WELCOME HOME on May 30, 2008 in West Orange and Montclair

INITIAL GATHERING AT EAGLE ROCK RESERVATION IN WEST ORANGE, NJ

WE THEN BIKED DOWN THE SNAKE ROAD IN EAGLE ROCK RESERVATION TO TONI'S KITCHEN, WHICH IS LOCATED IN ST. LUKE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON FULLERTON AVENUE IN MONTCLAIR, NJ.

WE RECEIVED AN INCREDIBLY WARM RECEPTION FROM BOTH THE CLIENTS AND TONI'S KITCHEN VOLUNTEERS

AND FINALLY WE WERE GREETED AND CAKE WAS SERVED AT THE MONTCLAIR UNITARIAN CHURCH

Day 46 Parole, Md (Clarksville) to Bowers Beach, DE (64 bike miles;3030 cumulative miles)

In the morning, John made coffee, and put out bagels and juice, and other goodies. We said our good byes to John and Kathy and headed down the road to resume our trip from Parole and to Annapolis, which was just a few miles away.

We eventually found our way to Dock
St., which is the official end of the Race Across America route.

At the dock was a tribute to Alex Haley, author of Roots that was entitled "Alex Haley, Family and Heritage. It shows the strenth of the human spirit comes from maintaining strong family connections and pride in one's heritage.

There was no place to park near Dock St. so Rickey could only pass by in Tiggy. We did stop briefly by the old State House where there were guides dressed in period costumes. Rickey commented that
she would like to return to

Annapolis some day.

We then biked towards the Bay Bridge passing by the Naval Academy, before passing over the

Navy Academy Bridge. We then shuttled across the Bay Bridge in Tiggy, and then back on the bike on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for another 30 miles before reaching the 16th and last State that we would be through during our coast-to-coast bike ride.

It was then on to Bowers Beach, DE, passing through Little Heaven on the way!

We chose Bowers Beach as our destination since it was a fairly direct from the Bay Bridge and involved minimal travel on busy roads. It also seemed to be an appropriate name for our destination since the "Bowers" are the highest trump in the card game euchre that we played so often during our journey. But once we got there, we knew that Bowers Beach was the perfect place for a journey to end!!

Day 45 White Ferry, Md to Parole, Md (Clarksville, Md) (64 bike miles; 2966 cumulative miles)

From Leesburg, we took the ferry across the Potomac to Whites Ferry, MD. There we met up with our old friend, the C & D Canal, at milepost 35.

Once in Maryland, we were able to follow the Maryland bike route map that took us through Poolesville, Rockville, Silver Spring, College Park, Bowie and Parole (about 6 miles from Annapolis).

Earlier I had contacted John and Kathy Clay about possibly parking in their driveway, since I thought they lived in Bowie. But they actually live in Clarksville, about 35 miles from Bowie. John urged us to still come, promising to cook us dinner and also tempting us with the use of their HOT TUB!!

We didn't need much convincing. Once we got near Parole, we loaded our bikes onto Tiggy with the intention of resuming our trip tomorrow where we stopped today.

Needless to say we had a great time visiting with the Clays. John filled us with beer, wine and a great chicken curry dinner. Kathy joined us around 8 pm since it was her late night to work. Also joining us were my son Jeremy, who lives in DC, and his girlfriend Kacee, who had just arrived back home from Kosovo a few hours earlier. Kacee literally got home, took a shower, and then jumped into their ZIP car for the drive to Clarksville. A few hours later, another UUMAC friend, Danny Paoletti, joined us. The Clays' son, Nick, 15, was around for a short while, before going off to a baseball party. Daughter, Alexa, who would be graduating from HS the next day, also stopped by for a short period before going out again.

Eventually we got into the hot tub. It was a very enjoyable evening and we are most grateful to John and Kathy for their wonderful hospitality!!