Bicycle Tours

The Rear Admiral and myself are NOT gear heads. We had people ask us for SeeMore's Specs, so:


RANS Screamer Sport 2004


Frame - Tig Welded, 4130 Cro-Moly Steel
Main Tube size - 2"
Rider Size/ X-Seam - Capt. 37"-47, Stoker 34"-44
Wheelbase - 74.5"
Fork - Threadless Cro-Moly Steel, Unicrown
Seat Height- Capt. 25.50", Stoker 23.50"
Headset - Cane Creek 1 1/8" Threadless (replaced the orginal)
Crankset - Truvativ Elita 52/42/30T
Chain - KMC Z9000
Front Derailleur - Shimano 105
Rear Derailleur - SRAM X7
Shifters - SRAM Rapid Fire (replaced)
Brakes - Avid Single Digit 7
Hubs - 20" Velocity, 26" Velocity w/disk mount
Rims - 20"- 26" Velocity Deep V
F/R Tire - (F) 20" x 1.75", Marathon Plus, (R)-26"x2.00", Marathon XR by Schwalbe (replaced)
Cassette -SRAM X7 9-Speed 11/32T
Gear Inches - 25-123
Bike Weight - 45 lbs. (on Weight Watchers)
Overall Length - 102" (will not turn on a dime!)
Color - Galaxy Blue
Weight Limit - 275 lbs.ea.

From: Milford, NH
To: Portsmouth, NH
Mileage: 79.5

Cycling tradition has it that if you do a tour across the US you start by dipping your wheel in the ocean on one side and then when you make it to the other side you dip your wheel into the other ocean. Well I'm not sure if we are going to make it to the Pacific ocean or not but we did officially start our tour this weekend by riding from Milford, NH to Portsmouth, NH to stick SeeMore into the Atlantic Ocean. We originally intended to make this trip a little closer to our 25th anniversary on May 23rd but the weather was perfect and we were ready to go.

Portsmouth is about 75 miles from Milford, traveling the back roads. We have maps for NH that indicate the best routes for cyclist to travel. For some reason the Rear Admiral picked all of the best roads and we traveled through some of NH most beautiful places. We did not pass a single bad dog, dump or waste water treatment plant. There wasn't a cloud in the sky on either Saturday or Sunday and we only got slightly lost for about 5 miles. We started at about 8 am on Saturday and we were in Portsmouth at about 3 pm. We stopped for directions to the hotel at a bike shop and ended up chatting with the owner of Papa Wheelie about his bike tour last year in New Zealand.

We were able to get a reservation at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Portsmouth. It was awesome. We had the pool and Jacuzzi all to ourselves! We went downtown and had dinner at the Gaslight restaurant and sat and watched the tourist on Market and Congress streets. Just before dinner we rode down to the pier and did the official wheel dip. Then took a short walk through Prescott park, a pretty little park right across the street from Strawberry Bank.

The Rear Admiral and I enjoyed our winter break in Georgetown Texas with my folks. We arrived in Austin by airplane on Saturday evening. Sunday we arranged with Mike at http://easystreetrecumbents.com to rent a recumbent tandem for 3 days.
Finding Easy Street Recumbents is not hard, if you know what you are looking for. Mike's shop is inside his house, so my image of a "bike shop" didn't work so well. Mike kindly printed out maps of Austin so we could have an easier time getting out of town. He set us up on a Bike E tandem with carrying bags, mirrors and a kick stand. He even invented a handle bar lock to help the bike stay in place, once we were parked.


THANK YOU MIKE!


Bike E tandems are no longer built. The main differences between SeeMore and Ernie (yes I gave the Bike E a name) is that Ernie has smaller wheels, weighs more, and the Rear Admiral sits father back from me. The first two points, illustrate why it a slower bike than our RANS Screamer. Since our seats were father apart, it harder for the Rear Admiral to hit me, when I make a silly comment. If you are going to be using Ernie for " around town ", then the Bike E would fit nicely in your riding fleet.


After a short test flight; and with Mike's highlighted maps we made our way through Central Austin towards Georgetown. It was Sunday morning, and we traveled under blue skies. In New Hampshire the temperature was a balmy 20 degrees. While in Texas, we had to suffer with it being in the high 70s low 80s for the whole week! There are MANY bike routes through and around Austin, Lance Armstrong's home town. Riding a bike through Austin is fantastic. Driving through Austin in a car (after 4:00 pm) stinks! I would recommend leaving the car behind. Here is our route north from Easy Street Recumbents to Georgetown: 45 1/2 Street, Caswell Ave, 50th Street, Duval Street, 56th Street, Avenue F, Skyview Road, Guadalupe Street, Bentwood Street, Grover Ave, Tisdale Drive, Wooten Drive, Lazy Lane, Beckett, Kromer Street, FairField Drive, Clairwood, Hunters Trace, Colony Creek Drive, Parkfield Drive, Bittern Hollow, Metric Blvd, Ceder Bend Drive, Park Bend Drive, Waters Park Road, Adelphin, and then onto West Parmer Lane.


West Parmer Lane is a four lane road that goes north through Cedar Park. This road is very busy but has a wide shoulder. We saw a number of cyclists on this route. In Leander, Parmer Lane turns into Ronald W Reagan Blvd and then into Williamson Co Rd 268. W Parmer will soon (in a year) replace these roads.


We were forced to ride on route 29 for a short bit, but thanks to Dad, we were able to follow some less traveled roads into north west Georgetown. Lake Georgetown and a number of quarries force you to travel in either a westernly or easternly direction, if you are trying to get to Georgetown from the south. We did not have a odometer today, but we believe we got in a 45 mile ride, YES!


