5/27/23 – Bar Harbor to East Machias

Miles: 77.83 Today / 2892.10 Total 

Elevation Gain:  3606 ft. Today / 90,682 ft. Total

Slept in today, but was still on the road by 8:45 AM. `

I carried my panniers downstairs then went to say goodbye to Ed and Joe. Being the gentleman that he is, Ed offered to carry my bike downstairs for me, and knowing how heavy it is, I let him.

After loading my bike up with panniers, I said goodbye to Ed and the rest of the team who were awake, then hit the road alone. My bike suddenly felt so heavy, BECAUSE IT WAS! It was a long hard day, chugging along with all that weight again. Whose idea was it to continue on to Canada anyhow?

The weather was great from the get go, but as the day wore on, it warmed up to 78 degrees, which somehow felt hot. Can you believe it? After a few weeks of riding all day long in temperatures ranging from 50-58 degrees, 78 really did feel hot, which begs the question: What am I going to do when I get back to Arizona, where the temps are in the high 90s?

Did I ever mention the quest for a lobster roll as we cycled along the coast of Maine? Eating a lobster roll is a mandatory part of the experience, so the first time I saw a place that advertised them, I stopped to get my first of many, only to be disappointed by the ‘market price’ tag of $24.95 for a 4 oz lobster roll. What the heck? That’s insane! Sadly, the prices kept climbing higher as we moved through the state, peaking at $34.95, which is beyond INSANE!

A week or so before I departed on this adventure, I ate a delicious lobster roll with fries and a drink at Angie’s Lobster in Tempe, Arizona for around $11, and the lobster was from Maine. So now I’m in Maine, and I’m supposed to pay 2-3 times that for just the sandwich? My Mom would have called this highway robbery.

So today, I was a little surprised to start seeing signs like this one.

I was finally going to score my lobster roll, but when I stopped, I learned this shop wasn’t going to be open for a while. As I moved down the road, the same deal kept coming up, and I finally got my lobster roll. And you know what? It wasn’t any tastier than the roll I got from Angie’s Lobster, back in Arizona.

I had planned to follow the Google Maps bike route to East Machias, but at some point, it started telling me to take Old Highway 1, which I think I am allergic to. New Highway 1 was pretty busy, but for the most part, it did have a nice wide shoulder, that was rideable about 90% of the time. The less rideable part had potholes and evenly spaced, brain jarring expansion cracks, but for the most part, it was great. So I spoke with a local about how Google kept trying to send me to the old road, and she told me to ignore Google, because the old road is very poorly maintained and is much more hilly. For this girl, poor maintenance and hilly are code words for stay the heck away. So I did.

As the day wore on, I was starting to get worn out—REALLY worn out. Face it (I did), this has been a long trek, with some really long and steep days, and I’m tired. Worn out. Ready to be done, as in stick a fork in me. I was just barely able to drag myself up some end-of-the-day hills, including a super steep driveway, to get to the house of my Warm Showers Hostess, Regina.

You never know what to expect when you are meeting someone you found online, but she did not disappoint. She is 4-5 years younger than me; almost single, with 2 grown kids; fiercely independent; and adventurous. She’s a runner, who has done some long bike tours and hikes, including a solo hike of the Arizona Trail in 2022, which is an impressive feat. We have a lot in common and had a lot to talk about, so I’m hopeful I’ll meet up with her again to hike or bike somewhere together in the future. I took her to dinner at one of the 2 non chain restaurants back in Machias, and the food was delicious. It’s a small town, and Regina seemed to know about half of the people who came by our table.

When we got back to her house, I was ready for bed, and that’s when she brought me a vase of fresh lilacs to put by my bedside so I could enjoy the aroma while I slept. Oh my goodness! They were deep purple and pink, and I’m not sure why I didn’t snap a photo of them, but I didn’t. She says she sleeps with a couple of vases nearby when they are in bloom. Note: This is nothing like my sterile life back in AZ, with artificial turf and drought resistant plants I constantly have to coddle to keep from dying. Are we even living on the same planet?

I tried to work on my blog, but again, there was no staying awake. Maybe I’ll get to it tomorrow. And now I have to throw in my shameless request for support of the cause I am cycling for. If you can donate even just a few dollars, it will help.