Day 37: Annapolis!

 

Beltsville to Annapolis, 31 miles, 1000 feet of climbing.

Today’s ride presented us with the usual weather elements: warm and humid - we’ve ridden in hotter; sporadic strong headwinds - they helped cool us off; hills that had challenging gradients - they were short compared to what we’ve tackled elsewhere on this ride.  Nothing was going to prevent us from enjoying the last leg of our adventure - and we enjoyed it thoroughly!

Any thoughts that perhaps we should have finished up last night instead of holding off the final 30 or so miles until this morning evaporated as we made the final turn to the waterfront in Annapolis and saw Susan, Ann, Bill’s son Peter, Mike’s son and daughter-in-law Matt and Deanna, and Mike’s brother Tom there to greet us and cheer us into the final stretch. 

It really was a great day for us. We’re staying in Annapolis for the night.  We showered and had a lunch with the group and have dinner planned for later this evening at a nice restaurant in town. Mike is in the process of negotiating with the restaurant’s manager about being served curbside instead of in the main dining room.  It doesn’t look promising. It looks like we at going to have to transition to life off the road.

The finish to our adventure also coincided with the finish of another epic ride.  The finish of the Race Across America (RAAM),  a grueling annual bicycle  race, was also at City Dock in Annapolis, within yards of where we finished. Now, that race has a time limit for finishing of about 12 days, which is admittedly slightly shorter than the time it took us to complete our ride.  But they only rode 3040 miles; we clocked a few more miles than that. 

Epilogue

Alas, our adventure has drawn to a close.  It is a bittersweet moment. We enjoyed the journey (well, maybe not every minute of each climb) and are pleased with the accomplishment, but we will miss the daily rhythm of working through each step of the ride. We knew when we started that, at some point, it would end, and we’re glad that we were able to end on a high note. We arrived safely, we were greeted warmly by family, and we’re still talking to each other - we think. (And, no, there wasn’t any media coverage - although we’re not sure why not.)

There are the usual things to attend to when ending an adventure like this: donating our bikes to the Smithsonian; selecting the right studio and cast for the movie (Mike insists that George Clooney is right for his part); and negotiating merchandising arrangements. But after that, it is pretty much getting back to day to day life, hopefully with the benefit of a few insights that we have gained along the way.  We’re looking forward to spending time with family and friends after being away from them for more than a month, and getting back to work (assuming that we still have jobs).

We also need to thank all of you who rode along with us - by following our blog,  supporting us through comments and kind words, and probably petitioning higher powers through some behind the scenes prayers. It helped keep us going and gave us something to ponder as we ground through the miles - like Bettina’s suggestion that we should consider ourselves to be “in synch, insane, in shape, in a hurry, and in denial.” 

We are also extremely grateful that we had the ability and good health to even attempt this trip, let alone complete it (it’s not lost on us that we are beyond our prime).  We’re also thankful that we did not have any serious mishap (in fact, there were a few very close calls), that the weather was generally favorable (excluding the crazy thunderstorm in ND and the lack of “prevailing westerlies”), and for the great good fortune of being able to ride with a close friend. We could not have asked for more. (Well, maybe we could, but we won’t.) 

What’s next on the adventure front? We‘re not sure. We have our eyes on a gravel ride or two (maybe one along the spine of the Continental Divide) - but that will have to wait a bit, or at least until our “undercarriages” recover. Whatever and whenever it is, we hope that you’ll be able to ride with us..

Our sincere thanks goes to all of you for helping to make our “excellent adventure” so, well, excellent.  

 

Keep riding, in the saddle or in spirit,

Bill and Mike