Atlantic Coast Route 2014
An Excellent Introduction
Life is an excellent adventure shaped, I believe, by a sovereign and beautiful God. For Jonathan and me, this adventure became even more rich and exciting when we met almost three years ago while pursuing Civil Engineering degrees at Georgia Tech. We bonded through sharing the love of our Lord, by sharing our enthusiasm to wake up early, run, then eat oatmeal, and by beginning to share stories and dreams. We’ve since gotten married (5½ months and counting), graduated, and in mere weeks, Jonathan will graduate again with a master’s degree (pending thesis approval).Two summers ago we met a pair of older women in the Peace Corps who were traveling across Europe on bicycles. They delighted us with stories of their adventures. Between that, a previous 2-day bike trip Jonathan had done on the Silver Comet Trail, and a wonderful 2-day trip we then took across Tennessee, we started to wonder: Could we do a bike tour? A tour of extensive proportions, as far north as we can go in the U.S., to Maine? Our questioning wonder became a dream, and now our dream is becoming real.
We plan to leave July 26th from Atlanta and not stop till we hit Acadia National Park in Maine. We have a lot to do to get ready. We are really excited.
October 2012, Nashville to Chatanooga tour
October 2012, Nashville to Chatanooga tour; view from U.S. 41
Getting Ready
We are getting ready to head out of Atlanta on July 26th. Jonathan is just about done with his thesis (yay!) and Katelyn is learning how to make her work phone voice-mail say "I'll be back in month!" |
| Putting Katelyn's bike together. |
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| I can ride my bike with no handlebars! |
To navigate we're going to use maps produced by the Adventure Cycling Association. Here's the route: Atlantic Coast.
Augusta!, On the Borderline
We've been traveling for three days and are currently in Augusta staying with some great friends in their lovely home. Day one started with an excellent sendoff from our apartment with family, friends, doughnuts, and coffee. We prayed for our safety and strength, and for meeting people as we travel. After we passed Stone Mountain Park (the farthest directly out of Atlanta we've biked before) everything was a new adventure. Day two included more rural riding than day one and a lovely country vegetable market where we ate lunch. Today was longer (almost 70 miles versus 54 or so on day two) .
Augusta is on the borderline with South Carolina so tomorrow we'll be in our second state. We're feeling very sleepy right now but strong and excited to ride again tomorrow.
Jonathan making lentil dinner.
In Charleston, SC
Check out that hill
Heading North
Hey y'all! On day 7 We got a late start out of charleston due to the start of a thunderstorm and the comfort of our friends' home. After fighting our way across the city and two bridges we made it into mount pleasant, still in a downpour. We made plans to sleep in a national forest down the road. We stopped into a trek bicycle store to use the bathroom and get Jon another water bottle... And then we met Ben! After hearing our national forest plans he invited us to stay with his family where we had a wonderful time, stayed gloriously dry, and were very well fed. Feeling great we set out the next day for our first 90 mile day. It was a long day with not much besides trees around us. We camped by the Great Pee Dee river.
On day 8 we made it into the bigger town of Conway where we ate breakfast at the diner pictured above. A sweet older couple saw our damp bedraggledness and that we were from out of town and picked up our check. We stopped into a smaller cafe just to use their wifi , got a snack, and someone else pickef up our check without saying a word. Wowzers, we were blessed and loved by the folks in Conway.
We like getting peaches at stands!
Then we entered North Carolina! State number 3! That night we camped at an rv park and bought raw shrimp from a small business to cook for dinner, yum.
It wasn't raining when we went to bed but it started storming again in the night. We woke up on day 9 to get ready in the rain. The campground had a covered pavilion that made prep much nicer. We're starting to have a routine but each day is quite unique. We got to visit a local church that morning. At first it felt a bit like we were stepping in on another family's gathering- but turned out to be a beautiful picture of our unity in Christ's death and resurrection and it was great to worship with brothers and sisters in Shallotte, NC.
