Friday, May 18, 2012
Tom's Ride Across Ireland!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Facts and Figures
I thought you might be interested in hearing about my totals and averages for the trip. I used a spreadsheet to compile the following list:
· Number of riding days: 51
· Number of non-riding days: 9
· Total distance: 4,121 miles
· Average distance per riding day: 80.8 miles
· Total riding time: 10 days, 0 hours, 22 minutes (240 hours, 22 minutes)
· Average riding time per day: 4 hours, 42 minutes
· Average speed: 17.1 mph
· Number of calories burned while riding: 267,277
· Average calories burned per riding day: 4,941 (or 1,051 per hour; doesn’t include non-riding activities)
· Total ascent: 133,231 feet
· Average ascent per riding day: 2,612 feet
· Total descent: 133,232 feet (The Atlantic Ocean is approximately 8 inches lower than the Pacific Ocean)
· Average descent per riding day: 2,612 feet)
Day 60, Camden to Bar Harbor, Maine
Ride distance: 85 miles; ride time: 5:19; cumulative distance: 4,105 miles; average speed: 15.9 mph; calories: 5255; ascent: 4371 feet; descent: 4507 feet. We made it! Our trip is over, at least physically. Mentally, emotionally and spiritually we will never forget the adventure that we accomplished together. There are so many people that made this trip possible. We are indebted to those that gave so much time and energy to help us achieve our goal. I am also thankful to God for allowing me to make this trip and make friends that I will always remember and hopefully see again. We got an early start this morning heading for Bar Harbor. We had lunch in Surrey which left us less than 40 miles to go after lunch. We met up outside Bar Harbor and had a police escort into town. It was a very emotional moment for us to be greeted 
by a crowd of people cheering us on. We went down to the ocean to dip our front wheels in the Atlantic, just as we had dipped our rear wheels in the Pacific at the start of our journey. Our host church today was the Baptist Church in Bar Harbor. Arek and I stayed with the youth pastor and his wife, Adrian and Amanda. I would have liked to have spent more time getting to know them but our schedule didn’t allow this. We had some celebrating to do. We went to a seafood restaurant about 12 miles from Bar Harbor for our celebration. There were over 30 in attendance at our celebration dinner. Many of us had fresh Maine lobster. What a treat! After dinner, the festivities continued with a sing along with Jill Blomker, Bryan’s wife. She wrote a funny song for the occasion which she taught us to sing. We had a sharing time about the trip. Emma gave out awards to the var
ious team members. I was given the “A-tom-ic bomb” award for the many puns that I sprung on hapless souls throughout the trip. Bryan presented us with beautiful framed pictures of our start in Anacortes, Washington. We laid the pictures out on tables and took turns signing each other’s mats. Thanks again for your part in making this the trip of a lifetime. We may never know this side of Heaven what the money we raised for Youth for Christ was able to accomplish but will be glad to find out that many young people have been reached for Christ through the projects we’re supporting. God bless and good bye. I may revisit this site shortly to give you some parting thoughts and reflections.
