This year’s week-long bicycle
trip was BikeMaine (ok, so I started writing this in September so "this year" is technically 2015). My friend Steve
emailed me earlier this year and threw it out as an option. Why not?
Flying and shipping my bike
looked to be really expensive so I drove and picked up Duane in Dayton. I met him a few years ago on the Bon Ton
Roulet. He and I met Steve and Tracy in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (the halfway point) where we spent the night. The next day we drove the rest of the way to
the starting point in Kittery, Maine.
This is BikeMaine’s third year so
they do still have some kinks to work out, but I really enjoyed the week. It’s a smaller ride – capped this year at
350, next year at 400.
We had a lobster bake the first
night. I learned how to crack a lobster
and how to eat a mussel properly. I
pulled my first mussel out of the shell and ate it. And crunched all the sand with my teeth. Later I learned to dip it in broth to wash
off the sand. My tutor told me not to
eat the foot, but I had already eaten one.
I have no idea why you’re not supposed to eat it, but I didn’t from then
on. I soon became a pro and helped
others sitting around me eat their lobster and mussels.
Day
1 – 60 miles from Kittery to Old Orchard Beach. It started out as an overcast day and quickly
turned into a rainy one. My preferred
mindset is, “It could always be worse.”
It didn’t rain hard and there was no lightning, and it was fairly
temperate. My bike was a mess
though. I hate for it to get so
gritty! We stopped at Kennebunk for
lunch at the local firehouse and I spotted a tall, handsome biker. This goes into my “Feeling Normal” album. Steve hopped in front of us to be funny.
There is an 80s amusement park at
Old Orchard Beach, which was closed for the season. We walked past it after our dinner on the
pier. The tide was out so the beach
looked enormous! Can you tell we’re
happy to be here?
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| L-R: Steve, me, Duane, Tracy, Boris |
It rained most of the night, but
that didn’t deter BikeMaine from setting off fireworks on the beach just for
us. Even though I was not directly
underneath the fireworks, I was dry and cozy in my tent at 8:30 p.m.
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| Ooooooh. Ahhhhhhhh. Zzzzzzzzzzz. |
Day
2 – 55 miles from Old Orchard Beach to Bridgton. After the
rain, we had a beautiful, sunny day. This
day’s route was pretty hilly, rivaling southern Indiana. We had lunch in Sebago (not the shoes – that
is in Michigan) and a nice rest stop by the Saco River. Duane and I also stopped by a lake to take
some photos, and Andrew, one of the riders and also a photographer from Down
East, took some pictures of us on the pier, similar to this one.
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| This might be my favorite picture from the trip. |
Day
3 – 46 miles from Bridgton to Bethel. Another
sunny, beautiful day! It’s warming up
too. This day it hit around 80 degrees but
was still very pleasant. It was another
hilly day too. There was a chance of
rain so Tracy and Steve (who ride faster than I do) had set my tent up for
me. So nice!
Bethel was our layover town so
dinner tonight was on our own. We walked
around town and ate pizza at Suds Pub.
Duane’s new buddy, Woody, sat down next to us at the pub and said, “I’m
wicked parched.” Which sounded like,
“I’m wicked paaached.” in his brilliant Maine accent. Love it!
After dinner, Steve and I stopped
at an auditorium in the Gould Academy campus (that was our base camp) and
watched a movie, “Damnation” about the removal of dams in the United
States. Very interesting.
Day
4 – rest day in Bethel.
We had several options for this day – rest, hike, kayak, paddleboard or
tool around town. After breakfast at Café diCocoa
we walked to Paradise Hill. Duane wanted
to pan for gold (gems really) so after he and Boris burned through a $50 bucket
of rocks, we three went kayaking on the Androscoggin River. Karen, another BikeMaine rider, joined
us. I am thankful she did! At the counter we had to choose between the
five-mile, one-and-a-half hour trip, or the 10-mile, three-hour trip. My mind said one and a half hours was
plenty. Duane and Karen, who had kayaked
before, wanted to get their money’s worth and go for the longer route. I reluctantly agreed.
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| Before our kayaking adventure. |
Boris tipped over while getting
into his kayak. (Premonition of things
to come.) I followed Karen since she
knew what she was doing and got off to a faster start. We slowly pulled away from the boys. I looked back every now and then, and they
got smaller and smaller. Eventually, I
couldn’t see them at all. Karen and I
had a nice paddle (is that what you call it?).
Although, after 30 minutes I started thinking, “I have two and-a-half
more hours of this! My arms are going to
fall off!” I calmed my mind and focused
on enjoying the river and being in the moment.
My right elbow started to hurt a tiny bit but I just kept paddling. We saw some Merganser ducks (per Karen). It was a beautiful day and I loved being out
on the water. It was so peaceful! Karen and I chatted now and then, but then
one would pull ahead of the other and we’d paddle on in silence.
We rounded a corner and Karen
called out that we were done – we had reached the bridge where we were to pull
off. Two hours! And right when we were done I realized that
there were foot rests in the kayak. I
had paddled for two hours and not noticed them at all. My feet were right between them! That would have been helpful! I felt pretty good about my kayaking skills,
and that I had kept up with her not using foot rests.
