What a fun little pattern. Just enough to be interesting without taking up too much mental capacity.

Except that, when I went to take it off of the blocking wires, an extra hole opened up. Must’ve dropped a stitch somewhere.

No, it's not supposed to look like this.

I could just go in and do the repair, but it’s in a really obvious spot near the end. So, now I’m going to rip out the last couple of repeats and re-do that section. Not a big deal – maybe three hours of work – but annoying, because I thought that I was done with this project.

This is the Lisianthus shawl. The pattern was written by Rosemary Hill, who also makes fabulous shawl pins.

This pattern was a real treat to knit. Just challenging enough to engage my attention, but not so difficult that I couldn’t have the TV on. Actually, I watched a lot of Battlestar Galactica on Hulu while knitting this, at least 20 episodes. I feel like I should name the shawl after one of the characters at this point.

The yarn is Love Potion No. 3 from TheGossamerWeb, on Etsy. I got two shawls out of this skein! Although, I did run out of yarn while binding off this one. I had to pick out 3/4 of the bindoff, tink back two rows, and then bind off after the next-to-last purl side row. I did a little rewriting of the chart in order to do this, but it worked out just fine. If anyone reading this has the same issue, leave a comment and I’ll scan and email my revised chart to you.

Because I knew that yarn would be tight, I subbed size 6 silver-blue beads for the nupps called for in the pattern. In addition to saving on yarn (nupps use a ton of yarn, beads do not) the beads also weigh down the shawl a bit. This is a good thing. This yarn is so light and airy that it doesn’t really want to drape; it floats around in the slightest puff of air. The beads give it just enough weight to drape nicely without stretching out the pattern, and as you can see from the photos the shawl still flutters nicely in a good breeze.

This was my 27th lace shawl. It’s been a while since I kept one for myself. This one is staying with me. I love it!

Here’s the result: the Echo Flower Shawl. What a fun little pattern! I love the textured Estonian stitches. I had seen the shawl knit up at a yarn store in Ohio in June. At that shop, the shawl was done in worsted weight yarn, with fewer pattern repeats to produce a moderately sized shawl. Me being me, I did it on laceweight; one of the reasons I knit so much lace is that I find the thinner yarn to be easier on my hands. After six weeks of bicycle riding and little else, I can say that knitting lace came as a bit of a shock to my hands, but I got over that in about 5 minutes. I finished the project in about 10 days.

I always like patterns that let the central shawl motif flow into the border.

My gauge seems to have closed up a little over the summer. I’m finding that my knitting is tighter than it was before and that I need to adjust my needle size up a notch to get the results I expect. The patterning in this shawl came out a bit more dense than I would have liked, although it is still well within an acceptable range. The instructions said to block the shawl as a triangle, which I did. However, some parts of the piece are a little distorted, so I might re-block it later this week and experiment with the shape. I think that might also allow me to block the whole thing more aggressively, which will open up the patterning just a bit more. Until then, however, it’s still a lovely piece!

Here I am at the Bar Harbor pier: the end of the road! My last day on tour was my longest at 88 miles.

I had a great trip. A wonderful, fabulous trip. Traveling by bicycle is such a neat way to see America. I knew that I was missing stuff when on car trips on the interstate highway, but I never knew how much.

One day in particular that stands out in my mind was in northern Ohio (which is really quite hilly, once you get off the interstate!) when I rode through a large Amish area. It was about 85 degrees outside and sunny, and EVERYONE was outside doing stuff. It made sense; who wants to sit inside on a hot day with no AC? Now, something that I really enjoy about riding my bike is that I get to smile and say “Good morning” or wave to people. On that day in Amish country, I estimate that I got to smile and wave “Hi” to more people than during the rest of the trip combined! It was a friendly, happy day. Those roadside baked goods stands are also pretty amazing.