by a crowd of people cheering us on. We went down to the ocean to dip our front wheels in the Atlantic, just as we had dipped our rear wheels in the Pacific at the start of our journey. Our host church today was the Baptist Church in Bar Harbor. Arek and I stayed with the youth pastor and his wife, Adrian and Amanda. I would have liked to have spent more time getting to know them but our schedule didn’t allow this. We had some celebrating to do. We went to a seafood restaurant about 12 miles from Bar Harbor for our celebration. There were over 30 in attendance at our celebration dinner. Many of us had fresh Maine lobster. What a treat! After dinner, the festivities continued with a sing along with Jill Blomker, Bryan’s wife. She wrote a funny song for the occasion which she taught us to sing. We had a sharing time about the trip. Emma gave out awards to the var
ious team members. I was given the “A-tom-ic bomb” award for the many puns that I sprung on hapless souls throughout the trip. Bryan presented us with beautiful framed pictures of our start in Anacortes, Washington. We laid the pictures out on tables and took turns signing each other’s mats. Thanks again for your part in making this the trip of a lifetime. We may never know this side of Heaven what the money we raised for Youth for Christ was able to accomplish but will be glad to find out that many young people have been reached for Christ through the projects we’re supporting. God bless and good bye. I may revisit this site shortly to give you some parting thoughts and reflections. Thursday, August 14, 2008
Day 59, Oxford to Camden, Maine
Ride distance: 97 miles; ride time: 6:16; cumulative distance: 4,020 miles; average speed: 15.5 mph; calories: 6007; ascent: 4967 feet; descent: 5364 feet. We made it from Sea to Sea. When we got to Rockport, we were on the Atlantic Ocean. Our final destination will be about 90 miles to the north at Bar Harbor. It’s exciting to have our fina
l destination so close at hand. These last nine weeks have been an adventure that I will always remember. I’ve been blessed to meet so many fine people – the riders, support staff, and hosts. I also would like to thank the people that have made this trip possible – my supporters and especially my wife for parting with me for 60 days. Thank you Nancy! I’ve missed you a lot and will be glad to see you again. Today’s ride featured hills, hills, and more hills. Maine is not flat by any stretch of the imagination. As you can see, we climbed close to 5,000 feet today. We made it to Camden around 5 o’clock and were treated to a wonderful potluck by the Baptist church that is hosting us.
l destination so close at hand. These last nine weeks have been an adventure that I will always remember. I’ve been blessed to meet so many fine people – the riders, support staff, and hosts. I also would like to thank the people that have made this trip possible – my supporters and especially my wife for parting with me for 60 days. Thank you Nancy! I’ve missed you a lot and will be glad to see you again. Today’s ride featured hills, hills, and more hills. Maine is not flat by any stretch of the imagination. As you can see, we climbed close to 5,000 feet today. We made it to Camden around 5 o’clock and were treated to a wonderful potluck by the Baptist church that is hosting us. Day 58, Lincoln, New Hampshire to Oxford, Maine
Ride distance: 89 miles; ride time: 4:45; cumulative distance: 3,923 miles; average speed: 16.6 mph; calories: 5105; ascent: 4267 feet; descent: 4768 feet. We made it to Maine! We’re not at the coast yet but should be tomorrow. John, Dan and I had breakfast with our hosts, Robert and Monica. We then met up with the rest of the group and started our ascent of Kancamagus Pass. It has an elevation of 2,855 feet. It didn’t turn out to be as hard as we thought. Mike, Paul Bayfield and I were the first ones to the top. We covered the 12.6 mile distance to the pass in just over an hour. The real steep hills turned out to be the ones after lunch. They were much shorter but also much steeper. One hill was as steep as 21%. I reached our host church first at about 3:30 and the others came in later. The youth group at the Advent Christian Church in Oxford served u
s a lasagna dinner and we did a Youth for Christ presentation for them When we have a meeting for youth, we make it fun by having a scavenger hunt pitting the boys against the girls. The items in the scavenger hunt all help to tell the story of our bike ride. Tonight the boys were victorious. John and I are staying with Pastor Frank and his wife Judy.. We watched the Olympics and munched on Judy’s delicious cookies.
s a lasagna dinner and we did a Youth for Christ presentation for them When we have a meeting for youth, we make it fun by having a scavenger hunt pitting the boys against the girls. The items in the scavenger hunt all help to tell the story of our bike ride. Tonight the boys were victorious. John and I are staying with Pastor Frank and his wife Judy.. We watched the Olympics and munched on Judy’s delicious cookies.Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Day 57, Rochester, Vermont to Lincoln, New Hampshire
Ride distance: 93 miles; ride time: 6:05; cumulative distance: 3,844 miles; average speed: 15.3 mph; calories: 6359; ascent: 5446 feet; descent: 5559 feet. Every day is bringing us closer to our finish in Bar Harbor, Maine on Friday. This has been a spectacular trip, one I will never forget. On today’s ride, we traveled from Vermont to New Hampshire and tomorrow, we should reach Maine. We started from Rochester just before 8 a.m. The morning ride was dry but after lunch the rains returned. We found out that there has been rain in 17 of the last 18 days in Lincoln. We had quite a bit of climbing today but nothing as steep as the climb over Brandon Gap yesterday. We arrived at Lincoln starting at 4:20. There was one very tough railr
oad track crossing in Lincoln. The tracks were diagonal to the roadway and wet. Three of our riders fell going over the tracks and bruised their knees. Fortunately there were no serious injuries. We are being hosted tonight by St. John’s Catholic Church. Our hosts picked us up and took us to their homes to shower and change our clothes. At 6:30, the church put on a very nice barbeque for us. The youth were there and we had a good presentation for them following the dinner.
