July 9, 2016 – Clouds, 60 degrees

Miles Today: 68

Miles to Date: 12,644

States to Date: 31

It doesn’t take long on a bike to get out of the community you inhabit and come upon a different sensibility. Even though I live in Boston, navigating through the exurbs of our metropolis are just as difficult as any other major city, especially to the South, where I am less familiar with the roads. It doesn’t help that Massachusetts has the worst road signage in the country. Part of that New England hubris: “Why would you want to go anywhere, when you’re already here?”

Thirty miles out, after many missed turns, I got to open road where the vehicles, memorials, and patriotic banners had more in common with Pennsylvania or Texas than Cambridge and Boston.

The day was cool and cloudy, which made for great cycling, though the only color was the day lilies and sunflowers that thrive in many gardens.

Total trivia: Savery Avenue in Carver, MA is the first divided boulevard in the US, created in 1861. Today it is only a half-mile long, but it is a terrific path of shady pavement.

I reached Onset in late afternoon, a lovely neighborhood of cottages perched above marshes and a sandy beach. I spent the evening with my friends Barbara and Eric Elfman, and Barbara’s parents, Jan and Stu Feldstein, whom I met back in November in Scottsdale. The tentacles of this journey are getting beautifully tangled.