Monday we did a short ride (about 20 miles round trip) to downtown Georgetown. We picked up a bike trail near the Georgetown Lake Dam, following it into town. This trail is a great place to ride or walk. My mom rode by herself, and then wanted to try the tandem, so about halve way to town, we switched stokers. Our goal was breakfast afterwards walked the main streets, before the Rear Admiral and I continued back on our journey back to my parents home.


Tuesday we followed Sunday's directions, backwards back to Easy Street Recumbents in central Austin. For these three days we got in about 110 miles of riding. It was great to see what kind of winter shape we are in!

From: Barrington Passage
To: Shelbourne
Mileage: 51

---

Got up early and worked on Seemore's speedometer. It was damaged somehow on the ferry ride. I also had to re-arrange were stuff gets stowed. Mary and Georges got up around 8:30 and we all had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. We got on the road about 9:30. It was near perfect riding weather all day with the temperatures in the high 80s with very little wind.

The Lighthouse Route is not very busy, so again we got to ride side by side a lot. Saw lobster boats, deer , pitcher plants, lupine, seagulls, lighthouses, loons, and ducks. There seems to be a lot of houses and land for sale. No gas stations or little stores from Barrington to Shelburne. Had lunch at Nellie Bly's CafÈ on Main Street. We had yet another excellent lunch of chicken salad sandwiches (on homemade bread) and thick milkshakes. Shelburne was the largest town settled by the loyalist when they didn't want to be governed by the new United States. We visited the "old town" section along the waterfront , which is full of museums and gift shops. We then cycled back to Isle Provincial Park to meet up with Mom and Dad. We have a great site overlooking the bay. Tonight we went back into Shelburne and had dinner at the Sea Dog. I had the shrimp and scallop caesar salad made with fresh fish.

From: Harrington, DE
To: Glasglow, DE
Mileage: 75

---

Today's four letter word. . . wind! It blew coming out of the northwest, which was exactly the way we were heading. It was a beautiful day outside, with temperatures in the mid 60s. The sky had little white puffy clouds, and tons of sunshine. If we had done the trip in reverse direction, the wind would have been with us for 95 percent of the journey. Mary picked out some excellent roads, again with the aid of the Delaware bicycle maps. The last day is always sad. We had lunch (subs) in Clayton at a little country store (yummy) and also stopped at Bruester Ice Cream stand for a late afternoon sundae (Remember It?s not about the riding, it's about the food!). We had a great tour, and would continue if we could, but Katelyn has a Bio Genius contest in New Jersey which we need to attend. We finished up camping at Lums State park. The repair on my seat worked very well. When we arrived at the state police barracks to retrieve our Subaru, the battery was dead (I had forgotten to close my door all the way). With the help of a state trooper, we were on our way. We camped at Lums State park for the night. To our happy surprise, there was a dog show going on. Life is so much fun! Now to go around and enjoy the dogs!

From: Ocean City, MD
To: Harrington, DE
Mileage: 67

---

Back to Delaware! Started off with another big breakfast, and you know by now what Mary had. We meandered along the back roads of Delaware, the key word here is meandered. Some of the more memorable road names were: Piglet Patch, Hard Scrabble Road and 9 foot Road. We were on one very lonely quiet road (no cars for 4 miles) when we met up again with Paul and Jane on their purple Burley tandem. I think all four of us were truly amazed. We had a very long chat and extended eMail addresses with them this time. We basically met in the middle of the road and talked and talked. Seems we had so much in common, and so much to talk about that we had two conversations going at once! Only two cars interrupted us during the whole time. After saying our goodbyes, Mary and I headed for Georgetown and Lunch (Pizza). We had put in 40 miles so you can tell that the wind had died down a lot today. We picked Killians State Park for the night, but did not reach our goal. 8 miles outside of Harrington the back post of my seat broke and we were forced to make a temporary fix (with 2 spare screws, duct tape and a rag). We limped into Harrington and the Holiday Express Inn . After visiting the local Hardware store, I fixed it using two auto studs. We will see tomorrow how well I did!

From: Lewes, DE
To: Ocean City, MD
Mileage: 70

---

Great night for camping, we were by ourselves, on a sandy beach site. In the a.m. we headed down the coastal highway with a head wind coming directly at us from the south at 15 - 20 mph. We again averaged about 9 mph in the wind, and about 11 mph the whole day. I'm glad we did the coastal highway, but I wouldn't do it again. We were off season, and it was way too busy for us. We had breakfast in Rehoboth Beach at a Bob Evans. The Rear Admiral had her usual and I had another omelet. Place like Bob Evans are ok, but we like the 'atmosphere' at the mom and pop diners a bit more. There seems to be a lot of construction all over Delaware, and the Coastal Highway was no exception. We made it into Ocean City Maryland, where we shared a road lane with buses. It has grown up so much in the past 10 years. Again, I'm so glad we where riding during the 'off season'. Had lunch at Dumster Ice cream and sandwich shop and filled up with sandwiches and milkshakes. We were still full, about 7 hours later, as I write this! Made it down to our southern most goal, Assateague National Park to see the wild horses. What a great way to see a National Park, on a bicycle. We saw the wild horses up close along with sika deer and tons of shore birds. The road is only about 4 miles long, but we spent the whole afternoon riding and enjoying! They even built a bridge for bikes and pedestrians only over to the island, you don't have to share the bridge with regular traffic! We almost got into a head on collision with a black racer (snake). The snake wanted to go one way, I wanted to go another and the Rear Admiral wanted to go backwards. SeeMore just missed the guard rail, which would have knocked us over, right on top of the snake. Again, it would have made a great Laurel and Hardy movie. The state park was closed to camping, and the National Park was open but there was a 80 percent of server thunderstorms for the night, so we headed (reluctantly) back to Ocean City to stay the night inside at the Bedtime Inn.