adding up the miles
Posted on November 26th, 2009 by klkaye
Anna and I decide to ditch the team ride for a couple of reasons
1. the town we meet in is an hour away and not interesting/scenic
2. we can get the ride done faster on our own
So, we mapped a route that started us at Michelle’s house in North Andover and then took us on a 70 mile loop of the north shore through the towns of:
Boxford
Topsfield
Ipswich (all the way out to the neck)
Rowley
Newbury
Newburyport
West Newbury
Groveland
North Andover
We stayed on course marvelously until West Newbury. These dumb new england towns use the exact same road names everywhere “main street, salem street, etc.) Somehow we managed to head west when we should have been doing south and we went from West Newbury to Haverhill and then discovered where we were and headed south through Lawrence to North Andover. We ended up with 4 extra miles on the bikes.
We left the house at 9.30am and returned at 4.10pm on the nose. Along the way we stopped for a few mins to eat and use the facilities in Boxford and Ipswich. We made shorter pitstops about 3 more times. We also had to make directional inquires a few times just to make sure.
The most famous directional inquiry came toward the end of the ride. None of the streets were marked and we were looking for RT 133. So we stopped at some liquor store in the middle of nowhere and I ran in. I asked the storekeeper, “If we stay along this road (pointing) will be hit 133?” My guess is that the guy is from Maine based upon his reply, “You can go up and down that road all day, but you won’t hit 133.” Thanks for your helpfulness, sir. sheesh.
Our last 25 miles were pretty hilly — and we survived — although Anna was pretty sure someone was “messin” (not exactly her word!) with us! So everytime we saw a hill coming, she’d call that out. We also started to play other dumb games to pass the time — like instead of indicating “grates” we started calling out “terrific”, “super” and things like that. It’s amazing what you will do to pass the time!
It was in the 40s and sunny. We got warm after about 5 minutes of riding. But after each pit stop we’d have to repeat the warming up process. BRR This made us decide to call our excursion Anna and Kiersten’s Excellent Arctic Adventure (like Bill and Ted from the movies).
We also stopped at times to take some pictures. Anna was especially interested in the “working women of Ipswich” display in town by the visitor’s center. We stopped in there and spoke with a little old lady who asked us to sign her visitor book. We figured it was a fair trade for the use of the restroom!
The most interesting thing that happened during our trip was at about mile 55 … and it lasted for about 10 miles. We both hit this stage of euphoria and we were basically in a fit of giggles for 10 miles. Everything was hilarious. I likend it to having laughing gas at the dentist. During this stage we passed an old insurance office named Starky and Cronk. To us, this was HILARIOUS. So we started calling each other (in good MA accents) stahky and cronk. If you hear us doing that — you’ll know why! ha ha
There’s loads more to tell, but you get the idea. We had a grand ole time and both decided we’re looking forward to a redo of that seacoast ride … going through all the different towns gave us things to look at and talk about which helped to keep us entertained.
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