I had a rough night and start to the day. The rain was noisy, which tends to lead to disturbed sleep however tired you are, and then I saw the forecast when I woke up, and realised I had no idea where I was going to stay tonight or how badly the weather was going to affect my journey. In fact I carried on not knowing where I’d be sleeping for the whole day. The only thing I decided was to get going. It turned out to be a 3 state day.

• Today’s Distance (miles): 77
• Time in saddle: 6h 42
• Max/min temp – in sun (°c): 38°/20°
• Climbing (feet) : 2132
• Calories used: 1,846 (seems very low, don’t know why!)
• Today’s 2nd Breakfast:
• Cafe time: 4h 38

Probably because I was so preoccupied with weather problems, I didn’t realise until late into the afternoon that I was actually cycling for the 6th day in row, which can only mean one thing – REST DAY TOMORROW! But a rest day where?

I tried to arrange another Warm Showers host last night, in Providence, but failed. Instead I opted to cycle much further to a campground and hope for the best that they’d let me in.

I set google maps for a theoretical campground west of Providence and just set off, cycling for a mile or two through the backroads of the state park. It was totally deserted, and I felt miles from anywhere at that point, with a storm system threatening to arrive sometime around 12pm.

After an hour of pretty brisk cycling I was ready for my first coffee, having packed up in the rain again and foregone the essential porridge, coffee, bagel, start to the day. At Dunkin’ Donuts (coffee, blueberry muffin, orange juice) I posted yesterday’s blog and discovered the possible severity of the rain coming my way. Decision made to press on.

As I packed up the bike to leave, I got into a weird conversation with an older, fit-looking tanned gent, wearing a flat cap, light blue golf top, sand coloured shorts with a sharp crease, white socks and a pair of red loafers. He was no taller than 5ft and had a crazily strong Boston accent. He told me was a keen cyclist and asked where I’d come from. However, it became clear very quickly that he just couldn’t decide whether to ask me about my trip or tell me loads of unsolicited information of his own. I said ‘Halifax,’ and he said ‘Uh-huh’, then just started to tell me how to use my Garmin ( I don’t have a Garmin, its a wahoo, but never mind), and the website for bike routes, Ride With GPS. He sort of talked himself out of things to say then asked me ‘Where are you headed?’ I told him I didn’t really know and he said ‘Uh-huh’ then told me about Google maps. ‘What you wanna doowis switch it ta ‘cycling’ when yor findin ya root, that way yul avoid the I95 interstate.’ I wondered how he thought I’d made it from Halifax without this priceless info, but he went on. ‘These roads are so damn busy, yor gonna wanna get on the sidewalk’. I told him compared to London this was almost deserted. I think you can guess his reaction to this. He wish me safe travels, and that’s always a welcome wish, however long it takes to get there.

Believe it or not, I had to cross this at one point. Road closed, but the guy in charge (on the right, doing a thumbs up for my photo) insisted I bring my bike across. He tried to lift it one handed to help me, but couldn’t at first. ‘$&*@ me, that’s insane’, he said, in another strong accent. At some point I missed I crossed into State No.4, Rhode Island.

Every time I arrived at a larger town, I felt deeply grateful to whoever it is that has improved the usability of the ‘cycling’ setting on Google maps, because I discovered some wonderful stretches of brilliant new bike lanes that I would definitely have missed if I’d navigated it myself.

Arriving in the busy town of Providence, where the average age suddenly dropped to 18-21 because this is such a university town (Brown being the main one) I tried so hard to get my 2nd breakfast at a nice independent cafe, but struggled to find one that did good food AND coffee. Everywhere was iced this and frappe that. So it was Starbucks I’m afraid. It’s a great town, full of lively and talkative people. As I ate I checked the weather, and was so happy to see that yet again the forecast had changed and I was almost certainly safe and dry for the last leg f journey.

Since I have Wi-Fi now (spoiler for where I’m spending the night – i.e. not in a field!) I’m going to go for a photo gallery. I think if you click on one, you get to scroll through them all.

The afternoon was a bit bizarre. First, a very long ride at good speed on a paved bike trail for around 20 miles out of Providence, towards what I hoped would be my campground. When I finally got there, a couple of residents called the owner, who said no, I couldn’t camp there. They’d recently changed their policy from tents, to no tents. So I cycled another 7 or 8 miles on the trail to their suggestion, Hickory Ridge. I phoned the number on the door and the owner said no, no tents there any more either. I was getting a bit fed up at this point. So I took a deep breath, inspected the map for a site heading in the right direction, and rang River Bend Campground across the border in State No.5, Connecticut. And they said ‘Sure, come on over, we’d be pleased to have you. Don’t rush.’ I could have wept at this point because I’d wasted so much time trying to persuade intransigent campground owners. Even though it was another 8 or 9 miles, I sped along full of the joys of travel. The lovely Jo-Anne greeted me, signed me in, gave me a free root beer, and told me they were celebrating Christmas in July tomorrow, so look out. (This happened to me before on the infamous Bras D’Or Lake, Nova Scotia 2017). I spent the evening eating freshly made cheese quesadillos and salad and drinking sarsaparilla at the ‘Pavillion’, then writing and messaging whilst most of the campsite played a really fun-sounding massed game of bingo. ‘22, two-two’ said the caller. ‘Toot-toot!!’ said all the campers together. (Look out, I’m trying another ‘gallery’):

Lots of extras today, so let’s press on.

NON-EMPTY ADIRONDACKS – I received this shocking photo from Susie, who is currently near Stockholm, Sweden, but sadly have to reject it as evidence of Adirondack-use as it is near Stockholm, Sweden. Plus they may well be tourists, and that doesn’t count. Nice try though.

ARTS & CULTURE:

In Providence I met two young artists who had won an open call to paint a mural on the wall of a university building. We chatted for a while – they were very interested in my telling them about Susie stopping being a violinist 6 years ago and taking a Fine Art Degree, and next year an MA (or is it MFA?) – and then one of them took a picture for me. Susie, I think you’d have loved these two. They were so open and fun, I think you’d have liked them to be in your cohort! The great thing about their artwork was that it included bicycles AND the colour orange, in two shades.

FINE BUILDINGS: For all of the impressive old edifices in Providence, nothing took my breath away quite like this enormous barn I saw right at the end of the day. Hard to convey the scale, so please imagine something much bigger than you’d expect! @Stewart Buchannon – one for you possibly??

OLD SIGNS THAT I LIKE:

SIGNS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN FUNNY: Travelling too fast to stop and take a picture, I saw a road sign on my right that said Shirley Ave. I thought, ha. How about putting that photo and the line ‘Surely you can’t be serious?’ ‘I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley’ in Signs? Plus a ‘name-that-film’ for everyone to answer, in parenthesis. The second I’d had that thought, and still travelling at high speed, I passed a building on my left, called Bassey Ltd.

The last one is throwback to Crossing Canada, when I saw a portaloo fall off the back of a truck, and thought about nipping in and sitting down inside, to give the owner a shock when he ran back to recover it. These ones today didn’t actually fall off, but he suddenly started reversing towards me for some reason, making the portaloos wobble dangerously. He stopped, and I had exactly the same sort of thought: ‘How about jumping up, going in one and shouting ‘Help! Let me out!’?’ These ‘signs’ are all very hypothetical today, don’t you think?