50 States, Day 154

50 States Day 154 Mt. Desert Island to Brunswick, 142 miles

 

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

~W. Clement Stone

Rained pattered on the roof all night-an irregular drumbeat, waking us numerous times with those night time thoughts: 'Is that a leak I hear? Are the electronics in a wet spot? Does the door leak? Will the sleeping bag wick water from the sides of the tent?' And of course, the answer was no, no, no, and...yes. But in the dark, mysterious sounds makes one think.

We woke to rain and ate breakfast inside, then worked on breaking camp inside as much as possible. Near the end, I simply wore the helmet to both keep it out of wet spots, and to keep my head dry. And a hats off (or helmets on) to full coverage helmets! They have performed well at keeping our heads dry and warm.  Off we went like a herd of turtles-literally, as traffic was backed up from construction for two miles. We stopped and goed (goed?) for forty-five minutes before coming to a...a...ditch across the road that the contractor graded for the weekend, and developed huge potholes. Really? A guy with a rake and stomping his feet could have fixed it in ten minutes. Give the contractor a D minus.  The landscape features reds, oranges and yellows as autumn continues its march into September, with a heavy layer of gray. The drizzle makes for steel gray skies, water and horizons.

We'd rather ride in the rain than camp, as the fairing keeps us pretty dry, and the rain gear takes care of the rest. But after a night of wet, a morning of the same, we were ready for a motel. We rode through cute little towns with heavy traffic. I kept saying, "What do they do in the summer?" With traffic this heavy on a rainy September day, the vacation high season must look like rush hour gridlock. Yet the towns, with their quaint shops look really cool.

Being an entrepreneur, I keep looking at motels and imagining how I would refurbish and improve them. No stopping a brain, is there?

We rolled into Brunswick and decided it would be close enough to Freeport, LL Bean territory, where we'll visit Monday. Our modern, scientific method for choosing a motel worked great: Ride around until we find one. Knight's Inn. In the back. Well, it's warm, dry and hilarious. Our tent is more level than the floor of this unit. If I had a marble, I could set it down and watch it roll out the door, I'm sure. 

Off to the Sea Dog Brewing Company, a mini brewery/bar/grille that sat on a rock above...um, a river that I'm sure has a name. We sat at a table with a view of (groan) water. Fortunately, no rain. In another Maine tourist move, I ordered Seafood Stuffed Haddock with Lobster Sauce. Most delicious, and certainly the highlight of a gray day. QG did not

order a hamburger, but enjoyed a Turkey BLT, delicious with a grain tasting wheat bread. Four thumbs up.

Back to the room with the heat on high, and QG just about fell over due to the sloping floor. Hilarious. Stay tuned tomorrow for Church Surch.

Once more, let's hear it for Quilter Girl!

 Okay, Kevin has covered just about everything as nothing really happened today.  The rain gets annoying after a bit.  It also makes us pass things up we might normally stop at because it is such a hassle to take off the rain gear just for a short stop.  We passed a quilt store, not worth the effort, we passed a tower we had wanted to see, but how much are we going to see with all the clouds?  It was cold today so it got to the point that all I wanted to do was find a nice motel and get warm.  I have found out the cold (or hot) is cumulative.  After 4 hours of riding, the cold has worked its way through all my layers and I am now cold.  We got one of the last two rooms at the Inn.  We were told it was kiss and cry, leave your freshman at college at Bowdoin College.  I'm glad we stopped early.

 

And now our weekly:

 

RANTS RAVES, MUTTERINGS AND MUSINGS

Why do people cut off cars when turning into traffic? Three times today, I saw someone pull in front of a car, with no other cars behind it. Settle down, people!

The park rangers are driving me crazy. The one on Cadillac Mountain just kept up a propaganda machine barrage of how wonderful they were to put this park together. Give me some geography and history, not a self-aggrandizing lecture.  

People are so friendly. This week could be a record for chatting with nice friends. No matter what state or country. Cool.

I'm reading Melville's 'Moby Dick.' Good book, but man, it is exhaustive. One chapter, twenty-six pages, talked about white. Another chapter on the whale's tail. Teaches me to read with patience.

American food and service is awesome. People bend over backwards to take care of the patrons.

 

THE STUPID DRIVER OF THE WEEK

The guy passed us with little room to spare. As the oncoming car passed, QG said, "That was close." Just then he passed another car with a turn ahead, another close one. Again, there was a line of cars, what will he gain, a few seconds?

 

THE NUMBERS

400,000,000     Ding ding! We have a winner. A 'scientist' claimed the earth started then. Gee, he should have talked to a                                                                        

                         fellow scientist in the Midwest who claimed it was 300 million years ago. Well, off by a mere hundred mil                 lion. And people get upset when I'm ten minutes late.

23                  States visited

22                  Weeks

119                Dollars a day spent, average

22,000           Miles travelled

.50                 Inches of rain yesterday

1                   Times we've Skyped the fam. Cool! We'll be doing more of that.

 

That's it for week 22! Thanks for following.