Sandown to Neddick - 45 miles
Average Speed - 13.1 mph

We headed downhill this morning, which was a nice change to the start of the day, although a short-lived change. We got onto Route 11 with nice wide shoulders hoping that the route would remain like this until Portsmouth. We need to be more realistic. As soon as we turned toward Exeter, the shoulder became nearly non-existent and the road started seriously climbing, which our host had warned us about.

When we reached Exeter, we had to stop to fix Robert’s fourth flat in his front tire. It’s unusual to get flats in a front tire and to get so many is even stranger. We have each had four flats. Mine have all been rear flats.

Exeter is a pleasant town where we found a bike shop to see if we could get a map. Printing out maps doesn’t always work so well as the are often illegible. We asked about some of the roads on our map and they weren’t familiar with them all. The were out of the state bicycling map, which we hoped to find in hard copy. We crossed the street and went to the chamber of commerce where the very helpful people dug a bicycling map out of a special place. This was he highpoint of the day and the exact map that we were looking for. We discussed the different suggested routes and decided on the best one. The ride from Exeter to Portsmouth was pleasant, even along Route 33 due to its wide shoulders. Those shoulders ended for a short stretch near town. We stopped just outside a cemetery to figure out how to get through town and a man appeared out of nowhere to see if he could help us. We reviewed the map once again and headed on our way.

I really thought that I could smell salt air today. It may have been a Pavlovian response from seeing the mileage sign to Hampton Beach or it may have just been the salt that I was excreting
getting blown into my face. (Yep, another head wind today.)

We found a “Mexican” place for lunch, which served burritos and quesadillas and was right before we crossed the bridge into Maine. Once we crossed over, we knew that the traffic and our route would be less than ideal and that was definitely true. Originally, we had planned a different route and had no intention of riding along the coast. We would have approached Portland from the west. That would have eliminated the temptation to dip the wheels in the ocean for the next miles until Portland.

We are staying at the Cliff House in Ogunquit. The balcony overlooks the ocean. I could just toss the bike over the rail for a less-than-traditional dipping. That wouldn’t be so fun.

Tomorrow, we have just a short ride to Portland and the finish. I can’t wait.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 4:28 am and is filed under General, routes, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.