- Wednesday, July 27, 2022
- Bedford, MA
- Lodging: Home
- Miles: 52.9 @ 10.5
- Cumulative miles: 1,182.7
- Vertical: 1,486 (per Strava)
- Start time: 9:42 am (after breakfast)
- Arrival time: 5:25pm
- Elapsed time: 7:43 (includes lunch and walking last 2 blocks with flat tire)

I’m home! Despite getting a flat tire two blocks from home (and walking the rest of the way), it was a really great trip!
The trip totaled 1,183 miles with luggage, plus 57 miles on 3 day trips, for a total of 1,240 miles. Look for all the trip details in the ride report, which I hope to get out in a more timely fashion this year.
I awoke this morning with the intention of having breakfast at the McDonald’s directly across the three lane busy street from the Hampton Village Inn. So I turned left to walk 20 yards to the crosswalk, when I saw there was a diner tucked in right next to the hotel, Hoaty’s Breakfast & Lunch. In I went.

It was another classic small town diner. There were two waitresses, both very pretty 20-somethings, one of whom was very pregnant (not the one in the photo). She took care of me, and told me she was due in 3 weeks!
Instead of my usual omelette, I had a Texas breakfast, which was two eggs (I had mine scrambled), two sausages, baked beans, potatoes, and Texas toast. Texas toast, for those who don’t know, is just plain old white bread, cut real thick and toasted on the buttered grill. If the bread is good, which this was, it’s really good!

Then back to the room, where I packed up my now-dry tent (remember the wet tent, draped all over the furniture?), and all my other stuff. I didn’t start riding until 9:40, much later than I wanted. In the end it didn’t matter.
It turns out that the Hampton Village Inn was actually north of the casino, which is to say, out of the way. My route home backtracked to the casino and continued on south. So my plan was to stop at the casino. At this point, I’m playing with house money.
The ride back to the casino was really nice! It was pleasantly cool, sunny, blue skies, very little wind, and flat. The ocean was on the left. Once again I got to ride the length of the Hampton Beach tourist Mecca. I loved it!

When I got to the casino, at 10:20 AM, I found, to my dismay, that it was closed. What is this? Casinos don’t close. But I googled it, and this casino did not open until noon. So I got back on my bike and headed on south along the coast on Rt. 1A.


I rode through Seabrook to Salisbury, Mass. I think I passed the nuclear reactor on my right.

When I entered New Hampshire yesterday, there was no state line marker on the bridge that I was on. Now today, as I ride into Massachusetts, there was a sign that identified the Salisbury town line, but nothing to indicate I was now in Massachusetts. So no photos of that.

At Salisbury, I made a right turn away from the ocean. It’s interesting on bike tours how you follow one geographic type for a long time, whether it’s the Rocky mountains or the North Atlantic Coast, and then boom! You’re out of it!
When I rode across the country, I came out of the Rockies in like 2 hours. I went from 8,500 ft down to 5,000 ft, and just like that, I was in the Plains. Nothing gradual. It was the same thing today, turning away from the ocean today.
Since I was no longer following Rt. 1 or 1A, I had to pay more attention to navigation. But Google Maps did a good job taking me across northeastern Massachusetts to Bedford.
It was a really pretty ride! Farmers were working in the fields, everything was green (although we clearly need rain), most of the roads were pleasant, and there were frequent opportunities to get food and drink.
Lunch was at a sub shop in Georgetown, called Nicolini, where I had a gyro in pita. It was good! However, when I walked out of the restaurant into the oven-like afternoon, I didn’t feel so well. I worried briefly that maybe the food hadn’t sat well, but I think it was just the heat. I felt better after I got some cold Gatorade in me.


An hour and a half later, I stopped to take a break along the Shawsheen River. I never would have guessed this was the Shawsheen, which is the same river that goes through Bedford. We used to live next to it. But it must wind its way somehow from here to there. It was tiny here.


It was really warm. I’m guessing low 90s. A half hour later, I was out of Gatorade and on the verge of suffering, when I got to a convenience store and got my last bottle of Gatorade Zero for the trip. I sat there in the shade for 15 minutes, enjoying the cold Gatorade and eating a half melted Snickers bar left over from yesterday. It helped a lot.
From there, it was a relatively easy dozen miles home, on roads that I was very familiar with. Billerica was the high point, elevation-wise, but from Billerica on, it was all downhill! I love when a day ends downhill.
But the bicycle gods weren’t done with me just yet. Two blocks from home, just before reaching the Northside convenience store (formerly known as Gammy’s), my rear tire went flat, again.
I decided to try and pump it up, just to get me home. So I wasted a CO2 cartridge, but when I removed the inflator from the valve, all the air came out of the tube. So it may be a defective valve, not a puncture in the tube. I will figure that out tomorrow.
In any event, I walked home. It took 5 minutes. Fixing the flat would have taken anywhere from a half an hour to an hour.
Jennifer, Ernie, and our neighbor Lisa, who happened to be outside working in her garden, were there to greet me.
It’s great to be home.