2021 Bicycle-Kayak Tour
Newport to Yorktown -- Aug 28-31 

Links to Days
Aug 28: VA -- Hanover, Yorktown, drive north
Aug 29: NJ -- New Jersey, drive north
Aug 30: CT, NY -- recuperate
Aug 31: MA -- Boston

August 28 -- from Hanover VA

This was a 74-mile bicycle pedal to the Yorktown Victory Monument.




Sal left from the Hanover Tavern promptly at 7:35 AM



All was proceeding uneventfully until one of the bike's tires picked up
a 1.25-inch nail in Toano VA, about 25 miles from Yorktown.
Fortunately, Sal had years of expertise in dealing with bicycles.
He removed the wheel, replaced the punctured tube with a spare,
and we were soon on our way through increasing heat and humidity.



At 3 PM Sal rode past the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown,



welcomed by twenty people, a tent in the shade, and refreshments.



Then a photo at the Yorktown Victory Monument with York County Board
member Walt Zaremba, Nicole Yancey, Jeff, Jeff Lambert (Sons of the Revolution),
Sal, and a ranger with Colonial National Park



Jeff and Sal patted the monument in thanks for a safe arrival after fifteen straight days on the road.



Jeff Lambert (Sons of the Revolution), Jeff, Walt Zaremba, and Sal
Walt, representing York County Board Chair Chad Green and the entire Board,
presented a proclamation for the 240th Anniversary Tour.



Dave Meredith, as interim Chair of the W3R®-VA,
presented Jeff and Sal with commemorative coins.



The dinner party ended around 5 PM after a final photo.
Jeff, driving the support car, with Sal as navigator, started the return trip north.
They drove for six and a half hours, then slept in Princeton NJ.

August 29  -- from Princeton NJ

With the land part of their odyssey concluded, Sal and Jeff were able to enjoy a full sit-down breakfast with Ryan (Sal's brother) and Rachel Lilienthal. Jeff and Sal continued north at 11 AM, arriving at Jeff's home in New York shortly before 1:30 PM.



Temporarily at home (for Jeff) and almost home (for Sal)

After unloading Jeff's stuff from the rental car they transferred Sal's belongings to Jeff 's car. They returned the rental Chevy Spark (which had logged about 1,100 miles for the trip) at the Westchester County Airport -- one of the few rental offices in the area that was open on Sunday. At 5 PM Jeff dropped Sal off at his home in Connecticut, then returned to his own home in New York around 7 PM, tired and not feeling well.

Sal returned home with less equipment than when he started, but many memories of this 240th anniversary tribute to the allied troops who had trudged the same roads in 1781.

Along the way Sal and Jeff had discussed a few preliminary thoughts about writing a book to chronicle the Tour.

In 1782 the French troops took four months to march from their winter encampment in Virginia to their last camp in the United States in Boston, Massachusetts. They had several three-day stops on the trip north to rest themselves and the oxen pulling the baggage wagons. The only water transport was across the Susquehanna River and the Hudson River.

August 30 -- recuperation

This was a well-deserved day of rest for Sal and Jeff. Jeff felt much better.

Aug 31 -- Boston Harbor

Sal put the final exclamation point on the Tour today. He drove from his home in Connecticut to Boston, rented a kayak, and paddled four miles via Fort Point Channel, then to Long Wharf, then past Castle Island to Dorchester Bay and historic Faneuil Hall, ending with the gold dome of the Massachusetts State House and Boston Common in the background.

He then returned home, mission accomplished !

The French troops used their legs to traverse 700 miles of rutted and dusty roads, supported by their ox-hauled baggage wagons, with occasional water transport. Sal used his legs to follow the same path, propelling his bicycle down smooth highways -- at considerably higher speed than the French. The French were supported by dozens of American baggage wagons; Sal was supported by Jeff and the van (or the car and the trailer, until it was stolen). Both the French and Sal and Jeff encountered hazards they had not anticipated, surmounted those challenges, and accomplished their missions.

It is most appropriate that Boston was the final stop on the Tour because in December of 1782 General Rochambeau and his troops -- their mission in the United States accomplished -- sailed from there to new assignments in the Caribbean islands, more fighting with British forces there as part of a global conflict.

This ends the commemorative 240th Anniversary Tour.

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!



Thank you, Sal (the cyclist and paddler)
and Jeff (the van driver and reporter) ! !