Prologue: Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Kittery, Maine and back. A biscuit over 10 miles.

Welcome to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Originally named "Strawberry Banke" by early settlers who were astonished
to find strawberries "as big as your fist" growing on each side of the Piscataqua River.

Today was a combination of registration, orientation, reunions with a bit of an early morning shakedown cruise thrown in for good measure.

Everything I need for the ride.  Cat optional.

As it turns out, there are a number of people on this ride with whom I've ridden before.  Old faces (unfortunately, literally as well as metaphorically) from past Mississippi and Cross Country rides turned up at registration this morning.  Rollie, the most gentle and good-natured of souls from the Mississippi Ride; John, the extraordinary photographer (who published a $300/copy coffee table book of our 2013 Cross Country Ride), and Rene, Barry and Veronica from last year's Cross Country Ride, were all there this morning.  As were Shane and Kathi, ride leaders from last year's ride.  Shane is now the senior leader for this ride.  Truly, it was great to see some familiar faces among the 20 riders (we pick up another six in Washington, D.C.).  As with past rides, this is an International ridership:  Three Aussies, one Canadian and a bunch of Americans from all corners of the country.

The New Hampshire Memorial Bridge.  What were the odds of us being stopped BOTH ways due to ship traffic!?

Between catching up with old friends, getting the bikes checked out by our mechanics to assure all equipment was in fine working order and getting the instructions for tomorrow's challenging first day, Michelle, Barry, Rene and I took an early morning spin across the Piscataqua River to check off Maine from our "States we've ridden through" lists.  Not much of an effort really.

This was as exciting as it got for a "Welcome to Maine" sign.  Pity, there was no such sign
on the way back into New Hampshire.

There wasn't much to see in Kittery, Maine, so we rode back over the bridge and explored Portsmouth by bike.  Much prettier.  This is a really nice town, beyond the tourist areas along the waterfront.  Beautiful old and brightly-colored clapboard homes, quaint shops and a very vibrant downtown scene.

Beautiful downtown historic Portsmouth

The Portsmouth waterfront view from the Kittery Bridge.

So, back to the earlier comment about tomorrow being a challenging day.  At dinner tonight, Michelle was lamenting her lack of training given how hard tomorrow will be.  Very long and lots of climbing. 95 miles and almost 4,000 of elevation.  Add another 90 degree day and thunderstorms and it's just as she said, a challenging day.