Journey's End Celebration

The Final Ride of our adventure across America was yesterday,  from Newburgh NY to Astoria NYC.
More friends joined us for the 72 mile ride, and 14 of us had planned to ride through the West Point campus on our way home, but our plans were thwarted by new security regulations as of the end of July, which require special passes (bad timing 😁).  So we circumnavigated around WP through some nice back roads, over the George Washington Bridge, through the streets of Manhattan, the Bronx, over the Triboro Bridge, and finally into Queens, towards Hallett’s Cove Beach, where we were planning to dip our Front wheels in the waters from the Atlantic Ocean (you may recall on Day 1 we had dipped our Rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean).
As we approached the urban Beach and turned the corner, we were surprised by the sight of many friends and family standing in the roadway.  They had set up a banner/gate for us to cross, just like at the Tour de France, LOL.  We humorously obliged by crossing with raised hands and breaking the tape 😁.  Good fun was had with champagne, trophies, flowers, commemorative plaques, and yummy food.  We were thrilled, honored, and a little embarrassed 😁.

Some quick highlights and numbers (distance, elevation gain and time, compliments of Strava).

48 days (7 weeks less 1 day)
42 riding
6 rest days

3,410 miles (avg of 81.2 per riding day).

106,071 feet of climbing, with 24,524 feet (23%) in the first week.  Needless to say, the first week was tough.

221 hours 57 minutes actual riding time in the saddle - roughly 31.5 hours per week.

10 centuries + with longest at 122.1 from Riverton WY to Casper WY (fortunately with a tail wind).

Shortest ride was 33.5 miles from the Minidoka historical site to Burley, Idaho.

Photos - lots and lots

Memories - lots and lots

People met - lots and lots

Rode on highways, byways, roads, gravel, paved and stone-dust trailways, in a pickup truck (twice), over an international bridge, plus a high speed ferry across Lake Michigan.