Later that day we took our first Ferry!!!! Very fun. Then made it into Wilmington and stayed at a hotel to dry everything out.
Today, day 10, we ride out of Wilmington to parts unknown!
100 Miles, 1000 Miles, and Virginia!
A lot has happened in the last few days including going through some very remote places without much phone or Internet access and therefore not much blog posting. It has been gorgeous though. More exciting news: we hit the 1000 mile mark yesterday! Also, we're in Virginia! Also, we rode our first-ever century (100 miles) two days ago!
A lovely place to ride
The sun was getting low as we neared the Blueberry Inn-- we had arranged to stay at a bed and breakfast as a treat and to rest that night. We ended up arriving earlier than we had anticipated and that was the start of a wonderful stay at the 1800s Dutch farmhouse inn in Gardnier, NY.
Yum!
Grapes!
Then we headed to New Paltz, New York for grocery shopping and sight seeing. We had a picnic lunch on Huguenot Street, the oldest street in the US by some measure with six houses built before 1700. It was a neat town with an eclectic vibe-- a mix of old and new, quiet and busy, college students (from SUNY New Paltz) and families and tourists. We met an olive oil and vinegar shop owner who told us about Hudson Valley agribusiness and we tasted his Italian products.
Lunch on Huguenot Street.
Part-Italian man outside of Italian olive oil and vinegar store.
Note that this lovely bridge closes at sunset-- we just made it on before it closed.
With a lovely garden maintained by volunteers.
As we were nearing the end of the day we went by a dairy that we noticed provided milk to Cabot (a cheese maker that sources milk from many medium to small farms in New England and makes excellent cheese). This was exciting to see and we were even more excited to see that the dairy had a market store attached. With thoughts of fresh produce and cheese we approached the store only to find out it was closing. However, seeing our bikes and hungry faces the owner not only invited us in but gave us a tour of her produce and products and fed us the best tomatoes I've ever had. We loaded up on produce and treats for dinner-- kale, corn, tomatoes, Cabot cheese, and onion which we cooked with our red lentils that night. We also got pastries galore and maple syrup made nearby in Connecticut.
Jon in the store.
As mentioned in our earlier post, the Boston checkpoint, we went to the Boston airport from Nanna's house to catch a standby flight to Los Angeles for Jane and Tim's wedding. It took a few tries but we eventually made it. Thanks so much for your prayers.
We're getting on an airplane!
Lobstah roll for lunch
Jono changing the inner tube
The hostel
Soon after leaving, we turned onto Shaker Rd to continue our trek and passed by several structures built by Shakers back in the day. Among them were a meeting house, a stone barn, a cemetery, and some houses.
Not too long after, we crossed into New Hampshire!
"Hi Mom!" says Katelyn.
Jonathan in Freeport near an Amtrak sign .
The tidal bay.
Tidal bay.
The farm-- the cows are Belted Galloways! They look like Oreos.
Huge Briunswick farmers market.
We got a pretzel, cookie, veggies, smoked turkey salad, and nice sandwich bread.
Picnic in the park in Brunswick.
In Brunswick the Main Street is Maine Street :)
Draw bridge mechanism.
Fun bike and ski store. What a perfect place for a blow out.
Jamming to the concert while making dinner.
Yum! Some were brewed with oysters.
Fun be benches made by local artists dot the town.
We got food to make lunch at the town's grocery co-op.
Best sandwiches we've ever made with local cured bacon and Beemster aged Gouda.
In the evening we took a history tour.
After leaving Wilmington we continued north through North Carolina to the White Oak River campground where we stayed (and it didn't rain!). The next day we crossed some sweet bridges as our bike route (and the signed NC state bike routes we had been following) took us through an interchange over a river. The highway shoulders were pretty good for biking.
And we got to take another FERRY!
We saw some cool weather from the ferry.
That night we camped in Goose Creek State Park which was huge and cool. We are out of time to tell you how we got to Richmond where we are now, but hopefully we can catch you up in a bit after we get on the road to Fredericksburg.
