We are back in our home on wheels. Biking in Vermont and Maine is on the agenda. These are the last two states to complete our challenge of riding 100 miles in all the lower 48. First stop will be Island Line Rail Trail near Burlington, VT.
We like to look back at our relaxing, amazing winter in Florida before starting a new adventure. Our time was filled with visiting family and friends, beachcombing, biking and avoiding that Covid thing. So here are some of our memories.
Bonfire with kids at St Lucie COE campground.Celebrating Scott’s 36th with his family. Jupiter lighthouse in the background.Catching up with cousins at Koreshan State Park. Lunch with Beach Lake friends at Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda.Spending fun times with Connie . We found a treasure trove of Mardi Gras beads.Helped Sam organize his garage.Dinner at U-Tiki in Jupiter. Legacy bike trail near Oscar Scherer State Park.Saw this guy riding Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail.
We stayed in several State Parks that were new to us. Visiting the beautiful parks and beaches on the panhandle was a highlight.
Beautiful night skies at Jonathan Dickinson State Park.Crown of thorns at Koreshan State Park.Entrance to St George Island State Park. It was 18 mile round trip to get ice cream. Worth the effort – each of 3 times! This crab was on the beach on St. George Island. He posed nicely for his picture.Our favorite place to eat in Grayton Beach – just a short bike ride from the State Park. Best shrimp ever.Along Timpoochee Trail near Grayton Beach. Meanwhile Erik and his family were enjoying a snowy Alaska winter.
We arrived in Ohio in time to enjoy a late spring snow. It’s always good to get home and begin where we left off on our home projects.
Late spring snow to welcome us home.We enjoy being able to bike the beautiful Western Reserve Greenway while at home.Amish farm along the Greenway south of Orwell.
We took a day off after finishing our New Jersey 100 to rest – a much needed rest. Fortunately we had an extra day to ride and decided to ride the Lehigh Gorge Trail. It’s a 24 mile trail from Jim Thorpe to White Haven. We had ridden this trail in the past to White Haven and back. Today we used a shuttle service to White Haven and returned to Jim Thorpe.
The Lehigh Gorge is a deep, steep, walled gorge. The trail is a gradual downhill grade on an abandoned railroad bed.
Typical of nice smooth crushed stone trail – one of nicest surfaces we’ve ridden.
The trail follows the river the entire way to Jim Thorpe. There was an area where every 1.5 miles there was a back board at the ready for water rescues. Beside the boards were steep trails to the river.
Back boards for river rescues – in this area Lehigh River is class III.
The elevation on my Polar in White Haven read 1171 and 695 in Jim Thorpe. While it was a gradual downhill grade there was no coasting, we needed to pedal the entire distance.
Buttermilk Falls, just north of Rockport.
The scenery was beautiful – the steep wall of the gorge was covered in vegetation. We could hear the rapids on the river in many areas.
Train being loaded with railroad ties along trail.Nearing the end of the trail.Trestle bridge just outside of Jim Thorpe.Bridge over Lehigh River in Jim Thorpe. Remnant of former CNJ engine terminal near Jim Thorpe.
We had completed our Pennsylvania 100 in 2012 long before we started blogging. This trail and the Pine Creek Trail (aka Grand Canyon of PA) helped to inspire us to begin our journey to ride 100 miles in all the lower 48.
We are off to begin our New York 100. It is so good to be traveling again after spending the past 3 months at home. The most excitment we had each week was picking up our order from Walmart. We left Saybrook about 10:30 am and arrived in Geneseo, NY at the Deer Run Winery about 2:30 pm. We are in the western Finger Lakes area.
Deer Run Winery.
We joined Harvest Hosts. They have over 1000 wineries and farms that provide free camping for RVers. This is our first time staying at a host winery. We were not disappointed.
We have two reasons for trying Harvest Hosts: 1. We feel it is a good way to avoid crowds and still be able to travel. 2. We really, really like wine 🙂
Nice walk through the vineyards.
