...can you see it?
Repeat after me, the wind is my friend, the wind is my friend.
Today's sky was a much nicer shade of blue than yesterday's, and it was decorated with puffs of white clouds. I don't think that the temperatures jumped quite as high, but it was still hot enough to leave my face caked with dried sweat (again!) by the end of the day. The wind? There were a couple of sections of my route where the wind was definitely a factor. It helped push me down the coast, but as I headed to the west it did a good job of trying to stop me in my tracks. Note that I did say trying though. My bike and I continued on our roll towards home even though there were times when our forward speed dropped much lower than normal - even for normally slow-moving me - on absolutely flat terrain. Funny though, as I moved from route 110 and dropped down to the Merrimack River, the wind apparently decided to leave me for a while. Nice!
I took a minute before I left the hotel this morning to consult the local map that I had picked up yesterday. Ah, that was a good thing to do because it turns out that Portsmouth is a swirl of one-way streets. I knew I wanted to find Route 1B; I knew where the start of that road lived, but I didn't know that best way to get there from where I was. The tourist map that I picked up yesterday very nicely had arrows on the roads indicating their direction of travel. It was still somewhat of a circular route to 1B, but at least it was one circle and not multiples.
Taking Route 1B out of Portsmouth loops through New Castle to the east, crossing several bridges across sections of the Piscataqua River along the way. Yes, 1A all the way would have been slightly shorter, but I enjoy the views and the quiet road. I followed 1B as it looped back to the west, picked up 1A, then headed east once again before hitting the Atlantic Ocean and turning to the south. It was another quiet ocean day, tiny rolls of waves coming in to touch the shore. I really prefer the wild water days, but quiet water can be calming, can't it?
Oh look, there is a pair of ducks hiding along the edge of the water. I wonder if I can catch some pictures of them? (If you look at a map of the New Hampshire coast, you will see the ocean to the east of the road, and other waters to the west. It's the water to the west where I usually see ducks and the elusive mute swans. The sea gulls hang out near or in both bodies of water.) I rode past where I saw the ducks, "parked" my bike, grabbed my camera, and snuck back to see if the ducks wanted to pose for me. Success!
A bit further down the road, I passed Jenness Beach, then came to the sometimes home of the mute swans. There was a flock of sea gulls cavorting in the water, and two of the mute swans ventured towards the shore. They didn't come close enough for good pictures - although I did grab a picture of one trying to take off. I wish he had been closer. Uh oh! I sense a desire for a longer lens for my camera...
The first half of my ride was the section that hugged the coastline - I think about 24 miles (if I remember the numbers on my odometer before I turned to the west). Tell me, how long does it take to ride 24 miles? I left the hotel at 9, and I managed to spend almost three hours along the coast. No, I wasn't riding all of that time. I was riding, stopping, taking (a few) pictures, absorbing the sights around me. And I really believe that I would have been there even longer if it had been a wild water day. Don't take that as a complaint; for me touring isn't just riding, it's riding and absorbing my surroundings, stopping to look.
I briefly considered dropping down to Route 113 - south of the river - for the ride home, but I'm very glad I decided on a reverse journey for today. Reverse with the change of taking the section of road next to the river that I inadvertantly missed yesterday, that is! As planned (this time), I dropped from Route 110 to the road that hugs the northern edge of the river, hoping that the section that I inadvertantly missed yesterday wasn't too bad. There was a short section of road that was closed, but the concrete barriers closing the road sported an opening that was more than wide enough for a bicycle widened by panniers. I decided to give the closed road a try. It was paved, and the sections that the flooded river had torn away had actually been patched. Not a bad section of road, and not a car in sight.
From the bridge across the Merrimack, I climbed once more to pick up Route 113. Picture stops... a wood-worker's Adirondack chair variation - shaped like a fish - insisted I stop for a picture, and then I had to stop at that field of bright orange poppies once again. Since I wasn't carrying a computer with me, I had no idea if yesterday's photos were good ones, so I stopped to take some more! (See, didn't I tell you my camera is an addiction?)
Today's ride was almost a reverse of yesterday's skipping the two inadvertant detours that I took yesterday. In spite of the fact that this was essentially the same tour I took last year at this time - it was still different. I returned home with the same feeling as I did last year; I'll happily repeat this tour again sometime in the future.
