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A day of reflection to be sure. The last 22 miles from Port Jefferson to Smith Point beach was on the docket and the ride and event did not disappoint! The weather was good and the mood was definitely celebratory. The three members of the cross country team met about 35 cyclists at the start of the ride - many of them Puppy Ride Long Island teammates. It was an emotional start for the three of us and for Kevin to be back among great friends after two months of being on the ro

We started our day with our very accustomed 5am alarms. Today seemed a bit different - no usual jokes about getting up early - not much talking - no “maybe we should take the day off and postpone the ride until the team is better rested!” (As said by Victor every morning since day two, roughly quoting a famous Bill Murray line in Stripes from the 1980s) We got packed up and out on the trail fairly early, We rode about 14 miles on the remainder of a rail trail trail that we sp

Very familiar trails today heading south toward our endpoint at Bridgeport, CT where we ride a car ferry back to Long Island. 61 miles mostly on paved and some unpaved bike trails with pretty scenery and only a couple pop up rain showers. Delicious muffins and smoothies in New Paltz - maybe the best of the trip! And a really delicious warm olives, cucumber salads and personal pizzas for dinner in Poughkeepsie- turns out It was restaurant team Puppy went to last year during ou

We had a 65 mile day scheduled from Albany to Rhinebeck, New York but Mother Nature stepped in and made a relatively easy day into a bit of an adventure. By the end of the day, the team had accomplished a little more than 40 miles of the route (the first 20 and the last 20 miles give or take!). So, let’s do a little explaining. We woke this morning knowing that the day would be extremely wet and that flooding was a real possibility but with little flexibility in our schedule

The weather pattern in New York shifted today with a low pressure system, pushing through in the next couple of days. Today we saw an opportunity to push our miles early to stay out of the front moving from west to east. We were pretty successful in our 70 mile effort by getting a relatively early start in Fort Plain and by staying on the trail throughout the entire session. Kevin worked hard to bring us some egg sandwiches at about 25 mile mark. And some Jersey Mike’s subs a

Working our way across New York along the Erie Canal. Tomorrow we end at the Hudson River in Albany and will leave the canal behind. Amazing feat of engineering and backbreaking labor - given that the construction took place from 1817 to 1825, No bulldozers and track excavators back then that’s for sure! And to finish 363 miles of the “big ditch” in eight years - outstanding. Today was another dry day with 83 miles completed. Temperatures creeped up into the high 80’s but wit

Inching closer by the day to the Bridgeport Feery that will carry us over to Long Island and our homes! Today was another 70 mile session with about 50/50 gravel and pavement and probably 70 percent or more bike trails. The weather was warm and humid but the rain held off and the tree cover kept the ride very pleasant. The day started in Clyde, New York where we met up with a serious crazy bike guy Bob Barns (thanks John Clifford!). Bob is a former long islander who is back

We’re moving east along the canal. Today is day two and after about 68 miles today, we’re approaching the half way point between Buffalo and Albany. Flat riding mostly with a high percentage of smooth crushed stone. Wonderful breakfast 27 miles in from our start with Steve and Maureen (Steve is my brother-in-law’s brother). We visited with them on Puppy Ride 2023 when we last rode the Erie and got to visit with Steve’s son in Seattle at our event there this year. Was great vi

70 miles of flat bike trails. I’d say 30% paved and 70% crushed stone. Temperatures rose into the low 80s with full sun. East we go! Great breakfast in Kevin’s childhood town of Lockport with Rick and Kevin. Lots of joking about who provides the best SAG support! Clearly, they are both top notch all joking aside! Stopped for an ok lunch in Albion with 15 miles to go. Had a hell of a time finding accommodation for tonight and ultimately found an ok hotel. I guess today was ok,

Rode out the front door of our Airbnb this morning with a chill in the air. Temperatures in the mid 50s as the sun rose to a cloudless sky. Pretty flat terrain with views of Lake Erie as we hugged the coast on our way to the Peace Bridge which is the re-entry point to the US from Canada! Today’s ride was 82 miles long. Very low key day. Good eggs and bacon at Sunny Side Up in Dunnville, ON. Turns out Kevin spent summers up in Dunnville at his grandfather’s cabin many moons ag

