ADDENDUM to yesterday's post: Joe cycled on unpaved trails in yesterday's rain and when he got to the hotel he was a muddy mess. He entered the hotel but was ordered out by the manager.  Joe went outside and cleaned up himself and his bike with rags provided by the manager.  It was a most unpleasant seven hour day of cycling through non-stop rain.

Kittery, Maine to Newburyport, Massachusetts

We started in Maine, cycled through New Hampshire, and are staying in Massachusetts.  While not yet mentioned, we also went through the state of Confusion when we couldn't correctly interpret our GPS's directions. Joe was cycling from the hotel and I was cycling from the rental car return location.  We programmed our GPSs to meet at the Elephant coffee shop in Portsmouth.  A 15 minute ride for both of us.  However, we each ended up at a different location.  There were 2 elephants in the room:(  Once we got together we toured the town and then got on our route toward Newburyport.

Regardless of the early morning confusion, today was the ideal cycling day.  We had nice weather, relatively short mileage, flat terrain, and plenty to see.  We smelled more roses today than we thought possible.  We cycled through historic towns and villages, very expensive communities, and along the ocean for about half our mileage.  We stopped at several state parks and historic forts. Our 38 mile ride took us longer than Joe's 64 mile ride the previous day.

We finally stopped for coffee at a funky coffee place called La Mulita.  There we met Cliff and Bruce, 2 of the many local cyclists we saw today.  They are members of the 1A cycling club that got its name from the fantastic cycling that is found on route 1A.  It is unusual for us to sit and be social but we sat for a long time sharing stories and talking about bikes.  Oh yes, we were also cycling route 1A for most of the day and enjoyed it.

Along the ocean we pulled off on many overlook spots to look at the water rolling in.  We gazed at the crowded beaches and marveled at some of the large/expensive boats we saw.  We stopped for lunch at the Beach Plum, a road side restaurant that served an unbelievable number of ice cream flavors and lunch.  We passed on the ice cream and only had hot dogs.  Not sure that was the best choice, but we cycled on.

In Newburyport we are staying in a historic downtown B&B. It was a short walk to the many nearby restaurants.  We chose an unlikely one named The Grog Restaurant, and going with today's trend, had fantastic meals.   

Today's Map

Trip Map

Pictures

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