Day 48: Eastham to Belmont, MA

Morning at Truro Harbor

My husband tells me these blog posts are becoming too predictable. “Let’s see,” he told us this afternoon at Mark’s house in Belmont. “You’ll say, ‘It was a glorious day, and we met these Greenway people who were nice to us.’”

Bob’s pretty much got it, although we barely met anyone today, sorry to say.... But it was another spectacularly beautiful day as we headed up to the top of the Cape and on to Boston via the ferry.

Chairman Bob obligingly got up early and led us up the last six or seven miles of the Cape Cod Rail Trail and then on up to Provincetown, with our friend John joining us for the ride. It was beautiful, even when we turned onto the roads — they were quiet and pretty, twisting and turning and giving us views of the ocean, ponds, and cottages.

The ride from Eastham to the Provincetown ferry is almost exactly a marathon, 26.2 miles. We stopped with seven miles to go at Savory/Sweet Escape on Route 6, another of Bob’s favorite coffee shop/ice cream/pizza places for coffee and scones. We will have to come another time for the lavender and fig ice cream.

The high-speed ferry — 90 minutes to Boston — was a treat, as most ferries are. I sat out on the front deck for the last half hour and took in Boston Harbor: the islands, a fishing boat, a few sailboats and a big schooner, another ferry, and planes landing at Logan Airport.

Our ferry pulled into the pier area, much built up in recent years. Mark led us deftly through the noontime weekday traffic, up to Boston Common and down to the Esplanade paths along the Charles River. People were out everywhere— office workers on lunch break, tourists visiting downtown.

Riding the bike path on the Charles on such a gorgeous day nearly overwhelmed me. This was where Dee and I ran at lunchtime from our jobs at Northeastern and trained on weekends for our first marathon, Boston in 1985. This is where I walked and ran with Bob as we started dating, and where I pushed Kate in a baby stroller when she was just a few weeks old. So many memories, such an accessible city.

Loading our bikes on the ferry in Provincetown. Chairman Bob left a phone message for me that, although most people do it incorrectly, we were supposed to park our bikes rear first. Next time!

We hit the streets of Beantown. The temperature was easily 10 to 15 degrees warmer in the city than on the Cape.

We spotted the East Coast Greenway sign as soon as we hit the Charles River Bike Path, a warm welcome from an old friend.

We rode on up the river to Harvard Square, also a long familiar playground for each of us three over the years (Bob worked at Harvard years ago, Mark’s wife Laurie works there now, and Dee visited the square often— including our dinners at Au Bon Pain before a concert or movie.) After a perfect lunch of salads and lemonade, sitting in the shade in a park, we rode on to Mark and Laurie’s home in Belmont. Total miles travelled today by bike: 37. Years, decades, life phases revisited: too many to count.

Bob flew in this morning to Boston. I’m looking forward to two nights and a day of visiting with him at Mark and Laurie’s house, with Dee, before we begin our last week of riding. Yikes! The emotions!