Pizza by the Slice

The way you know that you are crossing the Massacheusetts/New Hampshire border is that there are shops selling cheap cigarettes on the NH side. Apparently the taxes are less in NH...sorta like Joe's Smoke shop on the edge of the reservation on Evaro hill outside of Missoula. Anyway, wheeling into Mass., we continued to enjoy stellar weather. It cooled down into the 60s, which is perfect for riding. The terrain is a bit more rolling than NH, and we started to see fields of corn, squash, cukes...actual commercial farms. It is also orchard country, and we've been treated to some excellent apples and pears. Flowers abound everywhere, and it's pretty clear to us that these folks don't have deer problems. In fact, we still haven't seen a deer. Wild turkeys, raccoons, skunks, tons of squirrels, birds, but no deer. I think they all moved to Helena, because they are certainly not here.

Every town has a pizzeria, even the smallest berg. It's been years since we've eaten a real East Coast pizza. Yeah, people talk about Chicago deep dish, and McKenzie River comes up with some nice concoctions, but nothing beats a piping hot slice of thin crust, eastern pizza. It's also served in the traditional manner, meaning no fork or knife. Pizza is meant to be eaten with your hands, and lots of napkins. We've found that a slice of pizza is a great belly filler that tides us over to dinner, and at 3 bucks for a quarter pie, it can't be beat.

The route has taken us within 30 miles of Boston, meaning we are traversing through more bed room communities. In many ways, it reminds Matt of the area he grew up in New Jersey, with wooded lots, nice towns, and people making a living by commuting every morning to "The City".

Yet even with all the population, there seems to be plenty of space. Homes (in the area of the state we've been in) sit on 1-2 acres, and there are still a number of wooded areas. We're still able to find campsites, although it is a bit incongurous to be lying in a tent and listening to truck traffic whiz by on the way to Boston. More about campgrounds in a later blog.

Our time in Mass. will be short, as the route continues to take us southwest. We'll have one more day of riding, and then its on to Conneticut and the "dreaded" hills.

People continue to be very encouraging and gracious. We are still stopped and questioned wherever we go, and people say we're "awesome" or "an inspiration". Some say they look forward to seeing us on TV, although our thought is that if we're in the news, it won't be because something good happened. We're happy just to be with each other, awake each day and ride on to another bend in the road. We really didn't have expectations before starting out, other than to have a good time, but it's above and beyond anything we've ever experienced or known. Life is grand.