Cycling the Atlantic Coast

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1922409249?share_unique_id=28 It was a beautiful day on the road to.  With the exception of a stiff headwind,  it was an enjoyable 60 mile ride. The big event(s) of the day was the first,  second and third flats of the group, all by Tom Nordland.   He handled the adversity with grace and was no worse for the wear except for the need to hit a bike shop for spares when we got to town. Not a lot of photos today, except Tom changing tires.  Rob is cooking for the group so I know that we will eat well. The pictures are: Tom changing a flat, Tom changing a flat again, Our arrival into Bath, Maine , Some of the scenery on the way to the campsite, The campsite tonight and My blog location tonight. So far, so good.  We are all a little tired tonight.   Big hills and headwinds will do that to you (and 50 lbs of gear on a bike)

Another spectacular day on the bicycle.   We went 48 miles and climbed 2400', but with the rolling hills, it felt like a lot more. Highlights of the day included visiting Fort Knox (not the one with the gold), going up 450' in an observation tower in a bridge crossing the Penobscot River and lots of beautiful countryside and friendly people. We are asked often where we are going and Key West sounds very impressive.   However,  when they ask where we started, they are not very impressed with 100 miles and two days cycling. Time and miles will fix that. I have pictures of the fort, the bridge from the observation tower and the chair I am sitting in while writing.   Not bad.

Finally,  the day has arrived to start.  We left the luxury of a motel room at 8 am and headed out.  First stop was the beach at Bar Harbor where we dipped our tires and took a picture. We did take a picture of the six of us who did the Southern Tier in 2014.  It has certainly been fun to see and ride with those folks again. The group is very experienced.   All but two of the riders have done cross country adventures.   Two of them have cycled from Alaska to Montana and one has cycled the length of South American. Rolling out of town we saw a WWII era B17 bomber at the airport.   We got a tour around it but could not wait around long enough to see it fly. Tom and I got to cook tonight.  Our Tortilla soup, salad and pound cake was pretty tasty I must admit. The ride was 44 miles and we went up about 2400 feet.  The rolling hills were challenging,  but the weather was perfect and it was a great day.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1915616609?share_unique_id=26 We had a quick shakedown ride today, about 21 miles around the Island.  It was a little hilly and a nice challenge,  the group did great I have attached the "first day of school " picture of Rob, Tom and me.  Also attached is one of probably many beautiful harbors.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1913684082?share_unique_id=24 It has been a busy couple of days.  Travel to Maine for the bikes and for us went very well.   Yesterday we woke up to a light rain, but that did not affect our picking up of cycles from the bike shop and returning the rental car.  In addition to few good east coast beers, we had a wonderful Maine Lobster for dinner.  Today we went for a kayak tour in Acadia National Park .  The link show our route.  We had a wonderful tour guide who taught us about the geology,  history and natural life in the area.  We saw porpoises,   seals, bald eagle's,  ospreys and loons. Tonight we have our first group meeting.  I know or have met most of the others, including Shelley who accompanied is on the Kayak tour.  There is a strong and experienced group assembling for the adventure. I have a group picture of the kayakers, a picture of our accommodati...

We are on the way......  Flight to Portland and rental car to Bar Harbor

Tomorrow we depart for another epic journey from Bar Harbor, Maine to Key West Florida.  This will be a 9 week, 3000 mile adventure across the Atlantic coast of America.  I say we, because on this trip I will be going with 6 people from my 2014 Southern Tier adventure and 2 friends from Wisconsin, Tom Nordland and Rob Knoelke along with the rest of the Adventure Cycling group of up to 15.  I am very excited to be able to cycle with such a fine group of folks. I will be blogging on my old reliable Samsung Galaxy phone.  I apologize in advance for misspelled words, grammatical errors, multiple updates, blurry pictures and things that just don't seem to make a lot of sense.  I will periodically post this link on Facebook and occasionally send a link to this distribution list.  I hope to post daily at night, so if you want to follow along, you can check the link with your morning coffee. It should be a very interesting tour.  We start in the shadow of ...