We walked back to camp (15-20
minutes) and eventually the boys made it back as well. It took them the full three hours. Boris had trouble the entire way. I felt bad for leaving them, but not too
bad. J
Ate dinner with the BikeMaine
group at the Bethel Inn. Very
pretty!
Day
5 – 61 miles from Bethel to Camp Tapawingo (near Sweden). The days were
getting warmer, but the nights were getting colder. I was starting to sleep with my hoodie
on. The first 20 miles of this day’s
ride was the best so far of the ride. I
rode with a few different people today – one couple from Kansas City and
another man from Annapolis, Maryland.
Our lunch stop was at Weston’s Farm with some wicked awesome corn
chowdah.
When we arrived at Camp Tapawingo
it was a schorcher – in the high 80s.
After putting up our tents we hit the Keyes Pond (which looked like a
lake to me). It felt soooo good! I jumped in with my bike shorts and sports
bra.
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| Cooling off in Keyes Pond |
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| Camp Tapawingo cabins |
Camp Tapawingo is a summer camp
for girls age 8-14 and been around for almost 100 years. It looks straight out of Parent Trap. Girls can go there for four or seven weeks
at-a-time. Cost? $11,000.
Yes, you read that right. And
this is no fancy camp. The cabins are
very sparse with eight beds per cabin, two sinks and two toilets.
Of course, Steve made fun of the
name and kept saying it in an Italian accent, “You eat-a some pasta, you
drink-a some wine, you tap-a your wingo.”
We laughed so hard. He said that
Tapawingo is native American for “pleasure yourself.” I later learned that it really means, “place
of joy” so he wasn’t far off. Tracy sat
on the deck reading a book ignoring us, possibly pretending she didn’t know
us.
We had a nice dinner in the main
camp building and even played ping pong.
A band called The
Lonely Heartstrings played after dinner – an
interesting group. They formed to play one
wedding reception. The bride wanted them
to play Beatles songs on traditional bluegrass instruments and they had so much
fun they stayed together as a band.
My arms didn’t feel sore today –
I was surprised. I rode by a river and
wanted to kayak again!
Day
6 – 76 miles from Camp Tapawingo to Kennebunk. Was a long day
on the road. I left early this morning because I’m the
slowest rider. They all caught me at
mile eight. Arrived at Kennebunk at 3:30
p.m. The showers were packed so after
setting up the tent we sat around chatting for a while. We ate in town at the Waterhouse
Center, which is a covered area that serves as
an ice rink in the winter. Since it was
our last dinner, I was brave and went through the dinner line twice (during the week they had frowned upon getting seconds. And extra rolls). Dessert was strawberry rhubarb pie with ice
cream. Unfortunately most of the shops
closed at 6 so we didn’t get to do much after dinner. Kennebunk is a lovely little town and would
have liked to have more time to look around.
Too bad it was such a long day on the bike.
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| Pretty flower boats! |
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| Kennebunk at night. |
Day
7 – 52 miles from Kennebunk to Kittery. What
a beautiful day! The morning was cool
but comfortable. We rode through Kennebunkport,
which was spectacular and the best part of the ride by far! After riding past the Bush compound, Duane
and I stopped along the shore. The tide
was out and the beach was massive! We
talked to a local couple while putting our shoes back on and the woman
mentioned Barbara Bush was on the beach.
She walks it most mornings. As we
arrived at the beach I did notice an older woman with a walker and some people
walking with her. As I watched her I
thought, “I want to be like that when I’m older. Even if I need a walker, I want to be outside
enjoying the beach (if I’m around one).
And THAT was Barbara Bush!
Wow! By the time we realized who
it was, they were a spec.
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| Linda at Kennebunkport |
As we rode through Wells and York,
the traffic was nuts. Glad to be on a
bike and whiz by all of them!
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| Duane took a picture of me while riding through York. Watch out! |
Our rest stop was at Nubble Light House. Very nice! As I walked around with my snacks, I saw four older women sitting on a rock. They were taking pictures and I asked if they wanted me to take one of them. After I did, I walked behind them and took one for myself. Makes me think of my girlfriends back home, especially three of them from high school. The four of us have had some fun times together!
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| Nubble Light House. I could have sat here for hours! |
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| Four friends. |
Arrived in Kittery around 1
p.m. Quickly ate lunch and
showered. Then it was au reviour Maine
as Duane and I headed to Harrisburg.
Made it there by 11 p.m., but no one was at the front desk to check us
in. After patiently waiting (and Duane
impersonating a hotel employee) we finally got some sleep. The next day I took a wrong turn on I-70 and
ended up in Maryland. What? We were on 76 heading west and I knew we
eventually wanted 70, so when I saw a sign for 70 I took it. Never mind my Garmin kept telling me to make
a U-turn. I disregarded it since it had
also told me to take an exit in New Jersey on the way to Maine and that was
wrong. So I took 70 South instead of
waiting MANY more miles for 70 West. I
only noticed when I saw the sign, “Welcome to Maryland.” Oops!
It could have been worse. We only
lost an hour.
Despite that one error, we had a
great week, and I traveled through 10 states!
Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and then Maryland. Wow! What
wicked awesome trip!
