2 Lefts

What a difference a day makes! Sunny skies greeted us this morning, a marked change from the 1.5 inches of rain and mist that dominated yesterday. Laura kindly restocked our snack supplies, which was much appreciated. We said goodbye to Laura, Dan, and Freeman and set off to rejoin the route. Google Maps took us on a dirt road and over a lot of hills that made us glad we had purged some belongings two days earlier. Among other things, we got rid of the frisbee we found in North Carolina, Mike's party shirt, and a headlamp. Today had a European theme: we rode through Paris, Norway, and Sweden. In Sweden we visited a farm shop that had pizza and sugar snap peas that Mike described as "remarkable". Shortly after we rejoined the route we passed a touring cyclist who gave us a hot tip about a B&B in Middlebury, Vermont, where we'll be in a few days. Unfortunately we had no hot tips for him. We crossed into New Hampshire in the early afternoon. Dark clouds gathered ov...

As we departed the Chewonski campground it was only a mile or so before we turned off Highway 1 and stopped at the Shelter Institute. Shelter is a tool store, a space that offers woodworking classes, will build a home for you, or find land in Maine for you to build your own. They're all about timber frames. These are the kinds of homes and buildings that have beefy beams that make up the skeleton of the home. We received a warm welcome and a man named Al showed us around the store, classroom, and large warehouse where a recent class had just erected a new timber frame structure. Rach and I have talked about building our own home someday so Al was a wealth of knowledge as he shared his experiences building his house years before. Al's word of caution: If you're living in a trailer on the property as you build your house, and it's winter, they have poor insulation and your toilet might freeze. Whoops. 10 AM rolled around and it was time to put in some miles. We pedaled ...

Before we delve into the second leg of our trip, let's summarize the first with some well-designed metrics: Miles ridden: 2970 Clif bars eaten: 120* Warm showers hosts: 6 Friends visited: 6 Manatees spotted: 0 Free campsites: 2 Flat tires: Too many * conservative estimate Our first day of the second leg began with some inclement weather. It was raining, cold and windy when we woke up. The rain eased up before we rode off but it was pretty chilly and we took out our arm and leg warmers. For non-cyclists, arm and leg warmers are just sleeves for your arms and legs. They tuck up under your jersey or shorts. I had new leg warmers that continually fell down until I hiked them waaaaay up my leg then they stayed put. We crossed 3000 miles yesterday as we retraced our previous pedal strokes along the Maine coast. We visited the country store where Mike had spelled out "help" in pennies on a picnic bench, they were still there. In the evening we stayed with Alex, a f...

We thanked Don and the extended family at the Northport mansion and set about rejoining the route as we rode to Belfast, Maine. In a beautiful piece of bike travel serendipity it was Saturday morning and the local farmer's market was on. My food-dar must have been malfunctioning because it was Rach who spotted this one. There was an embarrassment of riches here and we picked out a variety of treats from the indoor stalls. They even had a pianist on a full piano to set the mood! My most memorable vendor was a gentleman named Kurt who makes cheese in a homemade curing cave. If you like, read more about him here:  Kurt the cheese man Rach and I exited town on the pedestrian bridge over the Passagassawakeag River. (That was a copy and paste job, no way I actually knew how to spell it.) As we paused to take a photo of the waterfront a few scant rain jobs began to fall. Uh oh, time to go. We largely pedaled on Highway 1 the rest of the day. Junk shops, antique stores, lobster rest...

New England has a lot of cars made by Subaru. We have joked about inventing "Subaru Bingo" as a way to pass the time. We haven't created the game yet so I guess we're not that bored. Yesterday we left the farm campground and continued north through Maine. We stopped for lunch in the town of Wiscasset, a sign named it "New England's prettiest town". Well, we'll be the judge of that. We judged it wanting. In a bakery we heard a customer insisting that she wanted a "panino" and not "panini" as panini is plural and she only wanted one sandwich. I'm not sure the girl working there really wanted a lesson in Italian singular vs plural but she got one anyway. Seventy two miles of hilly riding took us to Camden where we stayed with Davis, Tessa, and Rhubarb who are hosts on Warm Showers. Guess which one is the dog. They prepared an awesome dinner of quiche and fruit then took us for a tour of the town. Thankfully we went in their car...