1000 Miles, 100 Miles, continued
After leaving Goose Creek State Park a few days ago (that was the night of day 11) we headed to Plymouth, NC on day 12. The riding was fun, not very hilly, and our bodies have seemed to agree that we will be biking every day for a while. Lunch in Plymouth was at a lovely cafe called The Garden Spot. We had dessert too but ate it too quickly to get a photo of it...
We didn't know where we would be camping that night-- our maps didn't have any reccomendations for the area where we would need to stop around Winton, NC. In some ways it made it harder to bike ahead when we didn't know exactly where we were going. On this trip we've been faced with a lot of things we can't control-- weather,
other drivers, availability of resources (often a gas station us the only building we pass for many miles). We made it into Winton though and took a seasoned bike tourer's advice to ask the folks at the fire station where would be best to camp. As we were coming into town we asked where the station was and found out that the volunteer firefighters were having a meeting. When asking where would be best a man offered for us to stay at his house with him and his wife. What followed was a really lovely and unexpected evening getting to know this couple, getting to know the small town of Winton, and getting to take showers!
Here's the view down to the river behind their house:
On day 13 we crossed over into Virginia and had our first 100 mile day. The last couple miles were admitably loops around the Chippokes State Park campground to to reach 100. It was a fun long day and we slept very well.
Day 14 brought us through Jamestown, VA and on to Richmond where we spent the night in a hotel by the airport in part because there's not much camping in such a big town and in part because we needed a break. We had an excellent dinner at Ma and Pa's diner. Jonathan got a bologna burger and said he felt properly full for the first time in a while.
On day 15 we went though the city of Richmond we reminded us of Atlanta and ended up camping at our first KOA campground which was easy but expensive.
The next day, 16, we got to stay with our aunt and uncle and cousins south of D.C.-- it was wonderful to be with family! We ate a big dinner (Jonathan was full again!), talked, and walked around their neighborhood. Here we are before leaving the next morning:
We biked into D.C. that day (17) and took a half -- about 40 miles--so we'd have time to explore. Jonathan's mom helped set us up to visit the office of our Representative, Mr. Rob Woodall, to talk to his staff about the transportation funding bill. It was a cool visit and we got a great view of the Capitol from their balcony:
We stayed in the International Student Hostel and biked around town without our bags on our bikes ( hills were like nothing!). Dinner was at a fun falafel place.
On day 18 we biked out of D.C. and into Maryland in a downpour. We're not in the photo because we're trying to keep the camera dry!
Thanks to the generosity of friends we were able to stay in the home of friends of our friends near Baltimore this past night. They warmed us up after the day long storm with delicious hot soup and good conversation.
Today, day 19, we'll continue this adventure! We've gone more than 1100 miles and have about that much left to go.
Check Point: Boston!
Katelyn and I rode our bikes into Boston yesterday! If we didn't feel far from Atlanta before, we do now. We rode to Katelyn's grandmother's house where we got to see Nana, who just turned 92. Katelyn's parents also who were in Boston visiting, and they brought us dinner :)
Now, we are taking a brief hiatus from our northbound pedaling trajectory to hop to Los Angeles on a flight -- we are going out, Lord willing, to see out lovely, excellent friend Jane Shibley get married! What a wonderful occasion. We are flying standby, so if you are reading this today, we invite you to pray with us that we get a flight!
We haven't been keeping our blog very up-to-date in the last few days, so we will try to post some more pictures during our free time while traveling. Stay tuned!
Update: we made it to LA in time for the wedding!! It was wonderful. Now we are back in Boston resting and preparing to get back on the road tomorrow.
