Day 41- Burlington, MA > Revere Beach, MA (19 miles)

June 21

Yep, we made it...what a journey! The coolest story on this is that Stuart convinced Bill, Raff, and I to start riding many years ago (30+), and none of us would have done this trip without each other. We are blessed to have long lasting friendships and a common love of cycling; plus, we can scream at each other and forget about it in 30 seconds...I wish that we had a few others from our group here!

Last route of the trip:

Gradient:

I need another day or so to put some thoughts into a final blog to wrap this up and will plan to do that as an epilogue in the next couple of days...For now, I do want to post a few photos from yesterday and today as we came into Boston and made the final ride to the beach today. The ride today was a lollipop - easy ride for 19 miles with zero stress.

Great photo (from Steve) as we were crossing into NH yesterday, and the fog was lifting.

Some of the descents and hills in the last of the Green Mountains.

New Hampshire state sign (probably my favorite state motto as well!)

Cool photo from one of the climbs yesterday.

I said I would get a photo of my bike before I was done, and here it is...I bought the bike last May and have put almost 10,000 miles on it. When I bought it, the idea was to have one bike to ride gravel and roads. The bike is a gravel bike, and I have a single chainring in the front, which was not ideal for climbing on this trip, but I have zero regrets on buying this bike and bringing it on a cross country trip. My bike shop (Senoia Bikes) was a huge help as I sorted out the right way to configure gearing and tubeless for this trip. It is amazing the abuse that all of our bikes took on this trip and held up remarkably well. I am looking forward to getting home and taking the bike apart and cleaning it properly and seeing what kind of triage is needed. Kudos to Specialized on the Diverge and Senoia Bikes for helping to tune it for me!

This was a solo photo after putting the front wheel in the Atlantic...hard to believe that a month and a half ago, I was putting that rear wheel in the Pacific.

This is Raff and I doing something that we have dreamed of for many years. So grateful to get to do it together.

We could not have done this trip without our wives...so glad they were here today.

I showed a picture of Steve's bike earlier in the trip and wanted to show the final version of his bike...Steve added a state flag as we came into each new state. You can see that his bike is old school with classic Brooks saddle, and the bike has to weigh north of 30 lbs. Steve was a huge bonus to us on this trip as a super friendly and chill guy, a great photographer, and a beast on the bike. 

This is Steve with the four Griffin boys after the ride today...he plans to come see us in Griffin, and I hope that he does it!

The quote for this last day comes from Tolkien and seems appropriate for the end of our journey. This was Frodo when things got really tough in Mordor..."I am glad you are here with me. Here, at the end of all things, Sam." Insert Stuart, Raff, and Bill for Sam...an amazing trip made more special by having three good friends with you. 

~3,440 miles and ~ 110k of climbing over 41 days of riding.

I'll have a couple of other final thoughts and a quote or two, so please check back in the next couple of days. A sincere thank you for following us, praying for us, and sending encouragement and humor throughout the trip...you rode with us.