Day 62 - Congers, NY to Staten Island, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h32m32s
Distance: 94.15km
Avg Spd: 20.7km/hr
Climbing: 605m

We're done!  We made it.  The tires are dipped.  The journey is complete.  And what a ride it has been.

I intend to write a full follow-up in the coming days (once I'm home and unpacked), but for now I'll just recap the day and show some pictures of the ride and festivities.

The ride today was an easy one, and I would love to do it again one day.  Our route took us along highway 9W through the Palisades, which is a hugely popular cycling route for the locals.  The pavement is new, the hills roll continuously, there's virtually no traffic and the shoulders are wide.  We cruised on this road for a while, then took a left and all of a sudden we were on the George Washington bridge... which was absolutely crazy busy with cyclists and runners, but totally amazing with a view of Manhattan.

We all met up at the Staten Island Ferry terminal just after 11am, and boarded the 11:30am ferry across the bay.  We saw the Statue of Liberty from the distance, and reflected on our ancestors who arrived at Ellis Island many years ago, and what the statue meant to them at that time.

Offloading from the ferry, we staged behind a police car, and were escorted a few short blocks to Project Hospitality's building and parking lot for a few short words from the folks that would feed us dinner later.  We then processed, en-mass, to Midland Beach for the tire dipping ceremony.  It was a lengthy enough ride, but pretty cool to see everyone in their jerseys taking up the whole road and running red lights.

At the beach, we had what seemed to be very short periods of time to snap a few photos, pose for the official photographer to get his shots, dip our tires, circle up and pray, and then we were on the road again.  Here are a few of my favorite shots from the beach...

Rich, Clement and Luke missed the ferry to get over to Staten Island, so arrived at the beach just as we were about to depart.  Clement got a picture with us all on his camera, which I'll have to get later.  We quickly piled them into Kaitlyn's parents' truck and they followed the procession to Mt Loretto, where we would clear out our baskets, box our bikes, eat our last banquet together and say our goodbyes.

A few short hours after dipping our tires, my bike was in a box, my baskets were emptied, and my bags were packed.

At 6:30 we had our final meal, followed by a brief presentation of memorable moments, and at 9pm my driver showed up and I had to duck away.

And just like that, the tour is over.  9 weeks.  6,057km.  6 flat tires.  1 fall.  2 laundry baskets.  Desert Heat.  Colorado mountains.  Iowa rain.  Ontario food.  Memories for life.  And friends for life.