Monday, July 27, 2009

Brattleboro to Manchester NH 86.7 miles - 3,905.9 miles cum
















Today, we entered our last official state on the Cross Country Challenge, New Hampshire!!! Hooray!!! It was a great day to ride a bike. The temperature was around 70 when we left at 7:15Am bound for Manchester. Our first stop was the New Hampshire state line only .7 mil es down the road. We headed for Keene, New Hampshire. My brother Charlie and I used to own some property in Keene about 25 years ago. I was hoping to find a couple of them to see how they have fared but I couldn't remember where they were. We headed out of Keene to start some serious climbing. Some of the grades were measured at 50 percent although most of it was between 10% to 20%. I found that I could climb them without any major difficulty. I didn't go up very fast, although nobody else did either, but I was able to do them without a lot strain. I guess we have trained eight weeks for today's hill climbs.





As I said before, Charlie and I used to own property in Keene so I have traveled to Keene quite a bit but I never have really appreciated how beautiful New Hampshire is. It is really nice to be in states that have character and beauty. Again we are riding through towns which date back to the revolutionary war and before. We have ridden from West to East and it is interesting to see the towns oldest buildings go from the early 1900's to the late 1800's to the mid 1800's to the early 1800's to the late 1700's and now the mid 1700's. We have followed in reverse order the development of the United States.





Lots of pretty scenery today but no adventures!





Tonight we had our final dinner together as a group. There were a lot of speeches made and tears were shed by a few. We have made a lot of friends which we will have for the rest of our lives.





Tomorrow we wrap up the adventure!! On to the Atlantic Ocean!!!!

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