July 12th St. Andrews to St. John N.B.

One last blog.

Today was pack up and go home day. I built a box for the bike and another for the trailer out of scrounged cardboard and duct tape. Loaded them on the bus for Calgary. Above are two adjoining views of the waterfront in St. Andrews. Of all the little seaside towns I've been through it is easily the most appealing. It is the real life equivalent of the town in the Popeye movie "Sweet Haven". I half expected Popeye to row up to the dock in his dingy, with his pipe puffing smoke and saunter into town to get a shot of rum. "I'm good to the finich because I eats me spinach"

Here's water street. It was hosing down last night when I rolled into town so got a motel and headed for the laundromat to wash and dry things out before going home. Had the seafood platter at the Chef's restaurant so got to have seafood once. Lots of little Bistros and Souvenir shops along this street. Quite touristy. Today I caught the bus to St. John and will get the plane out of here tomorrow for Calgary. Next time I do a trip I hope it will be with Shelley and she can add her comments too.

July 11th Pembroke to St. Andrews

This marker was beside the road a little north of Pembroke this morning. I momentarily toyed with the idea of going to the equator since I was halfway there already. Never mind - one trip at a time.

There are four fishing boats in the shot from just south of Calais. (They pronounce it Calis)It was a foggy drizzly day today. Great, I loved it until it really started hosing down and then -

Doh!

Flat tire. No big deal. Last time I had a flat I bought a spare tube for the trailer and so had it changed, pumped up and ready to roll in twenty minutes. I set the bike back on it's wheels and turned to pick up the trailer pack. A big truck went by and blew the bike over. I picked it back up and loaded the trailer. When I got under way and checked the GPS for the time it was gone! It had flung off the handlebar when the bike was knocked over. After a half hour of crawling through the tall grass by the road I found it.

Got across the border into Canada at St. Stephens no problem. They immediately recognized me as a slightly demented but harmless transcontinental cyclist. They get special training to be able to do this. The photo above is the world famous Ganongs chocolate factory in St. Steven. You have probably eaten chocolate from there. The front part is a museum but I didn't see it advertised anywhere that you could actually taste the chocolates so just kept going.

Echo Lodge, Lower Bayside, just west of St. Andrews. This rambling old Farmhouse was built by my great great grandfather, William MacCoubrey. It was nice to see that it was being kept in good shape by the current owners who I did not get to meet as no one was at home. Our mother, Jean, always spoke fondly of the good times had here when she went to grandad's farm in the summertime.

Front tire in the Atlantic. I had to drag the bike a half a mile across mud flats to get this photo as it was low tide and the tides here are huge. Pretty good feeling to have made it across the country. No one there so I just put the camera on a rock with the timer and jumped in the picture as I have done many times. Tomorrow the bike will go on the bus to Calgary and I'll get myself to St. John to catch a plane to Calgary. End of trip. Hope you enjoyed the blog.

July 10th Milbridge to Pembroke

It was foggy and cool this morning which lasted most of the day and was a welcome change from the heat. I wasn't sure what to make of this place. Probably some old character living here with more time on his hands than he knew what to do with. This part of Maine is pretty backwoodsy. Not very prosperous looking. Lots of people put firewood out for sale at the ends of their driveways. It is on the honour system. If you need some just put two dollars in the tin can. In some parts of the world that wouldn't work but apparently it does here. That says something good about them.

We are out of the Maple syrup country and into the blueberry zone. You can get blueberry anything. This place looks like a blue smurf might live here but it is actually a blueberry place near Whiting.

Here's a fish boat pulled up with some lobster traps behind it. Now lobster traps don't look like the wooden slat ones we used to see. These look like they are just made of chicken wire. I don't think they will sell very well as souvenirs. I have seen lots of boats pulled up and many for sale along this stretch of road. One woman I talked to said that seafood prices are on the rise because of the disaster in the Gulf. This will likely put pressure on the Atlantic fishery. I talked to a Fisheries Canada employee who said the quota system we have is under constant pressure from all sides. Hopefully it won't end up like the cod fishery.

July 9th Brewer to Milbridge ME

How can you tell that you are getting close to the ocean? One clue is that you start seeing lots of little seafood places called galleys. This place had Haddock, crab and lobster in various ways. I was anxious to get my first view of the Atlantic but things were conspiring against me this morning.

There's an old Irish cyclists curse that says "may a hot wind be in your face, all the hills be really steep and all your roads be under construction." See photo above. Road construction in Maine usually involves drilling and blasting because of the granite. This morning I was trying to figure out how I had angered the cycling gods who had put the curse on me.

Eventually they took pity on me and the wind shifted off to one side, the construction ended and the road flattened out somewhat. In the early afternoon I was treated to my first glimpse of the open ocean just above the sailboat. The scent of the sea had reached me an hour before this. To smell the salt air and seaweed is always a thrill and immediately brings back a flood of good memories.

Today I ended up in the town of Milbridge. This lovely old home is right beside the motel I'm in for the night. This place is not the exception here as the town is full of beautiful older homes. At one time the people here were doing very well for themselves. A home this size in Calgary would likely be a couple million dollars.

