Maine---"Really, Norman, you are the sweetest man I know...trouble is, I'm the only one that knows it..."

We were up early and so were Marie and Tom. We had decided to leave the truck at the parking lot of the Eastern Trail...a rails-to-trails path that runs through the Scarborough Marsh near their house. I do not know how long the trail is, but it seems there are plans to extend it...a great resource for joggers and mountain/comfort bikes, but road bikes have a little trouble negotiating the gravel bed. We headed north and then east, the plan being to do a large loop to the north and back through Portland and then out to the coast to see the lighthouses. I thought it was the best of all worlds...we rode in the forests of Maine (yes, they have A LOT of trees), saw the historical district of Portland, and finally the rugged coastline. Along the way, we sampled Moxie, a soft drink made here in Maine. Keith, from New Jersey had told us about it. When I went into the market to buy a bottle, an older gentleman told me it is supposed to be good for you, and the woman who was with him said her mom swore by it. Okay...good enough for me. I actually liked the taste...sort of like root beer on steroids.












Marie had told us about an ice cream place on the way to Cape Elizabeth called Red'd, so we stopped there for a break and an ice cream cone. Good advice, Marie.












I have gotten us lost a bunch of times in the past few days. I'd like to think it is because we are in heavy urban areas, but twice today I totally misread the map. I started using the map screen on the Garmin and that should help. The Garmin gives me Highway numbers...sometimes in a city, all you get is a name for a road...like Congress Ave. We had to reroute a couple of times, and backtrack a couple of times, and then it dawned on all of us...we were all going to be close to a century by the time we got to the truck. I think I needed 12 more miles when we hit the parking lot where the truck was...so we rode out to the coast and north...little beach towns strung together...lots of people and restaurants selling lobster rolls. I ended the day with 100.5 miles, 3535' of elevation gain, and an average of 13.0.


One of the cute places we stopped was Higgins Beach Market...where they have live lobsters. Stanley was curious.



















I promised you a list of what I ate today...here it is:
Yogurt
Granola
Strawberries/raspberries
Peanuts/dried cherries
Power protein bar
Bagel w/cream cheese
2 nutter butter cookies
Crabmeat salad
Roll with butter
Boiled egg
2 sweet pickles
Large scoop of potato salad




While we were driving on the Maine Turnpike, I noticed this cute little boy's face stuck to the back window of a Subaru wagon in the lane next to us. Flat Stanley was found and put in the window...to say "hi". Pretty soon, a smile crossed his lips and from out of nowhere, a stuffed Yoda appeared to wave back to flat Stanley. We had some fun keeping up with them for the next few miles, and when we went through the toll booth, the clerk collecting the toll told us that the Subaru had paid our $2.00 toll. Thanks Yoda...have a great summer!
We didn't have too far to drive to our overnight destination in Durham, New Hampshire. We are staying with Brent and Beth Bell, another Warm Showers host. Both Brent and Beth are avid cyclists, and they have a garage full of bikes, including a triplet that they ride with their son, Holden. Brent rode cross country in the late 80's and they hope to do some touring on their triplet. They are wonderful people, warm and generous. Karen was having trouble shifting with her right shifter and Brent tightened the cable so that she would at least have three gears until she can get it fixed. He and Beth also tweaked our route for tomorrow...it's supposed to be hot and humid, so I'm heading for bed.
maybe you can't...because you won't...