Thursday - Some Sunshine, But Mostly Overcast!

We had gone to bed fairly early last evening, so Ken was up by 5:15 to do his reading and I actually appeared at 6:15.  I did my devotions in bed and then my stretches.  I have had some pain in my hip and thigh the last several days, so I am trying to decide if it comes from the stretches or maybe the damp, rainy, cool weather.  How do you know?  I do know that I was really disappointed when the pain returned, but it wasn't as bad as before, which is a positive!

We took our time getting ready and after a delicious omelette breakfast, cleaning up, and packing some snacks and drinks we left around 9:15 and headed to the Cape Cod Rail Trail starting at Dennis.  We began our ride around 10 or so.

How beautiful!

It really is a gorgeous trail!

 We had ridden this trail about 8 years ago and it really is a beautiful one with the entire trail being paved and it goes through the woods passing by several lakes and cranberry bogs.  We were fortunate to actually see a gentleman on some piece of equipment in one of the flooded bogs and we assume he was "raking" the cranberries so they can be picked up later.  Not certain that was what he was doing, but that's how it appeared.  There is a cranberry festival right off Cape Cod this weekend and we are planning to go and hopefully learn more about the process.

Our 1st cranberry blog!

So colorful!

They flood the field and the cranberries float to the top!

Several lakes along the way!

So serene!

I thought I remembered stopping at a coffee shop that also made fresh baked goods and candy and that it was along this trail.  Knowing that my memory can be very poor at times, I didn't mention it to Ken until we had ridden about 5 miles.  After riding about 10 and not coming upon the shop, we debated about turning around, but I really needed to know if I was crazy or there really was a shop along the way.  So on we went.  After riding about 14 miles, bingo, there it was, just as I remembered.  We went inside and Ken got a coffee and I had a pumpkin spice chai.  Of course, the baked goods looked too good to pass up, so we shared a cranberry coffee cake - so good!

Now we faced the long ride back to our car and the sun had disappeared and the winds had picked up!  It was still a great ride and we were back to the car around 3, after riding 28 miles, probably our 2nd longest bike ride ever.  I was thrilled that I was very comfortable most of the ride, with both of our knees very tired when we finished.

There were 4 or 5 tunnels just like this along the trail!

You can get "bogged" down, but there is always "light at the end of
the tunnel"!

At one section of the trail there were about 6 or 7 private
beach areas.  They were owned by the folks that owned
the houses across the street and looked very inviting!

Never saw a round about on a bike trail before today!

Another bog we passed on the way back!

Ken wanted to look for 2 lighthouses that he thought were close by, but we were only able to find one of them.  I think the other one is closed for the season and the area is closed to vehicles.  During the lighthouse "hunt", I talked with my sister and they were within about 40 miles of Jekyll Island where they will spend the next 2 weeks.  All is going well on their adventure with their new motorhome, Barbie!

Hyannis Harbor Lighthouse!

Both of us were rather tired when we returned to the CG, so after making salads for tonight and tomorrow, Ken read and rested while I played games on my tablet and worked on this blog.  I also downloaded today's photos.

After dinner, we finished a game of Hand and Foot which Ken won by a rather small margin, but it was still a win.  He spent the remainder of the evening posting on Facebook, sending messages to friends, etc. while I gave myself a manicure and did some reading.

I finished this blog and was in bed by 10.  Looking forward to driving to Provincetown tomorrow and making some stops along the way.