oad track crossing in Lincoln. The tracks were diagonal to the roadway and wet. Three of our riders fell going over the tracks and bruised their knees. Fortunately there were no serious injuries. We are being hosted tonight by St. John’s Catholic Church. Our hosts picked us up and took us to their homes to shower and change our clothes. At 6:30, the church put on a very nice barbeque for us. The youth were there and we had a good presentation for them following the dinner. Monday, August 11, 2008
Day 56, Newcomb, New York to Rochester, Vermont
Ride distance: 89 miles; ride time: 5:56; cumulative distance: 3,751 miles; average speed: 15.0 mph; calories: 5763; ascent: 5943 feet; descent: 6785 feet. Today, we’re back to rain. It was raining or drizzling pretty much the entire day. We left Newcomb shortly before 8 a.m. dressed in our wet weather gear. We had a bit of a mix-up at lunch time. We planned to have lunch before we took the ferry across Lake Champlain. Four of us followed the route on our map and stopped at a picnic shelter at a city park in Ticonderoga, New York about 2 miles from the ferry crossing. The rest of the group followed signs to the ferry following a different route 
and went directly to the ferry crossing. The group at the ferry ended up riding back to the park since there was no covered shelter at the ferry crossing and it was raining. We had our lunch and arrived in Vermont shortly after 2 p.m. We were soon to find out that our hardest climb of the trip was ahead of us. We took an alternate route to Rochester since the heavy rains this summer washed out roads and bridges on our mapped route. We ended up taking Highway 73 which went over Brandon Pass. The climb to the pass was about the steepest hill I’ve been on for that distance of climb. The hill seemed to go on forever at slopes reaching 16%. Much of the climb was at 12% which is steep for cyclists, particularly when the slope continues for a long distance. Paul Bayfield, Zack and I managed to make it to Rochester shortly after 5 p.m. I was proud of the rest of the group because they all made it over that steep hill. The last riders arrived around 6:40 p.m. and we were taken to our host homes. Stuart and I are staying with Dan and Peggy tonight. Dan is a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and Peggy is a counselor. Since I used to work for the Forest Service, Dan and I had lots to talk about. We finished the evening by watching the Olympics on TV.
and went directly to the ferry crossing. The group at the ferry ended up riding back to the park since there was no covered shelter at the ferry crossing and it was raining. We had our lunch and arrived in Vermont shortly after 2 p.m. We were soon to find out that our hardest climb of the trip was ahead of us. We took an alternate route to Rochester since the heavy rains this summer washed out roads and bridges on our mapped route. We ended up taking Highway 73 which went over Brandon Pass. The climb to the pass was about the steepest hill I’ve been on for that distance of climb. The hill seemed to go on forever at slopes reaching 16%. Much of the climb was at 12% which is steep for cyclists, particularly when the slope continues for a long distance. Paul Bayfield, Zack and I managed to make it to Rochester shortly after 5 p.m. I was proud of the rest of the group because they all made it over that steep hill. The last riders arrived around 6:40 p.m. and we were taken to our host homes. Stuart and I are staying with Dan and Peggy tonight. Dan is a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and Peggy is a counselor. Since I used to work for the Forest Service, Dan and I had lots to talk about. We finished the evening by watching the Olympics on TV.
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