We of course did some wine tasting. Beky was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed visiting with her. She is a biking enthusiast also. The Chardonnay was our favorite and we just had to take a bottle with us.
All the employees wore masks and guests were required to wear masks in the gift shop. Hand sanitizer was available at the door. Did you know that the distance between 2 wine barrels is 6 feet. Perfect for social distancing.
The winery closed at 5 pm and we are the only RV here. So very quiet and peaceful. Ahhhhh…..
Deer Run Winery – peaceful place to stay.
Tomorrow we we plan to ride the Lehigh Valley Trail. The trail head is about 15 minutes from the winery.
No tow vehicle with us on this trip so will be parking the motorhome at the trailhead.
We left Saybrook on Monday afternoon August 12, 2019 to begin our biking in the northeast. Our plan is to ride in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. We may also get some New York miles in on our return to Ohio.
Our first morning – breakfast in motorhome, Utica, NY. Walmart parking lot beside a Bass Pro Shop.
We headed for Bernardston. MA in the morning as we have reservations at Traveler’s Woods. Our trip was uneventful (PTL) with mostly light traffic and of course some construction delays. Sine we are traveling with a 2 year old our site was near the play ground.
Notice Landen is wearing his bike helmet. Couldn’t decide between riding his strider bike or going down slide. Nice quiet campground.
We plan to stay here 3 nights. It is close to 2 trails we plan to ride. Tomorrow we begin our Massachusetts miles. We are so excited to once again that we are blessed2bbiking. Double blessed to have Landen along
After completing our northwest biking experience in October 2019 we were able to spend a beautiful fall in Ohio before heading to Fort Leonard Wood to spend Christmas with Erik and his family. April was with us too.
We had a fun and blessed Christmas.
Then it was off to Florida for the winter. We spent January and February 2019 at West Jupiter RV. We did many miles of biking from the RV Park. Walking the beach is one of our favorite activities and we did plenty of that. Best of all we spent lots of time with our grandson Landen.
Headed for the beach on Singer Island.
Along one of our favorite rides in Cypress Park.
Wild turkey in River Bend Park. We rode here many times and even did a full moon ride. The night sounds and darkness made it a very different experience.Full moon ride at River Bend Park.
March means Strawberry Festival time so we headed for Plant City area. We camped at Colt Creek State Park for a few days. Had a wonderful visit with the Millers and fun times at the Strawberry Festival. Highlight was the Martina McBride concert.
Amazing the way they plant and harvest the strawberries. I love getting pictures of the flag.
Cookout at Colt Creek in cool March weather.
While staying at Colt Creek we road a couple nice trails that were only a short drive from the park – General James A Van Fleet and Withlacoochee State Trail.
Meanwhile back at home.
After our stay at Colt Creek we had reservations at Highland Hammock State Park. The ranger who checked us in spent many summers in Ashtabula. Her grandfather was commodore at the yacht club.
While here we enjoyed some biking, hiking, a very informative tram tour and the Civilian Conservation Corp Museum. An excellent history lesson dealing with the depression era.
Then it was off to Ortona South Lock a Corp of Engineers campground. We loved it here. We could walk across the dam and watch boats going thru the lock. There were river otters playing in the stream. Great place for walking, relaxing and biking.
Cattle grazing beside campground. I enjoyed hearing them in the morning. Biggest bull I’ve ever seen!Ortona Tavern was literally the only place in town. Nice place to stop for a beer while out biking.Locks at Ortona COE Campground.Waiting for locks to close so we can cross for our bike ride.Boats in lock at Ortona. Yacht on right was getting a tow. He had hit a rock in the river.
We took a trip to Shark Valley in the Everglades while staying at Ortona. We biked the Shark Valley Loop.
This guy was across the trail!! We saw way too many gators.This turtle was nesting alongside the trail. We saw him from the tram tour on the loop. Love to see Blue Heron, my favorite water bird. We saw many feeding along Shark Valley Loop.