Looking Back: Mason-Dixon, Dairy Day, and Philly Hospitality (days 9-21)
Day 19:
After departing from our wonderful hosts Dan and Holly, we set off for parts unknown - namely, Pennsylvania. The plan was to camp in the "yard" of an outfitter store we had read about and contacted. On the way, we ran into two other riders out for the morning, Susan and Susan, who invited us to stop with them at St. John's Episcopal Church (in the Maryland countryside) for water, snacks, and bicycle repair equipment. The church had apparently realized it was on a popular cycling thoroughfare and decided to minister to its neighbors by offering this aid/hospitality station. How cool! Neither of the women were members of the church, but they were both big fans of it, and one said she had visited it before because of its cyclist aid "ministry." Both Susans were very sweet and cool and encouraging to Katelyn and me.
Signing the log book in the aid station
Me, Katelyn, St. John's Episcopal building
We came across something later in the day that we were not expecting: the Mason-Dixon Line.
At the same time, we crossed into Pennsylvania.
We were undisputedly out of the South, and we both agreed that we were officially quite far from Atlanta. The horse-drawn carriages displayed on yellow highway signs alerted us that we were entering Amish country.
The hills we encountered soon after attempted to whip our tails. Surely, we thought, these hills are just a temporary thing. They will not last much further into the trip. We were, however, quite wrong. We rode until after dark, having made a bit slower time than we had anticipated, and camped in our planned spot at the Shank's Mare Outfitters near Wrightsville, PA. We were pleasantly greeted by a gorgeous sunrise across the river the next morning and agreed that this "yard" made a fantastic campsite.
Day 20:
After leaving our campsite and passing through some cute-looking towns, we began looking for somewhere to stop for a snack break. At the same time, we thought it was funny that many of the convenience stores we passed were called Turkey Hill, an odd name for a filling station unless the region was called Turkey Hill or maybe, just maybe, it had something to do with Turkey Hill ice cream. Our questions were all answered in the most surprising and delicious way possible when we stumbled upon a renovated factory building labeled "The Turkey Hill Experience."
What we had crossed paths with turned out to be a Turkey Hill ice cream museum which besides the fun, interactive ice cream knowledge it offered, also included UNLIMITED FREE ICE CREAM SAMPLES as part of the tour. What had started as a great day quickly became a really really great day. At no other time in our lives have we been more qualified to enjoy unlimited ice cream samples without shame. It was truly delightful. Besides, we needed our calcium.
Other delightful events of the day included picking apples growing in the highway right-of-way, buying fresh veggies and raw milk from a Mennonite woman's farm stand, riding through beautiful Pennsylvania countryside, eating at a great pizza and calzone place, and enjoying the milk with some cookies at Warwick Woods campground where we stayed.
Day 21:
As we were packing up our campsite at Warwick Woods, a man named Zebulon walked up to our site and started talking to us. He was interested in what we were doing, and we told him about our trip. We found out that we were both believers in Christ, and that Zebulon was going through a challenging point in his life. We were able to give encouragement to each other and pray for each other. Zebulon encouraged us to keep Christ at the center of our lives and our marriage and reminded how important it is that we are both of the same mind when it comes to knowing and loving God. We were blessed by our encounter with him. It is cool how God brings people together.
That day we rode into Conshohocken, PA on a really nice rail trail along the Schuykill River. We had been running out of stove fuel for the last few days and unable to find the kind we needed, but in Conshohocken we found an REI that had it. While at the REI, we picnicked and looked at our map for places we might stay that night, but we did'nt find anything other besides expensive hotels (as we would be passing through a popular tourist area). We decided to ride on and look for a suitable place to pitch our tent once we were closer to covering the distance we wanted to cover. We prayed once again that God would provide somewhere good and safe for us to rest that night. How he did that was a surprise to us.
