Durham to Gloucester

August 20, 2022

Today was the final ride day of the Coast to Coast tour for 2022, so kind of a bitter sweet kind of thing.  Especially as Greg is retiring, which will mean the end of what has been a wonderful experience riding with Cycle America.   So when the alarm went off I just lay there for a while until I finally willed myself up.

It was only 65 miles down to Gloucester and the finish line but there was a lot of turns and a person didn’t have time to get lost or to spend time along the way.  Again we were on a lot of New England roads which varied wildly in condition. The good part of it all was the big roller coaster hills were gone and only short little climbs remained.  A good part of the ride was down very quiet country lanes until I got down to the coast and into the town of Ipswich which is a very old settlement. From there all the way into Gloucester it was down quite busy roads, even though they were mostly smaller country roads. 

I rolled into Gloucester by about 12:45 which was in plenty of time for the police escorted group ride down to wheel dip in the ocean.   Rolling across the finish line marked my 4^th northern tier C2C all of which were with Cycle America and my 6^th C2C tour.   There were lots of really happy people all congratulating each other and cheering as each rider rolled across the finish line.

When all the riders were there we assembled behind the police car and went down to the beach.  The Gloucester summer beach festive was on so there were hundreds of people lining the streets and traffic everywhere.   However behind the police car with the lights flashing and the siren blaring it was easy. At the beach people dipped their wheels into the water and others jumped in.   Lots of pictures were taken and lots of congratulations handed out.

After the wheel dip we made our way back to the field house where we were staying and packed up for home. 

Aussie Bob, Ken T. and myself made our way downtown for our final supper together before heading off to the harbour cruise. 

The harbor cruise was the last time to say goodbye to a lot of folks and to old friends.  It was a beautiful night out on the water. After the heat of the day the cool of the ocean was great.

Barry and I made our way back to field house after the cruise and I tried to catch an Uber down to Logan Airport where we had a hotel booked. However I could not get an Uber and it was looking bad until the father and son team who had been riding with us came along and they had booked a Limo so they invited us along.  It was wonderful way to finish the tour.  Thanks a bunch to the Roberto’s.

Terry