Today was supposed to be a relatively easy 71-mile ride from our BnB near Port Stanley to our BnB in Port Dover. The climbing, the weather, the wind all seemed to suggest that today would be an easy cruise. I think I've discussed this in earlier blogs, things don't always go to plan! We decided that since today was going to be "easy" we would get an extra hour of sleep. We set the alarms for 6am instead of our usual 5am. So at 7:45 we were on the bikes ready to have our "

The Coast-to-Coast journey continued today as we left Michigan, taking a small car ferry from Algonac, MI to Walpole Island in Onterio. Our 84-mile day was pretty uneventful. A brief rain shower with very little climbing and some decent cross and tail winds made today the fastest paced ride for the trip to date averaging somewhere north of 17 miles per hour. Although the roads today were lacking in paved shoulders, we found the drivers we encountered to be super courteous, g

Today's ride was 70 miles with very modest climbing. It was a mix or roads and trails with perfect temperatures and clean air. Not much happened to report on (that's a good thing!). After 192 combined miles we completed in the last two previous days, 70 miles today seemed pretty civil! Our ride started near Brown City - a very small country town and ended in Algonac, which is located along the St Clair River near the north end of Lake Saint Clair. We rode right to a car

Today, we reached 3,000 miles on our journey across the USA for the guide dog puppies at the Seeing Eye! We're now just two weeks away from returning to Long Island. It was a day filled with road and bridge closures (definitely some frustrating detours), but we enjoyed decent temperatures, favorable wind direction, good air quality, flat terrain, and our first 100-mile day. After covering 92 miles yesterday, we followed it up with 100 miles today. We didn't stop for meals, re

Here's an update on the activities of the Puppy Ride Coast to Coast Team over the past three days. Starting from Wednesday, Day 38, we arrived in Milwaukee late in the afternoon and noticed the weather worsening due to forest fires in Canada and the US. By bedtime on Wednesday, it was hot and smoky. On Thursday (Day 39), the team took the pre-planned drive from Milwaukee to Muskegon instead of spending $700 on the ferry across Lake Michigan. Day 39 was intended as a rest day

Today's ride took us from my sister and brother-in-law's house (rode out the door to the route) to Milwaukee where we rode to the door of our Airbnb. It's kind of a nice way to start and finish instead of finishing and starting in the middle of nowhere and having to rack the bikes on the truck and ride 20, 30 or 60 miles to a place to stay. and then rack the bikes in the morning and return to the middle of nowhere to ride again! This nowhere thing has been most of the trip i

We started our 75-mile day in La Valle, Wisconsin and enjoyed the first 8 miles on the rail trail we were on yesterday. Relatively cool temperatures and shade from the trees along the path gave us a good start to the day. This was almost immediately replaced by hot pavement, lots of full sun and rising temperatures, like a slap in the face, we knew this would be a hot one! Today topped out at 95 degrees with not much of any breeze. Lots of hills and valleys added up to 3,000

Today was really hot but we were mostly in tree covered trails from La Crosse to La Valle, Wisconsin. A full day without highway shoulders! It was awesome. Wisconsin definitely has the best trails on our trip so far. The 71 mile ride was all unpaved and very smooth and rideable. There were three tunnels on our ride as well. The trail was a late 1800s railroad. The tunnels were long (one was 3/4 miles long) and downright chilly with temperatures I’m sure that were at least 20

We rode a little bit on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi river early this morning before crossing the river and heading further south along the Mississippi on the Wisconsin side. The first part of the ride was on highways with good shoulders, and the second part of the ride in Wisconsin was a trail called the Great River State Trail. The Great River Trail was well shaded and its surface was excellent for riding. Other than a detour to get around a bridge that was closed

After our rest day yesterday it was back on the bikes for a two day ride down the Mississippi. Today was all on the Minnesota side and tomorrow will be almost entirely on the Wisconsin side. Tomorrow we say good bye to another state and enter Wisconsin which we hope to knock out by Wednesday evening. 76 or so miles today - kind of our typical distance now that the climbing isn’t so intense. Combination of some urban trails, some secondary roads, some rail to trail. a little