As evening was approaching, we rolled into Warrington, PA and stumbled upon a car show. As we didn't have much day left, we decided this might be a good opportunity to ask some locals where would be a good place to camp nearby or down the road. Before we walked into the midst of the parking lot with the show, a woman approached us and welcomed us to check out the cars and offered us water and help finding anything else we might need. We thanked her and told her we were looking for somewhere near our route to camp. She was not from Warrington, but she immediately took us up to a group of people and began asking folks if they knew about where we might could stay. Nobody seemed to have any immediate ideas, but while Katelyn and I were sitting down drinking water, a man came up to us saying he had overheard that we wanted somewhere to camp, that he had called his wife, and that we were welcome to stay with them. We decided to take them up on it, and turned out to be a wonderful decision.
Ken and Donna, the couple who invited us in, were experienced at hosting strangers. They had hosted four foreign exchange students in the past, all of whom they have remained close with. The hospitality they showed us was incredible: they gave us their guest bedroom, beer, and bought us Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (an important experience they didn't want us to miss as we were in a Philly suburb). Their home was even right on our route in the correct direction! This was a wonderful answer to prayer.
Looking Back: Delaware River, Appalachian Trail, and Hudson Valley (days 22-24)
Day 22:
We woke up refreshed after a good night's sleep at Ken and Donna's house and set off toward the Delaware River and New Jersey. Just before we crossed the river, we stopped in a cute town called New Hope which had an awesome French bakery/café right on the river. Katelyn and I enjoyed coffee and pastries there while we made phone calls to campgrounds and a B&B where we planned to stay in the coming few days.
After our break, we crossed the Delaware river into New Jersey! In a New Jersey river town we met a fellow northbound bicycle traveler coming from Philadelphia. He was traveling with a B.O.B. trailer like us, which we thought was pretty neat. The rest of the day we followed the Delaware river, passing a variety of small towns and houses ranging from ritzy to backwoods to industrial. We crossed the Delaware river a total three times between PA and NJ, finally staying the night in an NJ state forest. Before crossing the river the last time, however, we crossed the Appalachian Trail! We actually rode on it temporarily as it crossed the river at Delaware Water Gap along the I-80 bridge.
Day 23
We woke up the next morning, a Sunday, packed up, ate some cold oatmeal, and headed out into the national recreation area. We had the quiet and beautiful road mostly to ourselves and only saw one or two local businesses for several hours. Two road bikers came up behind us on their morning ride and we traveled together for a while-- our conversations made the miles pass quickly and Jonathan and I rode more quickly than our typical morning plod.
Upon emerging from the forest we found a church with a service just starting--we thought that with our long trip out of the woods we wouldn't get to visit a church community. In the photo you can see our road biker friends riding off when we parted ways. Besides just having a fun time riding together with the two road bikers Jonathan and I were reminded that God is perfect at timing for both big and little things and got us go this church on time.
After the service we crossed into New York and the Hudson River Valley. We were both surprised at the spectacular beauty of the New York countryside.
At the state line
Day 24
After a great nights rest we woke up to a delicious breakfast made by the innkeeper (not made by us and not oatmeal! Altogether wonderful!). Breakfast included beef sausage made from the grass fed cows that are part of the farm operated by the Blueberry Inn owners.
We spent the morning lazing about in the sunny front yard and planning our campgrounds for the next few days. We decided to make the day a short riding day-- just 30 miles to camp that night-- and to explore the Hudson Valley.
We started with a wine tasting at a nearby vineyard and winery on the Hudson Valley Wine Trail.
We rode on to the Hudson River and crossed an excellent Pedestrian bridge called the Walkway Over the Hudson.
Note that this lovely bridge closes at sunset-- we just made it on before it closed.
We camped at M. L. Norrie State Park. When we arrived at camp we thought it strange that all the sites were so dark-- we couldn't see anyone and it was only 9:30 or so. We wouldn't find out why until the sun rose the next morning...
Looking Back: Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Nanna's House (days 25-27)
Day 25
The camp was so dark because of the small handful of other groups there two were bicycle touring and one was motorcycle touring! We enjoyed talking with these folks about their adventures, especially one married couple from Canada who was touring with their seven year old son, how fun!
After we leaving the campground we were surprised to pass by a home of the Vanderbilt family whose grounds are open to the public.
