A tough couple of days

Wheel full 70px I had no idea how difficult it would be to let go after spending a few days in Acadia National Park.  At first I thought that I was just a little bit more stiff and achy than usual, or that the change in the weather had affected my mood.  No matter what direction I would ride in, it always seemed uphill with the wind in my face.  It’s taken me two days to ride about 30 miles, and the road signs are still full of directions to the park and other references to it.  I finally realized last night that the issue is leaving a place to which, for so many reasons, I have a tremendous attachment.

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Wheel full 70px So I’m up early this morning after a good night’s rest, determines to put 50 miles/80 kilometers between me and a place I would probably be perfectly happy to just stop at and stay forever.  The great philosopher Mick almost certainly nailed it when he wrote

You can’t always get what you want
No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, you just might find
You get what you need

Acadia Park Loop Road

Wheel full 70px I biked around the Acadia National Park Loop Road today.  You can subscribe all you want to Ed Abbey’s “Industrial Tourism” knock on roads and cars in National Parks, but in my view this is one such drive that the park would be less of an experience without.

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Wheel full 70px So much for my “no hill taller than 400 feet/~120 meters on the entire Atlantic Coast” research prior to the ride.  Just before the junction with the spur road leading up to the top of Cadillac Mountain you reach, per RidewithGPS, 526 feet/~160 meters above sea level.  The beautiful engineering of the road, though, made the climb seem effortless.

Wheel full 70px A few pics.

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Wheel full 70px I’ll leave Mt. Desert Island for the fourth and probably last time over a 40 year span in a few hours.  I count myself fortunate for each visit- taken together they are almost more than for which one could reasonably wish in a lifetime.

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Weigh-in #11 – Whoa, Bay-bay!

Wheel full 70px Bet you all forgot that it was Monday, right?

Wheel full 70px Let’s start again…gee, it doesn’t seem that long since the last time I weighed myself, does it?

Wheel full 70px I only lost 1.2 pounds, according to the scale at the clinic I stopped at just outside Acadia National Park.  But they were very important nonetheless, as…

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…I’m into the three-teens!  I really feel, for the first time, that somewhere in the high 200s is a very realistic goal to finish this trip up weighing.  That was my weight in the late 1990s.  I never thought I’d see it again.

Wheel full 70px I want to reinforce that I’m not trying to do anything more sophisticated than to stay each day below 2,200 calories plus whatever RidewithGPS says my bike ride burned.

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Wheel full 70px Today that number was 2,828, so my calorie budget is a little over 5,000 total. I’m going to tell you that I won’t be able to eat enough today to get anywhere close to that.  That’s been true for most days that I’ve been on this trip.  My “Get on your bike and ride!” Diet laughs at

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Reuben Sandwiches

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Liver and Onions

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Deep-Fried Shrimp and Onion Rings

Wheel full 70px It’s kind of scary.  I know it’s not sustainable.   But, while it lasts, what an incredible ride.

Uncool Shoes

Wheel full 70px Specialized is going to get a very unhappy email from me.

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Wheel full 70px You might recall that I bought these shoes in June of this year.  They are less than three months old.

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Wheel full 70px I don’t walk on the toes or otherwise mistreat them. The stitching on the left shoe came apart first. The right shoe has  followed in recent days.

Wheel full 70px Looks like a design defect to me.   I  don’t think a replacement pair is an unreasonable expectation.  If those come apart we’ll just have to deal with that when it happens.

And it is Pouring

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Wheel full 70px That is water just coursing off my tent fly.  I have not felt the tiniest drop yet, so I am very impressed with my MSR Hubba Hubba tent.

Wheel full 70px I heard the first thunder from a ways off as I was getting things organized to pack.  I checked at the campground ranger station and, yes, severe storms were in the area and were expected to continue for the remainder of the afternoon.  I decided to stay over another night and resume my ride tomorrow morning.

Wheel full 70px So the rain is now coming down in sheets.  Thunder is booming.  Lightning is crackling.  And I’m warm and dry, and getting rested up a bit. Sounds like a win to me.

 

A Tentative Itinerary

Wheel full 70px I’m far enough into the trip at this point where I can project with some degree of confidence an itinerary for the rest of the ride.   As I have friends all up and down the East Coast and some of you have shown an interest in getting together as I ride through, the following dates are what I project at this point as being the ones on which I will pass through the city or area noted.

Portland 9/19
Boston 9/23
Newport 9/28
New London 9/30
NYC 10/4
Cape May 10/8
Virginia Beach 10/12
Ocracoke 10/16
Myrtle Beach 10/20
Charleston 10/22
Savannah 10/25
Daytona Beach 10/29
Miami 11/3
Key West 11/5

Wheel full 70px I’m going to try to stick to the schedule as closely as possible, but on the other hand you never know what might come up along the way. I’ll plan to update the list every week or so between now and the end of the trip.

Wheel full 70px If you are interested in getting together as I pass through on my way down the coast, please let me know in the comments or email me at info@b2bbiketrip.com.  I’m always up for breakfast, lunch, dinner or whatever.

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Jonesport, Maine

b2b Trip – Weekly Update #3

Wheel full 70px Three weeks ago today I started out from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Wheel full 70px In the past week I have traveled from just outside Yarmouth, easily spotted on the above map, up the Evangeline Coast of Nova Scotia, across the Bay of Fundy, and then down through New Brunswick and into Maine.  I’ll be in Acadia National Park on Maine’s Mount Desert Island the day after tomorrow.

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Blueberries!