I stayed up until 10:30 telling bike touring war stories with my host Jim Smith. I slept pretty well in the barn. Jim had set me up with a single bed frame and a very comfy air mattress. I added my sleeping bag and inflatable pillow and the rest was Zs.
At 6 a.m. we convened in the kitchen for more tales over breakfast. Jim has had his share of bike touring calamities but remarkably things always seemed to work out okay.
I hit the road around 8 and made my way 5 miles back to the route. I mostly hugged the coast today. Moody Beach, Wells Beach, Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise, Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Portland.
The winds were variable. Parts of the day I had a strong tailwind. The terrain was gently rolling. The Mule and I booked along, often cruising at 14 mph. I was passed by two fit women on road bikes. I kept pace with them for a few miles until I started feeling like a stalker and backed off.
In Kennebunkport I stopped for second breakfast. Three pancakes, sausage links, and coffee. The pancakes were comically huge. I ate a bit more than half of them before taking the rest for roadside lunch. (I ended up throwing them out.)
Jim had warned me that the Bush compound in Kennebunkport was out of the way and unmarked. I never saw it nor did I see a single indication that two presidents had summered here.
Old Orchard Beach featured an amusement park on the beach. It was closed. The big action around here is walking. Most of the hotels had plenty of vacancies. Cool temperatures and rain will do that.
Did I mention rain? At 1, the spitting rain returned. And stuck around, on and off, for the rest of the ride. Darn good thing I brought my rain gear.
In South Portland I finally found an ice cream shop that was open. I celebrated 60 miles with a big cup of cherry, vanilla, chocolate chunk ice cream.
For the last 15 miles I was getting wobbly on the bike. Too little water and too many miles.
The Casco Bay Bridge into Portland was long and high. A good finish to my day.
I had tried to secure a Warmshowers host in Portland but no one responded to me so I booked a bed in the Black Elephant hostel. It’s very clean and they charged me $55 for a bed, half of what the online resellers like hotels.com were quoting.
An hour after I booked the bed, one of the Portland Warmshowers people contacted me about hosting. Too late.
Later in the evening I heard back from a host in Belfast, two days away. She and her husband are very enthusiastic about hosting me. I now have accommodations for tomorrow and Friday.
A place to stay in Bar Harbor on Saturday and Sunday is still up in the air.
Dinner was a chicken parmigiana sandwich with fries and a craft lager at a bar a block away. I am ready for bed and it’s only 7 p.m.
Miles today: 64.5
Tour miles: 886
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Well while you are out galavanting around, I had a stress test. For some reason the Calcium score I had a few years back of 475 which led me to be referred to the cardiologist and the cardiologist said then “Unless you have symptoms, I won’t do anything. I have patients with scores of 3000 and I don’t do anything because they are asymptomatic. Well out of the blue this year the score is a big deal. I go for a stress test and it’s normal. Whew! All those Freihoefers chocolate chip cookies over the years (which I gave up) didn’t take a toll. Speaking of taking a toll, any trouble with the smoke?
No. Tree pollen, cold, and rain instead
It’s amazing here. Air quality index (0-500) here this morning was 205. I wore a mask on my walk today. Lots of hacking coughing this morning. And New York the AQI is 350.
“Treat the patient, not the number” is something doctors are supposed to learn. I was “supposed to” have cancer a few years ago because of the numbers. Somehow, my body didn’t get the memo.
Yes. I agree. Three years ago during my physical I asked my doctor “What’s up with my white count being 13,000?” And she said “I’m not worried about it and you shouldn’t be either”. A year later and my white count was 64,000. Leukemia. The ‘good’ kind. One pill a day ‘controls’ it. My oncologist said I most certainly had leukemia when it was 13,000.
I’m glad your host was enjoyable and you were able to chat well into the evening. Memories for a lifetime. Well done with the ice cream, a treat after so many miles.
Do you ever feel stressed when you don’t have accommodations prebooked?
Very. I still have no place to stay in Bar Harbor on Saturday or Sunday
Corey and I did a bike trip as teenagers from Jaffery NH to Primaquid Point Lighthouse (Near Bristol ME, and then over to the White Mtns and back. Don’t remember the details but I do remember we didn’t have much of a plan except for a route. We managed to make it back ok…