The Biltmore's small cousin.
Later that day we road into Connecticut.
As we were nearing the end of the day we went by a dairy that we noticed provided milk to Cabot (a cheese maker that sources milk from many medium to small farms in New England and makes excellent cheese). This was exciting to see and we were even more excited to see that the dairy had a market store attached. With thoughts of fresh produce and cheese we approached the store only to find out it was closing. However, seeing our bikes and hungry faces the owner not only invited us in but gave us a tour of her produce and products and fed us the best tomatoes I've ever had. We loaded up on produce and treats for dinner-- kale, corn, tomatoes, Cabot cheese, and onion which we cooked with our red lentils that night. We also got pastries galore and maple syrup made nearby in Connecticut.
Day 26
We knew this would be a long hilly day and long and hilly it was. We climbed and rolled from Connecticut into Rhode Island (where we stayed for about 10 miles) then into Massachusetts. There were no road signs to welcome us into these states, and we didn't take many photos that day. Jonathan did take a lovely photo of a dam we road over though:
Day 27
This was the day we eventually arrived at my Nanna's house in Melrose, Massachusetts. This is a place I've flown to many times to visit so it was particularly fun to arrive by bike.
The day started off strong with pastries at a coffee shop in Whitinsville. Later in the morning we came across a farmers market in Westborough. We pass by a lot of signs for community events so it was great to be able to participate in one (by buying more pastries and a tomatoe for lunch). West borough seemed like a cool town and had a neat way to improve drivers' awareness of pedestrians in crosswalks; I tried it out:
You pull the flag out of a bucket on one side of the crossing and deposit it in the bucket on the other side.
We ate lunch-- bagels with tomatoe and that Cabot cheese with scones-- on a wall overlooking a beautiful valley and hills.
After lunch we were approaching Boston and the Minitenan Commuter bikeway. Due to some trail construction and closures we had some trouble finding the trail but eventually made it with the help of several locals' directions.
We deviated from the Adventure Cycling route to go to Melrose and Nanna's house where we met Mom (who had brought me supplementary warm clothes for Maine), Dad, and Nanna. It was great to be with family again and especially great to see Nanna. We ate Billy's Roast Beef for dinner which is classic Boston fare. We stashed our bikes in her basement and got ready to head to...not Maine...Los Angeles.
Marriage!
As mentioned in our earlier post, the Boston checkpoint, we went to the Boston airport from Nanna's house to catch a standby flight to Los Angeles for Jane and Tim's wedding. It took a few tries but we eventually made it. Thanks so much for your prayers.
We got to stay with Jane's aunt and uncle who graciously hosted us and drove us around - but that didn't keep us from taking Orange County's bus to get to brunch the next day! (because we're transportation nerds). Jane, the wonderfully calm bride, and Tim the groom got together with friends for brunch the morning of the wedding. It was a sweet, refreshing time with good friends now scattered across the country. Also, we got to hang out on the beach!
The convention center where the reception was. Jane and Tim know how to throw a PARTY!
The way back to Boston went great except for a slight mishap involving leaving some of our belongings on the airplane. We stopped to try and reteieve them right after security, but the airplane crew perceived our bag as trash and discarded it for us. That left us without the map telling us how to ride from Boston to Acadia. We were a bit panicked. Thankfully, we called the REI in downtown Boston and found out they had a copy - which meant going to Boston and eating Italian pastries!
After our delicious impromptu Boston outing, we rested another night with Nanna and left the next day to continue the bicycling.
WE'RE IN MAINE!
We rode over the border into our last state! And we saw the Atlantic Ocean again for the first time since North Carolina! We still have several more days of riding on our way to Acadia, but we're super-excited to be in Maine. It is beautiful here. Also, it's our eight month monthiversary of marriage!
Crossing into Maine
The state line
A light house!
