Food

Twelve days, six hundred miles

Wheel full 70px I decided at about 2:00 p.m. yesterday that I needed a break, so I stopped for the day early and didn’t proceed on in to Florida as I’d originally planned.  That will now happen this morning about ten minutes into my ride.

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Wheel full 70px No real reason for the short day.  I was just tired of being in the sun and my butt (pardon me, ladies) was sore.  I have really been pushing things the last couple of weeks, and it was just time.  The tipping point came when I discovered that all of my bike route planning apps had routed me a mile off to the west of the direct road I had been riding on to a parallel road that within a short distance turned into fine white sand  that was completely unrideable on a bicycle because it was soft and about four inches/10 cm deep.  So I had to backtrack and was not very happy about that.

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Wheel full 70pxA plus resulting from my decision was the opportunity to eat at a historic southern diner: Steffens, in Kingsland, Georgia where I spent the night.  I had fried chicken livers for dinner and came back for breakfast this morning.  Highly recommended if you are ever down this way.

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Wheel full 70px I’ll camp at the Kathryn Abbey Hanna park east of Jacksonville, Florida tonight. A fifty mile/80 kilometer day. Piece of cake!

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A Great Day for a Ride

Wheel full 70px Yesterday was one of the nicest ride days of the trip.  I did a little over 60 miles/100 kilometers.

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Wheel full 70px It wasn’t any particular thing that made it so nice- actually it was mostly cloudy and breezy for much of the day.  But there were interesting bridges

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long stretches of rail trail

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and some nifty urban riding in Providence.

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Wheel full 70px Then there was a great run down the coast opposite Newport to Point Judith, where I stayed last night at an excellent state campground.  The Atlantic Ocean beaches were magnificent.

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Wheel full 70px And I’ll admit it- I was bad.   I rewarded my effort with a nice pizza.

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Wheel full 70px We’ll see how that affects the next weigh-in.

Wheel full 70px Today I’ll continue along the coast into Connecticut, where I hope to have a late lunch with a friend in Groton.  I’ll then catch a ferry in New London to Orient Point on Long Island.  A busy day, but it’s sunny and the wind is with me this morning.

Dinner Recommendations

imageWheel full 70px I have around 2,500 calories left to consume for the day after eating that Subway sandwich mid-day.

Wheel full 70px What suggestions does anyone have for dinner? I’m near a city, so there’s pretty much any fast food or pizza nearby as an option, or there’s a large market just down the road.  Any ideas?

Wheel full 70px I deal with this situation most every day.  Even though I’m losing weight, I don’t feel like I’m handling it consistently.

Weigh-in #11 – Whoa, Bay-bay!

Wheel full 70px Bet you all forgot that it was Monday, right?

Wheel full 70px Let’s start again…gee, it doesn’t seem that long since the last time I weighed myself, does it?

Wheel full 70px I only lost 1.2 pounds, according to the scale at the clinic I stopped at just outside Acadia National Park.  But they were very important nonetheless, as…

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…I’m into the three-teens!  I really feel, for the first time, that somewhere in the high 200s is a very realistic goal to finish this trip up weighing.  That was my weight in the late 1990s.  I never thought I’d see it again.

Wheel full 70px I want to reinforce that I’m not trying to do anything more sophisticated than to stay each day below 2,200 calories plus whatever RidewithGPS says my bike ride burned.

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Wheel full 70px Today that number was 2,828, so my calorie budget is a little over 5,000 total. I’m going to tell you that I won’t be able to eat enough today to get anywhere close to that.  That’s been true for most days that I’ve been on this trip.  My “Get on your bike and ride!” Diet laughs at

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Reuben Sandwiches

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Liver and Onions

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Deep-Fried Shrimp and Onion Rings

Wheel full 70px It’s kind of scary.  I know it’s not sustainable.   But, while it lasts, what an incredible ride.

Back in the U.S. of A.

Wheel full 70px This morning I crossed the bridge back into the ‘States, leaving the land that gave us Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.  Of course it also gave us Bryan Adams, but I believe we gave him back.

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Wheel full 70px RidewithGPS says I was that blue dot when I was on the border.

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Crossing the line

Wheel full 70px My first stop is Lubec, Maine, for breakfast after last night’s yummy dinner of

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“Full of meat
Fun to eat…”

Wheel full 70px Yep, good old Barfaroni.  Straight from the can.  Cold.  In the rain.  In the dark.  That, by the way, is 1,000 calories and about three days worth of recommended sodium.  But it was what I had for dinner.  Then I cleared off the cans and slept on my Thermarest on the top of the picnic table.  Deluxe…just dee-luxe.

Wheel full 70px But I made up for that at breakfast this morning at the Sunrise Cafe in Lubec.

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1,339 wonderful calories according to MyFitnessPal – I’ve been running a deficit of one to two thousand calories a day.  Yesterday was over three thousand.  I just can’t make myself eat any more than I have been.

Wheel full 70px A double order of hash browns, three eggs and a home-made everything bagel with a schmear.

Wheel full 70px Good morning, State of Maine!

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I couldn’t pass it up

Wheel full 70px The first Hardees’s I passed pulled me in to its strong gravitational field.  We have its sister store Carl’s Jr. in Alaska but they are just not the same.

Wheel full 70px A thousand fifty calories of bicycling heaven.  Plus the cherry Coke, of course, but hey… I’m sipping.