I ended up camping less than I though that I would. This is the story of my life. I’ve never run into serious trouble when camping, probably because I bug out at the first indication of trouble. Got to do lots of nice camping in Ohio – the state park system in Ohio is such a gem. Then I got to New York, and found out that New York State Parks don’t allow anything to be hung from a tree. My camping hammock aside (they were actually cool with it because I have good tree straps) not hanging anything up meant that I couldn’t hang a critter bag to protect my food. This is a big problem in my book. I don’t need raccoons, coyotes, and every squirrel in existence visiting my camp all night and chewing up my panniers so they can eat my food. I also couldn’t do any laundry without rigging a clothesline, also a big problem when one is only carrying 2 changes of clothing. So all of my camping in New York was at private campgrounds. I stayed at

I took the ferry across Lake Champlain from Ticonderoga, NY to Vermont. This was my first experience with riding my bike onto a boat.

some really nice private campgrounds, and a few that were not so nice. Four weeks into my trip, I ran into a private campground featuring a pine forest, drunk campers (including one of the owners) and fireworks. That was a bit exciting for my taste. After that I decided that I had camped enough, walked into a post office on the Vermont border, and with the help of a lovely woman named Ruth behind the desk, boxed up and sent all of my camping gear home. Riding 20-odd pounds lighter certainly made those mountain passes easier in the bargain. After that I stayed mostly at bed and breakfasts or hotels. I had a lovely time at most of the bed and breakfasts and I’ll definitely be doing B&B stays in the future.

The view from the Maid of the Mist.

Visiting Niagara Falls was, of course, a high point of the trip. The Canadian side of the Falls area is full of international visitors, and talking to my fellow travelers was the best part of my visit to the Falls. The gentleman who snapped my photo for me was wrapping up a long roadtrip to every major league baseball park in North America. He went to games at all but two of the parks, and was visiting Niagara Falls on his way up to Toronto, the last stop on his tour. What a cool trip! On the Maid of the Mist tour boat, I also got to chat with an Australian couple who were taking four months to travel around the world. Maybe when we retire Jim and I can do that.

The Adirondacks were so lovely.

The high point of the trip, literally.

Riding through the Adirondacks was also in retrospect quite nice. However, because I was about to reach my breaking point with the campgrounds while simultaneously dreading the Appalachian crossing, I didn’t enjoy the Adirondacks nearly as much as I should have. I would like to go back there for a vacation someday. The Green and While Mountains also would have been nicer if I hadn’t been dreading the tough climbs so much. Four days of mountain passes meant no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy, no late nights, etc. and therefore no Ben & Jerry’s, no Vermont cheese, no maple syrup, and so on. Finishing the mountains gave me a wonderful sense of accomplishment. When I got to the top of Kancamagus Pass, I pulled off at a scenic rest area for about ten minutes to drink some water and revel in the altitude with its glorious scenery, and how I got there by the strength of my two legs. It was a bit disconcerting to see several groups of people come and go by car during that time. They would pop out of the car, walk up to the overlook, and then turn around, get back in the car and drive off like it was nothing special. To them, it wasn’t.

I left Cincinnati on June 9, and 1,766 miles later, I reached Bar Harbor, Maine, on July 12. My mom came out to spend a few days with me in Bar Harbor. After five weeks of traveling alone, it was so nice to see a familiar face! I ate tons of lobster in Maine (thanks, Nicki, for the heads-up about lobster rolls!) along with everything else; riding 60-odd miles a day for five weeks did amazing things for my appetite. Flew home on the 16th. My bike came home a few days later on the FedEx truck, safe and sound. As always, it was good to get away, and good to get home.

This guy didn't last long. He and all of his relatives were quite tasty; I ate lobster every day in Maine!

For anyone who is still reading, this concludes my bicycle tour coverage here on my blog. Future posts will be about knitting, which is my regular blog topic. I know that a few people have been watching and waiting for posts and photos, and it’s really too bad that I couldn’t get more computer access along the way; it seemed like every time I found a public library on the road, it was closed. I posted more photos on Facebook than here, because it was easy to post to FB from my phone. If you’re reading this because I gave you one of my cards along the way, please, feel free to friend me on FB – I would love to say hello again to at least a few of the wonderful people I met along the say!

Might have more to say tomorrow, *if* I can manage to load some photos. Today I’d rather spend some time filling up on food, doing laundry, and maybe finding about 50 ft of shock cord somewhere…

All ready to start. Everything is still clean!

I think that I’d forgotten just how friendly and polite people could be. It’s not that I don’t know polite Texans. However, when I headed off down the bike path in Columbus on Sunday morning, every single person I met looked me in the eye, smiled, and said, “Good morning!” When I lived here, I thought that was normal human behavior. One could only wish.

So where am I now?

