Mmm... Blueberries

Day 32:

To continue our somewhat chronological account of our excellent adventure, we set off from Boston into the great beyond of New England. On the way out of Boston, the friendly frost-heave-ridden roads of Massachusetts were more than our poor B.O.B. tire could handle, and we got our first flat of the trip! Now there is a bit of a story behind this.

If any of you faithful readers live and bike inside Atlanta, you know that Ponce de Leon Ave in Midtown got a face lift in the past year that took out some of the many, many narrow lanes and replaced them with wider, safer general lanes and BIKE LANES! That was great. The only bad part is that the lanes are now collecting small debris that has given Katelyn, me, and the B.O.B. a combined three flat tires during just a few months of occasionally riding on them. So we had a running commentary on how we had crossed so much of the country on thousands of miles of paved (and sometimes unpaved) roads but didn't get any flats like we always seemed to on Ponce. We thought we should maybe ask the city of Atlanta to invest in cleaning them because of that. Then, all of a sudden, we got a flat in Boston. But before we even started comparing cities and blaming Boston for ruining our perfect tire record, we remembered while changing the inner tube that this one has an old patch on it, and the tire was not punctured again -- the patch had just warn out after all that mileage and blown. The funny part was that when we thought back, we remembered why the patch was there: the B.O.B.'s maiden voyage in Atlanta down Ponce de Leon where we popped it the first time! So we still haven't punctured any tires on the trip yet :)

Jono changing the inner tube

Now back to business. So we made it out of Boston (the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway was awesome!) and were about to stay in what would have been our most expensive campground ever ($45! Ridiculous! But it was the only one around) when we found a hostel in the same area that was about the same price, offered us a private room, and the owners seemed really cool and gave us a discount for coming on bikes. It was a great experience! We made pancakes for dinner along with eggs and tomatoes we had found at an outdoor farmers market on the bike trail on the way out of Boston. It was delicious.

The hostel

Day 33:

The next morning after breakfast we got to talk with the owners for a while, and the were really cool. They also invited us to pick blueberries for ourselves (along with some for them) off of their blueberry bushes. There were so many! We left with about a quart of blueberries that day and a quart picked for them (with more in our bellies).

Soon after leaving, we turned onto Shaker Rd to continue our trek and passed by several structures built by Shakers back in the day. Among them were a meeting house, a stone barn, a cemetery, and some houses. 

Not too long after, we crossed into New Hampshire!

During our brief time in New Hampshire, we found that: Compared with the rest of New England, the roads were faster and the drivers ruder; the individuals we met were really nice; the roadside convenience stores sell excellent craft beers; and there were no sales taxes. We stayed one night in the "Live free or die" (as displayed on all the license plates) state near Kingston then continued north and east.

Day 34:

We began to get near the Atlantic coast again for the first time since NC, only instead if barrier islands and sand dunes we saw harbors, hills, and rocky little islands. We had a beautiful crossing into Maine through Portsmouth, NH. 

We were so excited to finally be in our last state. You can read more about day 34 on the WE'RE IN MAINE! post :)