalizing on a few of your experiences:
– How about a short article for Yankee Magazine. They focus more on New England, especially Mass. and Vt. They typically use to pay $300 to $500 for a short story. It would be a terrific .Fernandez brother’s article.
– Devon, with his engineering, might invent a little bike gadget to better absorb and retain more significant sun power
With love for a great and safe homestretch……………..GM and GP
You know my feeling from the beginning was that it would make a great series for the newspapers. Folks would love to share in your adventure!!!