I got into Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. My aunt picked me up at the airport and I went to stay with her and my uncle for a few days. (Thanks again!) FedEx delivered my Surly to their house on Friday. I invested in a hardshell bike box for travel, and I’m really glad I did. The box was very scuffed up and all of the latches were open. Fortunately, I had taken the additional step of padlocking each of the four latches. At the time, I thought that maybe I was being paranoid, but those padlocks kept the box shut! I get the feeling that a cardboard box would have been ripped to shreds. As it is, my bike is just fine. Spent several hours putting it back together and finetuning on Friday.

Saturday I hopped on the bike and rode around Columbus. Took my cousin to lunch, met a friend for coffee, and then later my aunt, uncle and I all went to the Art Festival. The festival became very exciting (in a bad way) when a serious thunderstorm blew through. Lots of broken glass and smashed artwork. I was glad to not be camping just then.

Saturday at the festival I got supper at Schmidt's. A brat, German potato salad, beer, and an enormous cream puff were just the right amount food.

1/2 of a creampuff. It didn't last long.

Sunday morning I got to go to my old church, which I always miss, and then I hit the road around 2 PM. Google Maps said it would be 35 miles to my pre-arranged camp site. Decided that instead of heading down the city streets the whole way, I would hop on the 670 bikeway and use the trail system. It was a few miles longer, but would have lots less traffic. Everything went swimmingly right up until the moment when I hit the “Detour” sign. Spent over an hour mucking around Downtown trying to pick the bike path back up before finally cutting down Front Street to Greenlawn (glad it was Sunday and not rush hour on a work day!). After that things went better, but I lost a lot of time and didn’t get out to my camp site near London, Ohio, until 7 PM. By the time I made camp, went into town for pizza and bug spray, and got back, it was 10:30 PM and my 35 miles had ballooned to 65. That’s the most I’ve ever done in one day. I’m sure I’ll do more soon!

I arranged in advance to use a Boy Scout campground on Sunday night. Lots of mosquitos but otherwise very peaceful.

Trail head in London, Ohio. I lived in London for 3 awful months. Fortunately it is much nicer to visit than to live there. As a cyclist I've felt very welcome and comfortable in the small Ohio towns - the hospitality has been wonderful!

Due to the late bedtime, I decided to sleep until 7 on Monday morning. Got back on the road at 8 AM to ride to my parents’ house. Ohio has a very nice rail trail system, and I was able to use it for most of the day on Monday. I have mixed feelings about the bike trail. It is for the most part nicely maintained, although I did encounter some storm debris. Buttery smooth pavement, no cars, lots of shade, no hills… what’s not to like? Well, the signage is a bit inconsistant. In some counties, the cross roads are marked at intersections, but most of the time, if I’m looking for a road, I have to get off the trail and ride down a block or two to find a street sign. Imagine driving down an interstate highway with all unmarked exits. How do you know where to get off? Also, all of the straight, smooth, hill-less, car-free miles get really boring after a while. The trees on either side form a long green tunnel. Pedal, pedal, pedal… my back hurts, my big toe is numb, now my rear end is reminding me of those 65 miles yesterday, and on and on and on… Just as soon as I make a turn onto a regular city street, all of my aches and pains disappear because I’ve got other stuff to think about. I talked to a guy at a bike shop in Xenia who said that you could put in an “easy century” on the paths around here. (For any non-cycling readers, a century is a 100 mile ride.) Yes, it would be easy in terms on not having to climb lots of hills, and those trees would cut any headwinds quite nicely, but I think that I would go out of my mind from boredom. Monday was 42 miles total.

Tuesday and today, I’m hanging out at my parents’ house, resting, setting up a new computer for them, and attempting not to eat everything in sight. Mom’s lasagna is still the best

Covered bridge near my parents' house. I used to ride here when I was a kid!

My bike arrived via FedEx this morning. The hardshell bike box I bought did great. It is very scuffed up and all of the latches somehow came open (good thing I had small padlocks holding everything together!) but the bike is 100% fine. I have it all put back together now

I want to add a question and answer to the FAQ I posted a few days ago. Many people ask me know much weight I’m planning to lose on this tour. I’m not doing this for weight loss. I’m quite happy with my weight, and anyone who has seen me lately will tell you that I’m eating everything in sight!