This morning I needed to pee. The bathroom was a fair distance away so it felt like a nature whiz would be a good way to start the day. There were a few trailers around so for neighborhood propriety the next step was to go down into the nearby gully before sprinkling the local vegetation. As I climbed back up the slope I spotted a small ziplock bag tucked into a hole in a tree. I had stumbled on someone's secret joint stash! I shifted them very slightly and then Rach and I went about our morning. The Adventure Cycling route took us inland today and we spent more than thirty miles on Highway 35. The temperature was perfect, the trees shaded us from either side of the road, and the sun shone in a blue sky. There are lots of sailboats in people's yards up here. I'm constantly craning my neck to see what nautical treasures are greeting us as we pass by. We had a peaceful lunch at Sebago Lake before pressing on to a town called Gray. There we befriended a hitchhiker at a gas...

One of our final activities in New Hampshire was to buy molasses cookies from a roadside stand. They were delicious. The lady selling them also made her own pasta and is organizing a 6 day cruise on the Danube in 2020. We didn't sign up. In a town called Foyes Corner we came across an auto shop that appeared to specialize in old British classic cars. I can pretty much only recognize MGs but there were several of those. Pete, a photograph is below for your enjoyment. Today we entered Maine, the final state of the first leg of our trip. We have approximately 250 miles until we get to Bar Harbor, then we'll turn around and begin crossing the country. The first few miles of Maine were idyllic. Turquoise ocean, lush trees, pretty homes with beautiful gardens, small boats bobbing about on rivers. I wondered if they put all their good stuff first and we'll find the landfills and industrial areas further north. The road surface was not so idyllic but the winters are pretty harsh ...

This morning Rach and I had a strategy session and decided on another short day. After a leisurely morning reading we eventually donned our bike clothes and departed the Hidden Valley Golf and RV Park. The miles today were largely lanes that wound through forest and homes before our destination in Exeter, New Hampshire. We rolled a right on the 108 and found the Exeter Elms Campground, our home for the night. We enjoyed the pool. They had an inflatable bucking bronco pool toy and some inflatable white chickens you could ride on. I neared the end of my book The Yiddish Policemen's Union. It's a good one. Earlier in the day we had stopped at a small grocery store that didn't have much to offer. In the late afternoon we sized up our dinner prospects and they looked a touch meager. The first idea was to ride back into town but thunderstorms were threatening - that idea was out. Rach came up with a winner when she suggested we have pizza delivered to our tent. I thought I...

Our route out of Boston on Saturday took us past MIT and Harvard, then back onto the Minute Man Bike Trail. We enjoyed the easy miles and stopped at a lemonade stand for refreshment. When we told the 8 year old running the stand we had come from Florida on our bikes he pretended to faint and fell over in the grass. We traveled back through Bedford, waving in the general direction of Gary's house as we went. We left the official route at Bedford, opting for a more direct route to Nashua, New Hampshire, where we would stay that evening. This lopped 20 miles off. Shortcuts are wonderful. As we entered Nashua we spotted a Costco. For those who have not been to one of these wonderful places: Costco is a grocery store where everything comes in bulk. Of all the grocery stores, it is truly the most American. Of course, we didn't actually want to buy anything in bulk. We wanted to visit their food court to get a giant slice of pizza and a smoothie. You need a membership to get into C...

Warning: this post is almost entirely about food. Do not read if you are hungry. Today was a very good rest day. We began with plenty of lazing around, a slow breakfast, and cups of tea. We met with Pam and Javier around noon and we all made our way to Regina's Pizza in the North End neighborhood. A realtor stopped by our table to drop off keys and officially made Pam and Javier owners of a condo in Jamaica Plain. I ate a little too much but it was delicious. Also, pizza is really difficult to cook on a camp stove so you have to make the most of it when it's available. Pam and Javier took us on a walking tour of Boston and we saw some historical sites, the Charles River, and some good architecture. Mike and Pam enjoyed a chocolate chip cannoli from Mike's Pastry before we headed back for a light dinner of cheese board snacks. We've eaten a lot of good food in the last couple of days and it might be hard to go back to the camp stove meals... we'll do our best. ...