Mmm...Blueberries
Day 32:
To continue our somewhat chronological account of our excellent adventure, we set off from Boston into the great beyond of New England. On the way out of Boston, the friendly frost-heave-ridden roads of Massachusetts were more than our poor B.O.B. tire could handle, and we got our first flat of the trip! Now there is a bit of a story behind this.
If any of you faithful readers live and bike inside Atlanta, you know that Ponce de Leon Ave in Midtown got a face lift in the past year that took out some of the many, many narrow lanes and replaced them with wider, safer general lanes and BIKE LANES! That was great. The only bad part is that the lanes are now collecting small debris that has given Katelyn, me, and the B.O.B. a combined three flat tires during just a few months of occasionally riding on them. So we had a running commentary on how we had crossed so much of the country on thousands of miles of paved (and sometimes unpaved) roads but didn't get any flats like we always seemed to on Ponce. We thought we should maybe ask the city of Atlanta to invest in cleaning them because of that. Then, all of a sudden, we got a flat in Boston. But before we even started comparing cities and blaming Boston for ruining our perfect tire record, we remembered while changing the inner tube that this one has an old patch on it, and the tire was not punctured again -- the patch had just warn out after all that mileage and blown. The funny part was that when we thought back, we remembered why the patch was there: the B.O.B.'s maiden voyage in Atlanta down Ponce de Leon where we popped it the first time! So we still haven't punctured any tires on the trip yet :)
Now back to business. So we made it out of Boston (the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway was awesome!) and were about to stay in what would have been our most expensive campground ever ($45! Ridiculous! But it was the only one around) when we found a hostel in the same area that was about the same price, offered us a private room, and the owners seemed really cool and gave us a discount for coming on bikes. It was a great experience! We made pancakes for dinner along with eggs and tomatoes we had found at an outdoor farmers market on the bike trail on the way out of Boston. It was delicious.
Day 33:
The next morning after breakfast we got to talk with the owners for a while, and the were really cool. They also invited us to pick blueberries for ourselves (along with some for them) off of their blueberry bushes. There were so many! We left with about a quart of blueberries that day and a quart picked for them (with more in our bellies).
Not too long after, we crossed into New Hampshire!
During our brief time in New Hampshire, we found that: Compared with the rest of New England, the roads were faster and the drivers ruder; the individuals we met were really nice; the roadside convenience stores sell excellent craft beers; and there were no sales taxes. We stayed one night in the "Live free or die" (as displayed on all the license plates) state near Kingston then continued north and east.
Day 34:
We began to get near the Atlantic coast again for the first time since NC, only instead if barrier islands and sand dunes we saw harbors, hills, and rocky little islands. We had a beautiful crossing into Maine through Portsmouth, NH.
We were so excited to finally be in our last state. You can read more about day 34 on the WE'RE IN MAINE! post :)
Mainely (Well, Entirely) Wonderful
Day 35
We woke up in Maine and headed out for some beautiful riding. Something about Maine makes it bluer and greener than most places. Mountains dot the horizon and we frequently passed by the coast, harbors, and rivers like the one pictured below.
We also found some public gardens.
And then we found ourselves in Freeport, a town now famous for being the birthplace of L.L. Bean.
After a hot sandwich and ice cream dinner in Freepot we headed a bit down the road to the Recompense Campground on Wolfe's Neck Farm. Night fell as we neared camp and when we arrived the stars were incredible. We laid on top of our picnic table and stared in wonder at the massiveness and beauty of the stars and milky way. If you feel like you're too wrapped up in life take some time look at the stars.
Day 36
Recompense Camp is a working farm and on a tidal bay so we took dome time enjoying the camp in the morning.
Sunrise from our site.
Enjoying the campground was the start of a great day. We passed by a farmers market and got lunch supplies for picknicing in Brunswick.
Later that day we went over a great bridge. While crossing the bridge though Jonathan's shifter cable blew out. There was a bike shop not more than 1000 feet up the road and the friendly folks there fixed it right away.
Bridge crossing.