July 8 Skowhegan to Brewer

Here's an old mill which is beside the Kennebec River in Skowhegan. You can sit on the patio and watch the water coming over the hydro dam just out sight on the right side of the picture. Maine is a very attractive state, very much like New Brunswick with lots of forest, lakes and big salmon rivers.

Here's an example of what I mean by attractive. This tree lined road is just East of Skowhegan. Nice way to start the day with a smooth cruise along this river. It was cool for the first bit this morning but by noon it had heated up into the eighties again. Most of the day was spent grinding up steep hills. In some places too steep to pedal up so had to get off and push. Constant up and down which gradually wears you down. The old bent bike is not a good hill climber. It would much rather be cruising along on the flat. Nevertheless still did 90 km. today

For the last several days I've been seeing lots of pickups which are dump trucks. About one ton trucks with dump boxes on them. I think the main reason for this is firewood. Lots of homes have firewood piled out in the yard. It is probably the cheapest way to heat in this area and a small dump truck is the perfect machine to haul and dump a load of wood. Here someone has neatly stacked his winters worth of wood in the yard. This scene with it's split rail fence could have been taken two hundred years ago if it were not for the travel trailer in the background.

Bangor on the Penobscot river. Pretty city. It reminds me very much of Inverness in the Northern Highlands which also sits on an excellent salmon river. The river Ness which flows out of Loch Ness of monster fame. As far as I know no good whiskey comes out of Bangor though.

July 7 Rumsford to Skowhegan

Up at four this morning and rolling early to beat the heat. The first ten miles was a pleasant cruise along the tree lined Androscoggin river. After that it was a climb out of the river valley and over into the Wilson River basin. When I dropped it down to start the climb nothing happened. The bracket holding the front shifter had broken into two unrepairable pieces. I was just about to chuck it but decided to hold on to it for some reason. So what to do? I had not passed a bike shop for hundreds of miles and had no idea when I would come across another one. I struggled along for the next twenty miles using only the middle seven gears. It was pretty hard going and I knew I could not keep going like that. Amazingly in the next place there was a a store which was a combination wood store showroom and bike shop with three bike mechanics! My fluke luck is holding.

Here's Reid who scavenged parts and used some of the ones I had saved to patch together a new front shifter for me. I filled my self up with cold water from their cooler and was on my way

Near Mercer I took this photo of the lopsided tree. The power line crews have kept the branches near the power line trimmed back so the tree responded by putting out its growth over the road.

Great shady spot for me to take a rest. The temperature was in the nineties again today with high humidity on top of that. When you put a cold drink on the bike it starts dripping with condensation in minutes. I have my hot weather riding technique figured out now. I'm in bed by eight and up by four so have a few hours before it gets hot. By ten it is cooking so you have to stay soaked down constantly and back off on the speed. Just chug along at a rate that is not stressing your heart. At Norridgewock this afternoon it was 95 degrees F and I was coping fine. Did 100 kms in spite of mechanical problems. It's all in the technique!

Here's a home in Skowhegan which is very typical to this part of the country. Huge and with steep roofs covered with metal. I have seen several signs warning to watch for falling snow beside steep roofs but I have paid them no heed. Haven't seen a flake since leaving "the Hat"

Things in Maine do not have the monied look of "Vuhmaant" In Hardwick a bundle of firewood was five dollars but can be had here for two. Yuppies don't do wood. They just pay too much for it.

July 6th Shelburn, N.H. to Rumford, Maine

Above is a photo of the road just west of the border into Maine. North New Hampshire is heavily wooded with mature trees hanging over the road. The shade is a welcome relief. The whole Eastern U.S. has been having a record heat wave with temps in the 100s F. I camped at Silver Birch campground but didn't sleep too well because of the heat. Got up early to get some miles in before it got too scorching hot. It was a good plan gut gang awry because shortly after entering Maine ran into 10 km of construction. When on a bicycle this is a real trial because the pavement is torn up and you end having to push in gravel at places. At other times you have to sit in the dust and searing heat waiting for traffic from the other direction. Car drivers don't have much patience for cyclists under those conditions.

After entering Maine things started to flatten out a bit as you travel along the Androscoggin River. Some good cropland was apparent along the road. This crop of potatoes was near Bethel You can almost see the heat waves shimmering off the land. Today I was using some of my old Kamloops cycling tricks. Go into every gas station and take your shirt off and soak it under a tap of cold water. Fill water bottles with tap water to keep it wet as it will dry out in about twenty minutes. Pour water through the holes in your bike helmet and down your back. Stuff paper towels in the front of your helmet to stop the sweat from running into your eyes. Drink about a liter of water each hour. Even with doing these things you can see on your heart rate monitor that your heart is under considerable stress and into the red zones as soon as you hit a bit of a grade. Then it is time to quit and get into someplace with AC.

This memorial in Rumford is the first one I have come across for the Civil war. That looks very much like a Civil war field cannon. The monument lists towns which contributed men to the Rumford regiment and also Mexico. Mexico! Why were they getting soldiers from Mexico? Turns out that Mexico is the name of a small town near here. I'll go through it first thing tomorrow morning.