The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well good morning. It's 6:18 in the morning and I'm leaving Sandwich, which is a pretty typical cape town with a bunch of little hills and ponds and kind of pine and oak woods around, sandy and marshy. Also a place where the Pilgrims spent some time on their way over toward Plymouth, with a quaint village circle.
And the only real noteworthy thing about Sandwich is that we follow the Route 6 Service Road, which is very up-and-down hilly. A lot of rollers that you can actually shoot pretty well, so we'll see how that goes.
Interested to see how the bike's doing this morning; I should be fine, although obviously a little tired. But the weather's beautiful.
And I'm gonna go catch up with the rest of the riders. And I should talk to you again in an hour.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well it's 7:40, so I've been here in the Barnstable stop for probably 45 minutes or so, but a miracle has in fact happened, and the mechanic here had Mavic non-drive-side spokes.
So I now have a new spoke; god only knows whether it will last another 60-, 70-odd miles, but in theory the rear wheel problem is solved. I still have a few bottom bracket issues, but it's not bugging me too much today.
So I actually am... This water stop has pretty much cleared out, so I'm completely behind everybody. There's only a few riders with me at this point.
But just passed the place where I wiped out, back -- I think it was the 2003 ride -- crashed out of the ride. Passed it safely, of course.
And soon I'll be going through Dennis, which is the location of the Cape Playhouse, which is the oldest summer theater in the US, and actually the place where Bette Davis was discovered.
So onward, and gonna try and push along to try and catch up with the rest of the group, just because I'm so far behind. So I won't spend more time talking. But happy so far. We'll see how this goes on the next segment.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well we're now in Brewster, which is about halfway through the day. It's now 8:36... 8:35 which means I'm about 15-20 minutes behind schedule. Which isn't bad, I'm not too worried about the schedule today.
Starting to catch up with other riders. Had an awesome pull by a guy named Scott from Framingham that really moved us along pretty well.
My mechanicals seem to be all holding together pretty well, so no worries on that front at this point.
Brewster: we went past the Cape Cod Sea Camps hedge, and we're about to jump onto the Cape Cod Rail Trail briefly, then we get off it, then we get back on it again.
About 3-4 miles from here we go into Orleans, which is where the cape starts turning north at the elbow of Cape Cod. And Orleans was actually invaded by British marines in the War of 1812, and the locals were victorious, and it's also the only site in the US that was ever fired upon in World War 1, it was by a German U-boat.
And a couple miles past that we hit Eastham, which is where the first encounter between Pilgrims and Indians occurred in the New World.
So getting into historical territory, but in terms of my own history, things are going well. It's a little foggy here on the cape, misty, mid-70s. Not a lot of sun right now, but it's very comfortable biking weather, and it's not wet, so no problems, just a little moist and humid.
That's it I will talk to you next... I think the next stop is Wellfleet, which is the penultimate stop.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well, I'm not sure what time it is, but have arrived in Wellfleet, which is the last stop before Provincetown, so I'm on the last leg from here on forward.
Wellfleet is kind of interesting because half of the land in the entire town of Wellfleet is the Cape Cod National Seashore, and 70 percent of all the land in the town is actually under some sort of protection, because it's toward the scenic end of Cape Cod. The Cape Cod National Seashore, which President Kennedy authorized -- I believe in the early 60s, like '63 -- has reserved a great deal of this land for future public use.
One of the beaches here in Wellfleet is called Marconi Beach which is historic because obviously it's the site of the first tranatlantic radio tranmission, which happened in 1903.
Nice to have actually a minute at this stop to actually stop and and enjoy the ride and thank everyone for their support, rather than chasing around mechanicals. Things are going well.
At this point, probably the rest of the ride I'm just gonna bear in mind the millions of people who contract cancer each year and the millions more who die of it each year. and the sheer number of people here who are trying to do something about it, and have accomplished a hell of a lot. By the end of this year the Pan Mass Challenge alone will have raised over a quarter billion dollars, not million but billion dollars, over $250 million, probably close to $270 million, for the fight against cancer over its 30-year history, obviously this being the 30th year ride.
So something to celebrate, something to enjoy on the last segment of my journey before getting to P-town and closing the books on another Pan Mass. Obviously this leg is always kind of a little bit melancholy because it means the end of something that I've spent the last eight months working for, and have appreciated all the support and interest that people have shown for supporting me doing it. It's very, very much appreciated, obviously it also does a hell of a lot of good for Dana-Farber and for the fight against cancer.
So with that, I'm off on the road on the final segment, and I'll send you another update from P-town.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Hey folks, an update from Provincetown. Sorry it took so long, but cell reception here is pretty bad. So I waited until after showers and food and massage and all kinds of things.
Provincetown: let me tell you a little about P-town, because of course it's a superlative area. It's a major tourist resort and arts colony, and oh yeah it's also gay. It is the highest same-sex couple zipcode in the entire United States.
It's also, in 1620, the place where the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact. They spent five weeks here before they left and moved on, eventually winding up in Plymouth.
Obviously the most obvious thing in town is Pilgrim Monument, which is a 252-foot tall tower. It's the tallest granite structure in all of the United States. But it's a copy of a tower in Sienna, Italy. Ironically it's also that same tower is also copied by the Pine Street Inn in Boston, which is a homeless shelter. The tower's called Torre del Mangia (the one in Sienna), which in Italian of course is "the tower of the eater".
But on to the ride: I finished strong, I had a great pull up Route 6 from Wellfleet with Tim from Team Kermit. We had a real good roll up there, and once we turned around at Race Point Beach, we wound up facing directly into a pretty strong wind, but there was a car nearby, so I actually wound up drafting an SUV for a while. And I'm hoping desperately that none of the event photographers happened to catch that particular image, because a picture of me drafting an SUV is probably not what I want to share with all my fellow PMCers
But that brings an end to my audio posts for the 2009 30th annual Pan Mass Challenge ride. Obviously I shared a lot of thank-yous at the Wellfleet stop, but again I can't say it enough. The support that I've had in bringing together more than $50,000 for [???] it has a purpose, and I've adopted that purpose, and your contributions and your helping me to participate in this ride helps give my life purpose. So I very much appreciate everyone's involvement, and hopefully I will see you all and even more people next year for more coverage.
Go check New England Cable News (necn.com). They will have a lot of footage from the ride, and of course I'll be putting together my annual ride report which will come out in a couple weeks, after I get back from a little bit of travel that I have planned next week.
However, I hope everyone had a good weekend; I know I did. And again, appreciate all the support and we'll see you again soon.
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