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The theme for today is: "All good things must come to an end"
Today is the day we all knew would come, the last day, the end of the ride,
saying bye to folks that you've had fun with all summer.....
What seemed like an impossible dream at the beginning of the summer, all 44
of us who started out in Washington are ready to complete the cross-country
trip today. WOW!!
Today was a bit of pressure, time wise. The total number of miles to ride
was 63 miles and we all need to be at the Gloucester High School by noontime.
At 12:30 we're scheduled to be escorted, on our bicycles, down to the Atlantic
Ocean by a police cruiser. in order to dunk our front wheels into the ocean,
but first we had to get there.
We left the cafeteria by 7AM, there must have been 10 to 15 of use riding
together. When we turned back on to 125 heading south, it was warm,
sunny and the road was busy but the shoulder was wide. by 8:05 we hit the
water stop at mile 19 and found a Dunkin Donuts by 9AM at the 30 mile mark,
almost 1/2 done.
We reached the picnic stop by 10AM at the 36 mile mark. Gee I think
that we were all trying to stretch out the day as long as possible. We
stopped for on last set of photos at the entering Gloucester sign. It
was almost noontime, gotta hustle.
By the time we pulled into the High School, there were about 15 riders in
the group and then I started to hear my name being called. Well I didn't
expect anyone to be there to greet me at the end of the ride, but I soon saw
several people, all in yellow shirts, calling me. I soon recognized my sister
in-law Rosemary, my sister Candace and here husband Frank, my Aunt Blanche
Gardner and her son Bill. Across the street were my two nephews, Eddie and
Chris. Wow what a surprise!! They traveled from New Jersey, New York and
New Hampshire to welcome me back!
In the evening we were loaded on to busses and traveled in to Cambridge for
one final get together before heading in our different directions tomorrow.
The party was held at John Harvard's
in Cambridge.
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