Further on down the road we ran into a lobster shack on Route 1 that katelyn had been to before! So we had to stop and share a lobster roll. It was excellent.
So we eventually made to our campground later than planned, but were greeted by a Labor Day concert and bonfire! We had heard the country music as we approached but figured it was a wedding or party. Turned out to be a party for our campground!
Day 37
The next day we rode to the town of Belfast where we planned to stay for two nights before heading to Acadia. It was a short ride, about 50 miles, and we made it to Belfast for a picnic lunch and beer tasting at the local brewery, Marshall Wharf Brewing.
We spent the night camping in a Belfast resident's yard. Alex is listed on the Adventure Cycling Map as a cyclist campground. He believes that more folks along the route should offer up their yards and showers with the coordination of Adventure Cycling. We agree! It was a joy to stay with him for two nights and spend time talking about life and cycling.
Day 38
No biking this day! It was funny not to bike at all but we spent a lovely,touristy day in Belfast.
Journey's End (for now)
We must begin with an apology to you, our faithful readers, for leaving you hanging for so long while we enjoyed the beauty and the wonders of Acadia National Park and Mt. Desert Island. In our defense, we attempted to post an update saying we had arrived, but we seem to have failed to upload it properly. Then we didn't think about it again for a while.
In summary, we spent a pleasant, foggy day biking from Belfast (where our last post left off) to Acadia National Park where we camped for our first of three nights. We stopped to look at a cool suspension bridge along the way and saw some fields of Maine's well-known wild blueberries.
View leaving Belfast
Bridge leaving Belfast
Suspension bridge
Field of wild blueberries
The next morning the sun was shining, and we saw the mountiantops and vistas of the park for the first time, and they were beautiful.
As a side-note, the park and Bar Harbor are situated on Mt. Desert Island, and the reason for that name is uncertain. The two theories we heard were (a) the Frenchmen who came way back thought the place was beautiful and named it "Mont Désir," which later got pronounced "Mount Desert" or (b) the Frenchmen saw how the mountaintops were rocky and not tree-covered like a desert, so they called it "Mont Desert." Either way, it was the French. And it was beautiful.
We got to see a nice vista of the island and some of the smaller islands surrounding it from the top of Cadillac Mountain (also named after a Frenchman) when we climbed it to watch the sun rise. The sun rose at 6:00am, and Cadillac mountain is the first place on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard to see the sunrise. That was cool.
We also went swimming at "Sand Beach," a beach that had sand (go figure). Most beaches in the area are quite rocky. We only swam for a few minutes or less, because the water felt like it came out of a refrigerator.
Sand Beach
We thought it was really cool that you could get pretty much anywhere in the park on the free shuttle system sponsored by L.L. Bean (a Maine-based company). And we could bring our bikes on it! We also like the fact that the park roads were very bicycle-friendly anyway, and there was also a 50-mile network of "carriage paths" constructed by the Rockefellers when they lived there. These paths were accessible by bikers and walkers and were quite scenic. They also had some really cool stone bridges!
Another highlight was hiking out to Bar Island, and island in the harbor accessible only at low tide. Twice a day, the low tide exposes a sandbar that you can walk across onto the uninhabited island.
Also, I ate a lobster.
For our last night, we stayed at a bed and breakfast called Aysgarth Station. We took a bike ride in the park the next morning then rode to Bangor to stay the night before picking up a rental car. While we were there, we say Paul Bunyan and stayed with a really kind host who we never met (except through Warm Showers community) and who lived in a cool house near Bangor that he lent to us for the night.
Morning bike ride
Paul and Katelyn
Before making it home, we drove our rental car to Pittsburgh, Katelyn attended a conference for biking and walking professionals, we hung out with out wonderful friends David and Jo, and we took Amtrak back to Atlanta via D.C. (and ate lunch on the national mall with Carmie's dad!). It was indeed an excellent adventure.
Rental car
Pittsburgh had cool bike trails!
And cool bridges!
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