Day 52-53, Kittery, ME to Salem, MA, and a rest day.

So many good things have happened in these last two days: Both brakes on the bike work. Route 1A, especially in New Hampshire, was beautiful, and even in MA, where it becomes fairly busy, 1A is still a good ride. No flats. We found a temporary fix for the rear skewer problem (more later).

After the motel free breakfast, which was worth the price, we headed south into Portsmouth, NH on US 1.



The US 1A bridge is permanently closed awaiting replacement, so this was the only game in town. Was  a nice crossing with a good bike lane, and under Margaret's usual, accurate direction, we headed out of town.

Shortly we rejoined US 1A for an eleven mile stretch along the Atlantic coast. Beautiful! I grew up on the east coast, and there is just something that speaks to me when I am near the ocean.



This house was typical of the ones that were just on the other side of the road from the berm protecting them from the sea.



The construction style is called "saltbox," and is typical for New England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltbox



Ah, the skewer problem. Since day two, our rear skewer, which holds the rear wheel in place, will spuriously open. We may notice a bit more noise from the back wheel, or we may notice nothing. It all becomes obvious when we stop, for whatever reason, and put up the kick stand which raises the rear wheel off the ground. This causes the rear wheel to fall out of the rear drop outs and jam the rear derailleur. We have finally given up on looking for a cause for this. The lever for the rear skewer is now secured in place by a zip tie. Seems to work. We will look for a new skewer when we can.

We continued down 1A. We have seen sign after sign as we have traveled that promise MOOSE, or DEER, and we have seen none. A friend has even told us that the poop we thought might be moose, was in fact bear. There were no signs for BEAR. Today, we saw a new sign.


No SEALS in evidence. We have seen a ton of turkeys, which scatter before we can get a picture. No signs for TURKEYS, of course.



















We did see a great number of little birds hanging out on the electrical wires. Perhaps someone can tell us what they were.






Salem is proving to be an interesting and fun town.

At lunch today.



We are trying to experience all the culture that we can.



If I can take my tongue out of my cheek for a bit, Salem was one of the original, major seaports that built this country. She was once the premiere port for exports to Great Britain. Only with the rise of Philadelphia, Boston, and New York was she eclipsed. We will visit her again.

Tomorrow we take a ferry from Salem to Boston, and then a ferry from Boston to Provincetown. We might ride as much as four miles.