Our next stopping place was W.P. Franklin Lock, also a Corp of Engineers campground. From here we took a second trip to the Everglades for a boat tour in the Thousand Islands area near Everglades City.
Great campsite at W.P. Franklin.Camillia Street Grill a great lunch stop after our Everglades tour.Our first taste of Stone Crab in Everglades City.We took the Eco River Tour sunset cruise. We were back at the dock before the storm rolled in.We were right on the water at W.P. Franklin. I enjoyed seeing a little blue heron feeding in the morning. Visited my cousin Linda and her husband Jim on Pine Island. Wonderful boat cruise. Jim at the helm.
It was back to the east coast of Florida for a couple weeks in April and then back to Ohio. We had an extra traveler with us on our return.
Landen enjoying breakfast in the motorhome on the trip to Ohio.
We had a good spring and part of summer at home. Landen made life there a whole new experience. We had a good time catching up with family and friends.
Visiting the Petersons at Fort Leonard Wood in MayFun with cousins at Fort Leonard Wood
Cheered for Uncle Erik when he became a Warrant Officer. Spent Easter with Aunt Mary and Uncle Randy. Aunt Mary is one of Landen’s favorite Ohio people.Loves spending time with Aunt Mary and Uncle Randy. Fire and s’mores was fun. Aunt Connie and Uncle Sam came from Florida for a visit.Grandma Reese came to visit from New York.Bike rides on Western Reserve Greenway were fun . Snack breaks were always fun.Daddy and Colleen visited in July. Traditional picture by the cow.Celebrated birthday number 2.Aunt April came for a visit and enjoyed playing in Landen’s pool.Natalie came to visit from North Carolina. She took Landen to the arcade at Geneva-on-the-Lake.Met cousins in Toledo at Jamie’s open house. Ate corndog at Ashtabula County Fair. That brings us to now and we are off to a biking adventure.
We left Ohio on Friday morning August 3rd and went a few miles down the road when we realized we had forgotten the salmon spread I had made the day before. So glad we retrieved it, great snack while traveling.
We planned to travel as quickly as possible to Kalispell, Montana so a few Walmart nights were ahead for us.
Chicago/Gary Indiana traffic was as expected. Thankfully we had an uneventful trip and made it to the Waterloo, Iowa Walmart. Long hot day and 722 miles into our trip.
Saturday found us on the road at 8 AM as we wanted to make it to Gillette, WY. We traveled through Clear Lake, Iowa – where the music died. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson played their final concert here. It was a sold-out crowd of 2,000.
We also traveled through Sturgis, South Dakota. It was the 78th Annual Bike Week. We have never seen so many bikes. They were on the road, on trailers, at every gas station, rest areas and restaurants. The hillsides in Sturgis were covered with tents, and every kind of RV imaginable. We gave a shout out to our neighbors. They left with their bike in tow a few days before us.
Spent night at Walmart in Gillette, WY after traveling 782 miles. Walmart was packed with RVs.
Gillette, WY Walmart “glamping”.
Sunday we made our way to Helena, MT. Not as many bike sightings today. We traveled thru fields of hay and herds of cattle. Scenery changing – more trees and mountains. The Helena Walmart had over 20 RVs and even people pitching tents – never seen that before.
Made it to Kalispell on Monday. Yay! Yay! What a beautiful trip from Helena. Climbed over mountain into a beautiful valley with fields of hay bails, herds of cattle and horses. Heading north on Hwy 83 toward Kalispell we passed many lakes – deep blue in color surrounded by evergreens.
Our home for a few days. Flo loves stream right behind the motorhome
Rocky Mountain “Hi” RV will be our home for the next four nights. We have traveled 2,170 miles in 4 days. Time for some 2 wheel travel.
Spent the afternoon in town and visited the Wheaton bike shop for maps and trail info. Pleasant town – busy.
Outside Wheaton bike shop. That bike is bigger than our toad.
